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PHONESAVANH Bamboozle is a popular foreign-owned and run restaurant located with an extensive bamboo-designed interior, and a menu packed with western comfort food, including delicacies sourced from the mulberry farm. There is live music on some nights.
Cranky-T Cafe and Bar is the latest place, for both breakfast (served all day) and evening drinks. Coffee is much praised, and the place has very helpful owners as well, by all accounts, despite the name. A welcome addition to the growing culninary landscape in this frontier town.
See
Plain of Jars Mysterious giant stone jars of unknown ancient origin are scattered over hundreds of hilly square kilometres around Phonsavanh (not a “plain” in site, actually). Remarkably, nobody knows which civilisation created them, although archaeologists estimate they date from the Southeast Asian iron age (500 BC to AD 200). Amazing so many have survived, given the extensive bombings throughout the Indochina wars. Lots of UXO remains, so pay close attention to the signs. So, old, mysterious and embattled largely unexplained, although archaelogists are doing their best! It’s exactly what you travelled all this way for, and if you can get yourself a good tour guide (ask at the hotel), the experience will be even heightened. Sites 1, 2 and 3 form the bases of most tour loops.
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Eat
Auberge de la Plain des Jarres Phoupadeng Hotel has an excellent French restaurant with cuisine influenced from the Alsace. Recommended but not cheap. The next best thing if you can’t afford to actually stay there.
