CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 190 km round trip from Muang Phônsavan - roughly 3 h 52 in the saddle. It goes by way of Site 21, Site 28 and back through Site 21. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Group 4 is one of the quieter parts of Site 3, and what makes it worth the walk is its position. The jars here sit on a slight rise with open views over the valley, so that on a clear day you can see across the rice fields and low hills to the line of the horizon. It feels more private than other sites on the plain, with fewer visitors and less sense of being on a trail. The jars are scattered across the grass in an irregular pattern, and a couple are heavily tilted or cracked, which gives the place a worn, old feeling.
Read the complete Site 3 - Group 4 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site 3 - Group 4 is where the day begins. Next is Site 21.
The Plain of Jars is one of Southeast Asia's great riddles: across the Xieng Khouang plateau in northern Laos, thousands of huge stone jars lie scattered over hillsides, in groups of a few or a few hundred, some taller than a person. They were carved from sandstone and other rock during the Iron Age, roughly between 500 BC and AD 500, and the most widely accepted theory is that they were linked to funerary practices, perhaps used to let bodies decompose before final burial. Local legend has a happier explanation: the jars were made to brew rice wine for a victory celebration of a mythical king. The sites were added to the World Heritage list in 2019, and Site 21 is one of the many numbered groups in the countryside around Phonsavan.
Read the complete Site 21 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site 21 comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Site 28.
The Plain of Jars is one of the great archaeological puzzles of Southeast Asia: hundreds of carved stone jars, some taller than a person and weighing several tonnes, scattered across hillsides and meadows of the Xieng Khouang plateau in northern Laos.
Read the complete Site 28 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 87 km into the recorded legs you reach Site 28. Next is back through Site 21.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site 21 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Site 21, late in the day. Next is Site 3 - Group 4.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site 3 - Group 4 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Site 3 - Group 4. That is the ride.
Site 3 - Group 4 → Site 21 is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site 21 → Site 28 is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site 28 → back through Site 21 is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Site 21 → Site 3 - Group 4 is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.