Champasak (16 Feb 2011)


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March 30th 2011
Published: April 4th 2011
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Wednesday 16th February 2011

With our heavy rucksacks weighing us down we walked to the local bus station (would have got tuk tuk if we’d known how far it was) got in Sawngthaew to Wat Phu Champasak, and had to wait for an hour until we were graced with the presence of 16 other passengers to get going.

An hour later we arrived to a mass of people as the annual Buddhist festival was taking place.

The museum kindly agreed for us to leave our bags while we visited the ruins... We were slightly annoyed that the ‘foreigner’ ticket cost 10x the local entry fee, and in addition, they wanted us to pay to take in our cameras (but that was never going to happen!).

There were elephant, crocodile & Buddha’s foot imprints in some of the rocks, which were all surrounded by worshipers. Meanwhile, Joanne kept having her photo taken by lots of local boys - sometimes with permission, other times surreptitiously with mobile phones – felt a bit like being surrounded by a lads stag party. At times we could barely breathe due to the sheer amount of incense sticks being burned – hundreds at a time in any one location. Choke!

Deciding to leave at 14.30 (before the parade as we wanted to get down to 4000 Islands), we got a tuk tuk to the river, a very precarious river boat to the other side, another tuk tuk to Route 13, and finally hailed a vehicle for the journey down to Ban Nakasang. It turned out the only vehicle that was willing to offer us a lift was a Sawngthaew that was piled high with boxes, so we were relegated to sit in the metal caging behind the cabin, hanging on for dear life the entire 3 hours! The plus side was that we were able to watch a beautiful sunset during the trip – unfortunately this did leave us in pitch black darkness for the last hour of the journey. Locals kept saying hi to us as they passed – it must have been strange seeing westerners travelling the way they do!

A small room was our cheapest accommodation so far at just 20,000 Kip (£1.60) for a very basic bed & outside toilet.



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4th April 2011

Laos Experience
Kinda get the impression you didn't really enjoy it?
4th April 2011

Enjoyment factor
It was an experience... We enjoyed being there but can't really appreciate the religious factor (especially when the festival was more like a funfair!)

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