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.
192 km from Muang Phônsavan to Muang Phônsavan, about 3 h 59 of riding. The stops in between: 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. The line favours views over speed.
Site 3 is the third of the Plain of Jars locations near Phonsavan, in Xieng Khouang province in northern Laos, and it is probably the most attractive to visit. The jars, giant stone vessels carved from sandstone, lie scattered across low grassy hills, and at Site 3 there are over a hundred of them spread across several groups. Group 5 sits on a gentle hillside among rice paddies and is a small cluster, reached by a short walk through farmland. The jars are not uniform, some tall and wide with lips, others broken or toppled, and many tilt as if the ground has been shifting under them for centuries.
Read the complete Site 3 - Group 5 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site 3 - Group 5 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 43 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 88 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 5.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site 3 - Group 5 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Site 3 - Group 5. That is the ride.
Site 3 - Group 5 → Site 21 is 43 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 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Site 21 → Site 3 - Group 5 is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.