Champasak To Wat Phu

From Vientiane we travelled 400km south on a “VIP” night bus to Pakse. We were collected from our guest house at 6:30pm and driven an hour out of town on the back of a tuk-tuk, down dark, residential streets that had me questioning the motives of our driver. We arrived at the long distance bus station with an hour to contemplate the small booth that would be our bed for the night. The bus had two levels, each with several compartments containing beds. Perhaps we were lucky, or perhaps not, for we had the back of the bus on the top level, which was split into five narrow beds. The windows all around us gave the berth a strange conservatory feel, and provided a stunning view of the star filled sky during the sleepless night.

We took one look at Pakse and decided to move swiftly on to Champasak, which was an hour further south on the back of a flat bed truck turned tuk-tuk. Like most towns in Laos, Champasak is a sleepy, dusty town set on two sides of a long road, with a river running parallel.

Life in Laos is slow. It could be the most relaxed country in the world. Most of the day it’s too hot to do very much and where ever you look you’ll find bodies dozing in a hammocks. The country is made up of rivers, with boat travel being the traditional mode of transport. If you ask what time the boat leaves you’ll find yourself facing the bemused smile of a Laotian; the boat leaves when the boat leaves. The people here are used to waiting around. The pace of life here is comparable to the pace of cruising down a river, there is no rush, no stress, it’s laid back.

We’ve adapted well to this pace of life and spent our first day in Chamapasak reading, writing and sketching on the veranda of our riverside bungalow. The only interruption in our day was the need to move to a restaurant to enjoy leisurely meals of coconut curries and fresh vegetables.

Our room, Dokchampa Guest House, Champasak

The next day we dragged ourselves out of our hammocks and cycled out to Wat Phu, a pre-Angkorian temple complex at the foot of a hill. Riding out of Champasak we were faced with an unusual obstacle; a lorry carrying a heavy load had collapsed the bridge that provided the only route south. A crane was presently hoisting the lorry out of the river whilst the bridge lay utterly destroyed. We were informed of a diversion and found that the clever locals had dammed off the river with rock and dirt to create a temporary bridge. Later, on our return to Champasak, we saw that concrete pipes for the river to flow through had been lowered into the river next to the mud dam and a tarmacking truck had arrived to make the bridge a semi-permanent fixture until the real bridge is repaired. We were impressed by how quickly the locals had responded; the lorry was out of the river within a couple of hours and traffic was already moving north and south over the temporary mud bridge. Some cunning Laotians had capitalised on people’s voyeurism by setting up food stalls near the broken bridge, feeding all the hungry onlookers.

Collapsed bridge brings in the crowds.

Wat Phu

 The 8km bike ride to Wat Phu was easy along the paved, flat roads and we arrived in just under an hour. We rode through several small villages where calls of sabaidee (hello) greeted us from roadside houses and shops. Ric even got a kiss blown to him from one cheeky little girl.

We were alone at the Wat Phu apart from a retired French couple who were shocked to find an English girl who spoke French, c’est rare! The temples date back to the sixth century and have only been minimally restored, maintaining their ancient charm. The site is not touristy like the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia and it was nice to wander around the carved sandstone ruins in peace. A short walk up a crumbling stone stair case, warped by tree roots, led us to huge stone cliff with a ruined temple at its base. From the cliff we had a view down over the surrounding countryside, with the Mekong slicing through the scenery, a brown, winding smear on the lush greenery. 

 How To Get To…

Wat Phu: We hired bikes from Champa Restaurant for 10,000kip ($1.25/£0.75) and followed the road leading south out of town. There are signposts along the way for the temple.

We Stayed At…

Dokchampa Guest House: We had a great river front bungalow for 50,000kip ($6.25/£3.75), although the owners spoke no English and the restaurant was overpriced compared to others in the town.