Festival at Wat Phu

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Sorry no entries for awhile. Internet was "down" in Thakhek. We had an amazing trip to & thru the Konglor cave in central Lao & wonderfull homestay at the traditional village there. Cave is 7.5 kilometers long, over 100 meters wide & high in some places. Landscape is aewesome. Now we are in south of Lao after a bus trip yesterday that included a race with another bus (no kidding) on a 2 lane national highway, dodging logging trucks, little kids, water buffalos, many scooters, roto tillers pulling wagons, goats, chickens, pigs, cars, & pick ups, among other obsticles. Includes passing on hills & turns, but as they say here in Lao, "you lived to tell the tale, what are you complaining about?".
Folks are good to us and the country is beautiful. We're on our way to the festival at Wat Phu, ancient (pre dating Angor wat in Cambodia) Khmer temple complex on the Mekong.
We'll fill in the blanks when we get home. Patty & Tommee

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Photos

3rd world icon
Che beats out Bob Marley as Icon in Lao PDR

Chris From Toulouse
We made friends with Chris. Here she is at the Thakhek Travel Lodge. She was on the bus to Pakxe with us for the 2 hour bus race

Bus Station in Savanaket
That's our bus, I wasent thinking about taking any pictures during the race...

Girls
We had a nice sign language visit with these girls on the truck to Wat Phu. They wanted us to take their picture

Truck to Wat Phu
Once we got all 22 passengers loaded, it was time for the cargo. I helped get it up on the roof. Thats Patty in the back closest to the cab...

Ferry to Wat Phu
To get to Wat Phu, our truck had to cross the Mekong by Ferry. Here we are passing a "scooter ferry"

Wat Phu
This place is so ancient...

Wat Phu
This place is so ancient...& it's very humbling to stand here

Wat Phu Steps
The temples are built on terraces on different levels of the mountain. These are stairs leading up...