Advertisement
Published: July 14th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Day 370: Saturday 4 July - Wat Phu Champasak
The bus drops me off next to the ferry port which I need to cross the Mekong to Champasak which lies on the other side of the river. The ‘ferry’ is two boats connected by a raft, which can carry a few people and motorbikes. Simple but effective, and typically Laos. On the other side of the river I wonder if I’m in the right place. I can’t see any guesthouses or even any sign that a tourist industry exists in the small village. I ask in a small shop and they point up the road and say 3 kilometres. It may still be before 9am but it is already hot and this is not going to be a walk I enjoy. On the way, I pass Mike and Trudi, coming in the opposite direction. They’re a day ahead of me, saw the ruins yesterday and are heading south to Si Phan Don. I tell them I will catch up with them there in a few days maybe. In some ways bumping into them in the middle of the street in a quiet, one street village is an odd place to
meet, but I kind of expected to, as we’ve kept in contact and I knew where they were going.
As I continue along the street for a short while further, the guy who owns the guesthouse where I’m heading passes me in a tuk-tuk, which cuts out a substantial part of the walk thankfully. The guesthouse overlooks the Mekong, a quiet place to relax watching the world go by and has a social restaurant area. A few people are heading up to the ruins as I arrive, but I want to get a shower first after my overnight bus journey.
I hire a bike from the guesthouse, which sounds like it is about to drop apart as soon as I start riding it and start cycling the 8km up to Wat Phu Champasak. The bike ride passes through the countryside, passing a number of cute villages and rice paddies -typical scenery in Laos. After Vang Vieng and Vientiane to a lesser extent it’s nice to be back to the real Laos, a place I’ve grown to love over the past three weeks. A few kilometres in to the ride, a dragonfly flies behind my sunglasses and into my
eye temporarily blinding me and subsequently sending me careering into a ditch. I manage to apply the brakes and no damage is done to me, but the bike sounds even more unhealthy afterwards. After three-quarters of an hour I reach Wat Phu Champasak.
Wat Phu Champasak are Khmer ruins which overlook the Mekong Valley. It is divided into lower and upper parts and is joined by a steep stone stairway, which tests your calf muscles after the bike ride. The lower part consists of two ruined palace buildings at the edge of a pond, split in two by a causeway. The upper saction is the temple sanctuary which has both Hindu and Buddhist origins. The view from the upper platform to the ruins below and across the valley is fantastic. Whilst looking around the upper section, a couple of elderly local women beckon me over to share in the meal they are having. I enjoy a meal of sticky rice and various local dishes of vegetables and sauces to dip the rice in. This is yet another example of the kindness of the Lao people.
I cycle back with a couple of the girls from the guesthouse who
I’ve caught up with at the ruins, and back at the guesthouse spend the remainder of the afternoon and evening chatting in the restaurant, relaxing and watching the Mekong flow past.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 17; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0477s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb