Vacation in Southern Laos--Champassak (1-16)

After three days on the island, it was time to move on to Champassak. While I was waiting for the boat to the mainland, I met Lior, a young Israeli. She was leaving her friends with whom she’d been traveling for 1.5 months and going to Bangkok  on her own to meet up with an Israeli friend. I think she wanted a companion to ease the transition. We sat together on the bus, and I invited her to stay with me in Ubon for a night. She went on to Pakse, as she had left her big bag there, and I got off in Champassak, but we arranged to meet at the bus station the next afternoon.

Champassak is a small town. I was surprised how little it is prepared for tourists. We took a boat across the river, as the road the bus uses is on the other side. Then I walked to the guest house, which was a longer walk than I’d anticipated. I planned to relax and then go to Wat Phu in the morning. At the guest house, I learned that the only transportation to Pakse is in the morning; so I needed to go to Wat Phu then. The owner arranged for his friend—or maybe his wife—to take me on a motorcycle. There are songtaews, but I needed to leave soon because it was already after 3:00 and this seemed like the easiest thing to do. I had thought Wat Phu was closer to town than it is, but it took about half an hour to get there, as the road isn’t very good and she drove slowly and carefully, which is a good thing. When we arrived, the woman told me to return to the parking lot at 5:30. I understood the need to leave then, as it gets dark at 6:00 and I didn’t want to be on the road after dark any more than she did. Although I felt a bit rushed, I was able to see what I wanted to see.

Wat Phu is the ruins of a 6^th century Khmer temple. It is at the base of the mountains, which were lovely in the late afternoon sunlight. On the ground level are two large temples. I read that the one on the right was for men, and the one on the left was for women. 

Then you walk up a lot of stairs to the top of the mountain. The stairs are lined with frangipani trees that had their white flowers on the top of otherwise bare branches. 

The view from the top was beautiful. 

The main sanctuary is at the top. It has a lot of beautiful carvings. 

In back of the building is a cave that has spring water dripping from the rocks. People collect this sacred water in bottles to take home.

After my quick tour—about 1.5 hours, I was just about at the parking lot when my driver came to meet me. It was 5:30. We took a different road back to Champassak. It wasn’t full of potholes, but it was dirt most of the way and had a couple hills. I don’t think she had been on it recently, as she seemed surprised by the depth of the dust. It’s the dry season, and the road had about 2” of dust on top in many places. It was a slow, dusty trip. But we got back safely.

When I went to dinner at the guest house restaurant, I learned that my driver is also the cook.

At 7:20 the next morning, the guest house owner knocked on my door to tell me the minibus was there. I guess he had told them I was there and needed to go to Pakse.

He and another man I asked at the hotel in town had told me that the minibus to Pakse leaves at 7:30 and there are songtaews until 9:00. Since my bus wasn’t until 3:30, I didn’t need to be at the bus station too early and decided to take a songtaew. After getting ready to leave, I took a walk through town, which didn’t take long, since the guest house is in the middle and there really isn’t much there. I saw a songtaew at 7:45 and one at 8:15. This was good. At 8:30 I took my bags and stood by the road to wait for the next songtaew. At 9:00 the owner joined me. We waited until 9:30. Then he asked about a motorcycle. I’d already realized that that was how I was going to have to go to Pakse. He’d offered to arrange one the day before and had reduced the price, but I didn’t want to pay that much when I could take a songtaew for much less. But now it was 9:30 and no songtaew. Since I was going to pay for the motorcycle, I decided to relax at the guest house and go in the afternoon, as that was a more pleasant place to wait than the bus station. So I put my bags in the room, which had already been cleaned, and sat on the chair beside the river for a few hours. Then I ate lunch. It was a relaxing way to finish the holiday.

The motorcycle trip to Pakse was a 40 minute ride, my longest. But all worked out well. Lior arrived at the bus station with our tickets, and we were off to Ubon.