Beyond the Plain of Jars
A 2-day trek, a Hmong homestay, and the Xieng Khouang most travellers miss —led by Lao Journey Hosts who grew up on these trails.
Sites 1, 2 and 3 are what most travellers come to see — and what most travellers leave with. But the Plain of Jars stretches further than the three archaeological parks on the tourist map. !ere is a fourth jar site, hidden in forest, that you reach only on foot. !ere are Hmong villages where bomb casings hold up the houses. !ere are trails that connect them — and Journey Hosts who grew up walking them.
This is the Xieng Khouang we take our travellers into. Two treks, both private, both built with the local communities who host them.
One is a 2-day walk to a Hmong village and a forgotten jar site in the forest. The other is a full day across three jar sites, a waterfall,
and a village forging spoons from war scrap. Pick one — or stack them into a longer Xieng Khouang journey.
Ban Phakeo Trek
TWO DAYS · ONE NIGHT · HMONG VILLAGE STAY
The trailhead sits at Ban Ta Jok, 30 km from Phonsavanh. From there we walk into country most visitors never reach — a concealed jar site, a waterfall, and a Hmong village where war scrap has been rebuilt into daily life.
DAY ONE
Your Journey Host meets you at the local market to buy food and supplies for the village. Then we set off on a five-hour walk
along an old trail, crossing several streams — easy-to-moderate going. The path ends at the Ban Phakeo Jar Site: four groups,
around 400 jars, some with orchids growing out of them, set in thick forest. A handful of rare stone lids carved with animal
figures sit among them.
We reach Ban Phakeo in time for dinner with the Hmong family hosting us — usually duck soup with rice, or chicken. After the
meal, women travellers are welcome to join the village women at the stream where they do the laundry and catch up on the day.You sleep on simple bedding in the village lodge.
DAY TWO
Four hours on the trail to Thad Kha Waterfall, which falls in a mist over stacked rock. You can climb the jungle path that runs
alongside it, swim in one of the pools at the base, or sit in the enormous tree that leans out over the water. The trail loops
back to Ban Ta Jok, where Hmong villagers have turned bomb casings into planters, house pillars, barn supports, and fenceposts. Forty years on, the war is still part of the architecture.
The Southern Jar Trek
ONE DAY · THREE JAR SITES · SPOON VILLAGE
A full day on foot covering three jar sites, a waterfall, mountain views, and Spoon Village — where Tai Phuan craftsmen forge
cutlery from war scrap.
We start at Ban Na-O, a Tai Phuan and Khmu village outside Phonsavanh. The 500-metre trail to Jar Site 1 passes foxholes,
bomb craters, and a Pathet Lao cave — this ground was a battlefield. The path opens onto a 25-hectare field with more than
300 prehistoric jars.
Jar Sites 2 and 3 sit at the base of a forested mountain. A 500- metre climb takes you past more bomb craters to two shaded
knolls holding 93 jars between them. The western hill carries one of the rare carved stone discs. From there we head to the Ban
Nakang Visitor Centre and walk 700 metres along the Nam Xan River, through scattered boulders, down to Tad Lang Waterfall.
The path to Jar Site 3 starts at Ban Nakho and passes the village’s small Buddhist temple before climbing to the hilltop site — 150 jars,
with views over the rice paddies and the plain below.
We finish at Ban Napia, the spoon village. Tai Phuan families melt war scrap in a ladle set over a wood-fired rock oven, pour the
molten metal into a wooden mould, and lift out a finished spoon. You watch the whole process. Many travellers buy one before they
leave — a piece of the war, reworked by the people who lived through it.
Laos is not a destination. It is the people who take you there.
Why We Run These Treks
Both of these walks were built with the Hmong, Tai Phuan, and Khmu communities who host them. Your bed, your food, and your
stories all come from the village itself. The fees stay in the village.
Our founder, Ken FJ Her, has held a National Tour Guide licence since 2010 and built Brother Tours in 2018 to scale this kind of
journey across Laos. Every Journey Host on these treks is licensed, trained, and from the region.