Pakse and Champasak

With little else to do in Vientiane I left on Saturday, heading south towards the small city of Pakse. I knew I wanted to visit Cambodia, Vietnam, and possibly Myanmar, so I decided to head south towards the Cambodia border instead of north towards the Vietnam border on the basis that I could in theory easily get a visa upon arrival in Cambodia, and not in Vietnam. I'd heard southern Laos was meant to be really nice too. When arriving at the bus station there was a bus heading south leaving within 5 minutes, although I did have to change buses in Thakek. One thing with buses in Laos is that they maximise all space available, pretty much acting as a delivery service amongst other things. The bus from Thakek to Pakse was no exception with the aisle literally stacked with sacks of vegetables you had to climb over to sit down!

As I'd caught a bus with such ease from Vientiane, I arrived into Pakse at like 2am which was a lot earlier than anticipated. It was still a very long journey though taking about 14 hours as it stopped in practically every village where the locals would get on trying to sell you food, which was actually a good thing on my behalf as I didn't buy anything before leaving Vientiane. I hadn't booked any accommodation in Pakse for the night so I slept at the bus station until morning. Pakse itself like some of the towns I passed en route was just a sleepy riverside settlement on the Mekong, at the confluence with the Xe Don river. I chose to stop in Pakse because it was a good base to explore some of the sights in the Champasak region which it lied in.

On Sunday I had a pretty laid back day, exploring Pakse. There wasn't really much to see other than a few temples and markets, but it was still worth a look. First stop was Wat Luang, probably the largest complex in Pakse, before heading to this Chinese temple located right at the confluence of the two rivers. It was interesting seeing where the rivers met, the Mekong noticeably a lot browner than the Xe Don. I passed another couple of Chinese temples as I continued exploring, before heading across the Mekong to this Golden Buddha. It's amazing how wide the river has become compared to when I first started following it at the Golden Triangle. There were great views up top and the complex was pretty large too, the highlight these countless smaller Buddha statues all lined up almost like an army.

I headed back to the hostel by the afternoon, via the Dao Heuang market which was absolutely massive. It was nice to lie down after such little sleep, although I resisted having a nap, instead researching the logistics of getting to some of the places I wanted to visit in the coming days. Come evening I headed back up to the Golden Buddha to watch the sunset, although whilst watching it there was an incoming thunderstorm. I risked it and stayed and it was absolutely worth it, the sky just changing colour and reflecting into the river. On the way back to the hostel I was bitten by a dog which wasn't ideal, but other than getting it cleaned I couldn't really do much until the morning. I listened to the football later in the evening.

The following day I was planning to visit the town of Champasak for a couple of days, although I wanted get to try and get my dog bite checked out so I went to the hospital as soon as it opened. The communication barrier proved too challenging though and I couldn't get to them understand what I was saying. To be fair the bite didn't look too bad and I got it thoroughly cleaned by someone at the hostel pretty swiftly after it happened. I certainly think I'll avoid getting a scar unlike my attack in Bolivia. In terms of getting it checked out properly I realistically needed to head to back into Thailand, but I decided in the end to risk it and hope I'll be fine because at the end of the day if the dog did have rabies I'm dead.

By the time I got back Pakse it was lunchtime and I decided to just chill out and head to Champasak later that afternoon when it was a bit cooler. Champasak lies on the other side of the Mekong and until 2014 was only accessible by ferry. Lieing 31km south of Pakse, with its main attraction Wat Phu a further 10km away, I hired a bike and cycled to Champasak to base myself there for a couple of nights to avoid basically cycling over 80km in a day. It was a nice flat bike ride, passing through the countryside and several villages en route. When arriving in Champasak there wasn't really much going on, the town basically just one long street, although I found myself a nice little restaurant by the river for dinner.

On Tuesday I headed out to Wat Phu for the day, which were some ruins dating back to the 5th century, although the complex which remains today dates back to about the 11th century and is linked to the Angkorian period. Located at the base of the Phou Kao mountain, the temple was part of a large ancient city stretching right from mountain to river, and was historically linked by road to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, somewhere I hope to later visit. When arriving at the entrance, which was dominated by these two large reservoirs, I attempted a walk to the nearby ruins of Oub Moung which supposedly took you via this cave and waterfall with ancient inscriptions. The signposting was non existent though and I was unable to correspond things to my map as the walk went through open rice fields and forest with paths all over the place.

I therefore headed back to Wat Phu where I explored the main temple complex. The walk to the temple took me along this long cobbled driveway flanked either side by these sandstone posts, before reaching these two almost identical buildings. I was able to explore both the buildings as well as the surrounding area which was littered in broken pieces of stonework, some even with detailed carvings on. I then began a steep climb up this narrow staircase, passing several terraces and pieces of ruins before eventually reaching the main temple at the top. There were great views looking back over the Mekong floodplain. The main temple aside, the top was also home to this natural spring which the locals believe is sacred, as well as a rock with an elephant carved on it.

After a good look round Wat Phu, I headed out to the nearby ruins of Hong Nang Sida which were basically this massive pile of blocks. Like Wat Phu though there was plenty of information available to visualise what it once was. I then headed to the ruins of Thao Tao, which were a little more challenging to locate. There was literally no signposting and it was a fair walk through forest and rice fields. Luckily some locals helped me find it in the end, although it does make you wonder why the two walks advertised within the Wat Phu complex have next to no signposting, are also the two walks they're trying to get to you to hire a guide for at the entrance. I think the guides may have been tampering with the signposts. There was also an old quarry with stone carvings nearby, although as my map was basically useless I decided to give that a miss.

After lunch I left Wat Phu and attempted another walk which took you round parts of the ancient city. Despite little physical evidence, there were several information boards to help you visualise what once was, the area now dominated with rice fields. That particular walk which was one not offered by the guides and had perfect signposting, so I defiantly think they've gone and removed the signs from the walks in Wat Phu to stop you doing them self guided. I finished the day by heading a short way down the Mekong past these villages to see the locals making handicrafts out of things like bamboo. There were also a couple of interesting buildings including this Catholic Church and Wat Mueang Kang which both had colonial influences attached to their designs. I arrived back into Champasak later that afternoon, definitely pleased with my decision not to cycle to Wat Phu from Pakse as a day trip!

On Wednesday morning I got up bright and early to watch the Buddhist Monks Alms Giving Ceremony, a Lao tradition I haven't yet woken up early enough to witness. This is where the monks walk down the road and collect offerings from locals to feed both themselves and the poor. It was quite a sight although I had to keep a distance out of respect. Soon after the ceremony to avoid the full heat of the sun I did this walk advertised as the rice fields loop. It was very pretty taking you along dirt roads through the countryside, as well as taking you down the full length of Champasak Town where there were a few interesting temples and colonial era buildings. I cycled back to Pakse after the walk, although by that point it was very hot. I just chilled out in Pakse for the rest of the day.