Located on the vast expanse of the Plain of Jars and hastily rebuilt in the aftermath of decades of fighting, fared little better than anywhere else on the Plain during the war. A dust bowl of a town, which with its telephone poles crafted from twisted tree trunks, endless streets and drifting fields snack in the middle of town, is hardly the heavenly ground suggested by its name. Since 1975 Phonsavan has however emerged as the centre of life in Xiang Khuoang, a magnet for people displace by years of bombing, scrap-mortal merchants from Vienna and tourists curious to see the nearby Plain of Jars.