Wat Phu Champasak

---

In Southern Laos I saw a wonderful Khmer style temple that was built around the same period as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and was almost as impressive in its own way. I hired a bicycle to cycle to the ruins and had a great day trip exploring the area. The temple was built at the edge of a mountain with steps leading up to different levels, and as I climbed up each level I kept meeting different people and stopping to have a chat!

I finally met some people from Adelaide, which was really nice! I had been travelling for 8 weeks before I met anyone from the same city as me - all of the Australians I have met seem to be either from Sydney or Melbourne - and most can't seem to tell from my accent that I am Australian either, so many people think I am British, which is really frustrating...

But anyway it was great to finally meet some people from Adelaide who had accents similar to mine... They were 2 very cool women in their 50s who were primary school teachers on long service leave who had travelled to some amazing places including Iran and Papua New Guinea.

I also met a fascinating Dutch guy who has been travelling for the last 4.5 years. He had cycled to the ruins from Pakse (about 75km away) and inspired me to go on a cycling trip in Southern Laos on the Bolaven Plateau. So that is my plan for my last week in Laos. It's funny, after originally thinking I would spend only 4 weeks in Laos and 8 weeks in Vietnam, I am going to end up spending 7 weeks in Laos and 5 weeks in Vietnam...

It is just such a beatiful country, the people are so friendly, and there is so much nature to be seen everywhere, as well as a lot of interesting ruins too. In the town that I was staying in near this temple there were so many eery French colonial style buildings that were completely abandoned. There were also a couple of palaces near by, as the area used to be a seat of royalty, but today the town seems to have only one main street and not that many people.

---