Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Wat Phia
Continuing on the main road beyond the market, you'll pass the ruins of a villa, the only re-
minder that this town was once a temperate French outpost of ochre colonial villas and shop
houses, and arrive at the ruins of sixteenth-century WatPhia . Brick columns reach skywards
around a seated Buddha of impressive size, a mere hint at the temple architecture for which
the city was renowned.
The more recent temple of Wat Siphoum , the uninspiring structure nearest the market,
bears little trace of the old designs for which the city's monasteries were known and serves
notice of how much of Xieng Khuang's culture has been lost.
Muang Kham and around
Many of the ethnic groups that populate Xieng Khuang are well represented in the area
between Phonsavan and MUANG KHAM , a large village to the northeast. A trip out to
Muang Kham - formerly known as Chomthong - and its nearby hot springs makes an inter-
esting excursion. Several sights around the village are included on the itineraries of day-tours
out of Phonsavan, and though none is worth a special journey in its own right, collectively
they're a good excuse to see more of rural Xieng Khuang province.
Phonsavan to Muang Kham
Route 7 winds through valleys hemmed by hills bursting with dok bua khom - yellow flowers
that are crushed into a natural fertilizer for vegetable gardens - passing dusty Khmu, Black
Tai, Phuan and Hmong villages, with their wooden huts. Leaving Phonsavan, you first pass
through Khang Khai , the town that became the seat of Prince Souvannaphouma's neutralist
government after the Battle of Vientiane in December 1960, before arriving in BanXonTai ,
12km north of Phonsavan, where two village women etched the name of their hometown into
Pathet Lao lore when they shot down an American plane during the war. Apparently armed
with little more than rifles, the heroines inspired the addition of the adjectives “patriotic” and
“brave” to generations-old songs praising the beauty of Xieng Khuang women.
Fourteen kilometres further on, you'll pass through the Hmong village of Tha Cho before
arriving in Daen Thong , 12km further on, a village peopled by Khmu, a midland tribe that
makes up around seven percent of Xieng Khuang's population. Widely considered to be
among the original inhabitants of Laos, the ancestors of the Khmu are thought by some to
have built the funerary urns scattered across the Plain of Jars. The next village, BanLao , was
settled by Black Tai (Tai Dam), who fled to Laos several decades ago from Dien Bien Phu,
the Vietnamese valley where the final battle of the First Indochina War was fought. After a
further 7km, a dirt track forks off to the east leading to another Black Tai village, BanXieng
Kiao , while the main road continues over a bridge spanning the Nam Mat stream and winds
its way into Muang Kham .
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