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Published: July 12th 2006
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The overnight bus was good!!!
We arrived in Pakse around 6:30 and were greeted by the usual onslaught of touts, needless to say, they all got blown out!!! We booked into a hotel with an Australian couple called Jonathan and Kylie, that we had bumped into last night.
The day was really uneventfull as I, Andy was feeling rough. Maybe lack of sleep, the cold last night and lack of water.
We had a bit of internet time and booked a tour for tomorrow to Wat Champasak, the oldest Angkor temple. Older than the ones in Cambodia.
Later thet night we watched the England game. OUT AGAIN!!!!!, we did play good with ten men though. But the penalties were rubbish, eh???
2nd of July
Last night we heard the loudest thunder EVER!!! It actually shook the building!!
We met all the people in our group for todays tour, including Kylie and Jonathan from Oz. and an Isreali called Ronnie. Also amongst the group was an Austrian couple, the lady was the spitting image of a young mum Allen!! I couldn't stop staring at her!!
We had all been sat around waiting to leave for our
daytrip to Wat Phu Champasak for quite a while, when Kylie asked our guide when we were leaving! His reply was "Oh, you wanna go now?" TOO RIGHT WE WANNA GO NOW. That just typifies Laos people, very layed back.
Our first stop was an old stone ruins called Um Muang, this is where they cut all the stones to build Wat Phu. Here we saw lots of old stone carvings scattered around the forest, a few old buildings that were falling down and some trees that the local village people had burnt holes in, to get light from the oil in the tree.
After a good hour at this site we were off to the temple. As we were heading to the temple we went through loads of different villages, many with flooded fields with children and buffalo swimming in them.
We then drove to a small village where we had to cross the Mekong river. Everytime we see this river we can't believe how massive it is. This time we had to cross it on some dodgey wooden car ferry. It was 2 hollow metal boats with a wooden platform strapped to it and they tried to
fit on as many cars and trucks as they could.
Eventually when we were full enough we set off to the other side. We had considered going to this village, Champasak, but we are glad we didn't as there was nothing there.
We had a long drive to Wat Phu Champasak, but first we had our lunch (in the rain) which was fried rice, cold soup and fruit.
Before our guide ate, he gave offerings of food to the local spirits of the area (Ants and a tree) lots people practice buddhism and animism, which is the belief in spirits, for example a mountain would have a spirit. This is why people have mini temples in their houses and they make offerings of food and drink everyday to keep the spirits happy.
After lunch we walked up to the ruins of the Wat.
The ruins were quite impressive. The carvings were really detailed and still intact which is amazing considering when they were done. We walked around them and sneeked inside them.
We climbed some more steps even higher and got a great view over the ruins and flat land that surrounds them. Again you could see the Mekong in
More old ruins.
They were just scattered around as if no one cared about them. the distance.
At this set of ruins there was running water from the cliff face which ran into a large vat. This was classed as holy water so we all had a rinse of our faces in it, even though it had been raining on and off all day. ALso up here was an elephant statue (as this was also a Hindu place of worship a long time ago) and a crocodile carved into a large boulder. This is where they used to sacrifice animals and virgin women to the Gods.
After a while sheltering from the rain we headed back down to our Sawngthaew to head back to Pakse.
That evening we all arranged to meet up for dinner at a really nice place. We had a really good night.
3rd July
Andy and I were going to leave today, but as the only way to get to our next destination was by a sawngthaew for 4 hours we wanted to get the minibus, but needed more people to make it cheaper.
So Kylie and Jon said they would leave the day after and get the bus with us, so we decided to hang on
and get ourselves sorted for Cambodia.
So we had a long time on the internet and went to the bank to get enough money for the next few days on the island, but not too much as you can't exchange Kip anyway, and some US $ for Cambodia. It all takes a lot of organising and thought as most places don't have atms at the moment.
After dinner that night Kylie and Jon came round and said they had more people for the bus, so even cheaper!
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