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Published: February 25th 2011
Just a brief stopover to take a look at this ancient capital city, which is basically a one street town, but home to one of the oldest Khmer temples around – Wat Pho. As usual the transport was full of surprises; 5 mins into the journey the buses aircon broke so we sat for ½ hour while the driver tried to fix it. With no avail we continued on with the door open. As he was late he stopped at the junction to Champasak and bundled us out. Unbeknown to us the actual town was about 3 miles away, and over the river. The four of us (Mary, John, Angie and I) + another couple from Italy (I think) started to walk in the direction of the town. After about 15mins we thought something was wrong. We waved down a passing tractor transporting some bamboo and signaled for Champasak and if we could get a lift, he agreed and we jumped aboard. It was a fun ride; I was hanging onto the front while the rest were piled in the back with the bags and bamboo. It took a fair old time to get to the ferry port and all of
us were relieved we did not attempt to walk.
The same guy took us across the river and we all paid him a bit of money. The walk to the guesthouse was probably another mile and we stopped in the first one we came across. It was basic and cheap and we were knackered so we slung our bags down and went for some beers. That night I got talking to an Indian man called Sanjay staying at the same guesthouse who had a team working on a restoration program on the temple. He agreed to give us a lift in the morning; also, he said he would teach me how to cook Aloo Gobi.
The next day we hitched a lift with his companion Saresh. We spent a few hours looking round the temple. It was beautiful, halfway up a mountain overlooking the Mekong flood plains. We met John and Angie back at the bottom and decided to take the 10km walk back. (WHY!!!!) In the evening Sanjay had kept his word and had bought the ingredients for the curry. He took me through step by step how to make it and it was really, really nice.
He did not join us for tea so the 4 of us sat ate, played cards and drank a few beers before bed; a good evening.
The next day we were heading back up to Pakse where we would say our goodbyes to John and Angie and then head into Thailand. Adios Laos, we’ve had a great time, our favourite country so far.
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