Blogs from Champasak, South, Laos, Asia

Un départ à 5 heure nous offres un lever de soleil extraordinaire un peu plus que les autres jours! 65 kilomètres en remontant le Mékong pour ce matin pour une petite pause repas à Ban Boung et pour ensuite repartir en direction du Wat phu le plus grand temple du Laos datant du 11ème au pied d'une très belle montagne, un temple a faire même si il est bien moins impressionnant que Angkor Wat au Cambodge il a un charme inouï! Par la suite direction Champasak nous avons amélioré notre meilleur score journalier à 85 kilomètres hum hum !... read more

Wat Phu Ein Tagesausflug mit dem Moped nach Champasak zu den Khmer-Ruinen von Wat Phu.... read more

From Tad Lo we continued on to Champasak. It was a fairly straightforward journey but not really what we had expected. We were able to get a bus from Tad Lo to Pakse easily enough but then we ended up taking a Sorngtaaou (Truck with benches in the back) to Champasak. The tuk-tuk driver in Pakse wouldn't take us to the proper bus station so we paid our 20,000 Kip and made it to Champasak in about 40 minutes. From Tad Lo we continued on to Champasak. It was a fairly straightforward journey but not really what we had expected. We were able to get a bus from Tad Lo to Pakse easily enough but then we ended up taking a Sorngtaaou (Truck with benches in the back) to Champasak. The tuk-tuk driver in Pakse wouldn't ... read more

We had heard the boat from Don Khong to Champasak was an iffy thing upriver in the dry season, and that some people had bought tickets and then simply been left in the boat to figure out on their own that it wasn't going to leave. Not wanting to soil our image of all Lao people being honest and kind, we opted for the bus, and were even told that the ticket did not include the second boat from the mainland (we had already seen numerous people at ferry crossings getting upset because they were told they had paid for everything, only to meet the boatman who would not budge unless paid). That is a good lesson to learn, by the way, and one to live by if you want to avoid feeling scammed or let ... read more

After the five day retreat in the Siphandon islands, it was time to head back northwards, and the next stop was Champasak. A two hour minibus ride and another 20 min boat trip later and I was there, which in fact was just a short ride away from Pakse where I entered Laos from Thailand. Champasak is essentially a quiet, one-street small town, whose unassuming appearance belies the historical significance of the nearby Wat Phu, another Khmer-style temple complex. Wat Phu was built at the foot of the Phu Khao mountain that overlooks Champasak province, and was meant to be spectacular, and to inspire devotees. Well it certainly did its job! The templex complex is sprawling. Fronted by two large lakes, it's a long 800m walk to the magnificent entrance, before a steep and high climb ... read more

5.30am - a noise, music, an alarm clock, a mosquito net above us, jungle sounds outside, where are we? Day 1 at Kingfisher Ecolodge and we are off bird watching at 6am, the suns just coming up but it's already very hot - we have 3 local guides the tallest around 5 feet. Heading out through Khiet Gong village the locals are all up sitting around smoking fires to keep the insects away, sitting under their stilted homes surrounded by Pigs, Chickens, Ducks etc. Just another day of very basic living in Laos. We head out across empty rice paddies, waiting for the second planting of the season. The forested hillside is full of big Rainforest trees, no chainsaws have yet ventured this way. The 3 hour session across first paddies, forest and finally wetland was ... read more