Champasak Photos


We met a young lady from Czech Republic named Pat on the way from Pakse to Champasak who had been traveling for 48 hours straight, coming from northern Laos all the way to the south, which dwarfed our own 24 hour journey. Champasak is so small that when the driver told us that we had reached it, we thought he was trying to con us. Other than being a quiet and relaxing place, the main reason people come to Champasak is to see Wat Phu, the most impressive temple in Laos. It's a Khmer temple, originally Hindu, but later converted to Buddhist.

The three of us rented bicycles and started off on what turned out to be a troublesome journey to the temple. After several kilometers, Sam's bike started having mechanical issues, locked breaks followed by the chain becoming detached from the gears. These bikes were single speed, which made reattaching the chain more difficult. After observing our troubles, a local guy took the bike and beckoned us inside his store. He and his friend spent the next 20 minutes moving the wheel further back to add tension to the chain. Unfortunately, as soon as we left them, the chain problems continued and we ended up having to bring the bike back to town and exchanging it for a different one. The guy who rented us the bikes thought it was hilarious and told us to ride "slow, slow, not so strong". The chain on the replacement bike only came off once. When we finally got to the temple, Pat lost her ticket and after a long search, was able to convince the guard to let her in anyway.

The best part of the temple for me was the location. The main temple was at the base of a mountain overlooking plains below. At the top of a long stone staircase up the mountain was another small building, the sanctuary, as well as various other shrines and even a rock with a crocodile carved into it that may have been used for human sacrifices.