17. Nov 14th. Flight to Pakse and Wat Phou temple

It’s 6:24 am and Judith is already at the door of the restaurant waiting for it to open at 6:30.  They take pity on us and open early because we need to be on way to the airport by 6:45.  I opt for museli and yogurt and we’re both done by the requisite time and on our way to the airport.  Lai helps us check in and before we know it, we’re standing in the same spot and saying goodbye to him again.  He’s been great as a guide and I hope he’s able to rebuild his guiding career.  We’ve been told by the guides that Laos travel is slowly coming back — it’s not yet pre covid levels with guesses at the 50% level of what it used to be.  All of them had to find new work for the 2+ years of tourism closure caused by Covid.  

The flight was quite uneventful, having a typical pattern of a flight selfie, Judith falling asleep sometime around takeoff, a snack or two and pictures out the window if I get the window seat.  Paske is a small airport and we deplane on the tarmac.  Unlike Luang Prabang, the luggage is already going around the luggage carousel when we get there.  It takes a few minutes for the luggage to arrive and we’re met by our new guide Pheng who helps carry our bags outside and to the waiting Van where Mr. Lo helps loads everything in.  It’s about 10;00 am and we’re off to a UNESCO World Heritage site:  Wat Phou located in Champasak.  To get there, we pass through a 3 separate highway tolls within 30 minutes. Sounds like a money grab to me.    

Wat Phou is the ruins of a Khmer Hindu temple dating back to the 11th to 13th century and are some of the oldest ruins in Laos.  The temple site has existed since the 5th century with the on site ruins built much later. Wat Phou is located at the base of Phou Khao and is roughly translated as temple on the mountain.  The mountain was considered sacred due to the lingam shaped protuberance that is a symbol for the Hindu  god Shiva.  Sometime in the 15th century or so the temple was converted to a Buddhist temple.  

The lingam shaped hill on Phou Khao.  The lingam represented Shiva and thus the mountain was considered the home of Shiva.

The water from the natural spring coming from the mountain behind the temple was considered sacred.  

The site is part of the Khmer empire who later made Angkor Wat to the southwest their capital  From the parking lot, we board a 4 bench seat golf cart which takes us over towards the ruins. We disembark and proceed up the long stone pillar lined pathway towards the main ruins.  

Path leading up to the temple which is oriented towards the east..  It’s lined with carved stone pillars.  

This is the north structure.  There is a twin structure on the south side.  

The north  structure at the end of the path.  We enter the building via the stairs on the right side of the tall structure.  

Close up view. 

Inside the ruined structure looking back towards the mountain.

Further along inside the north structure.

We leave the palace structures and head up the mountain.  We come to a set of uneven and steep stairs that will require some scrambling to see more of the ruins.  Judith decides to sit this one out, so I proceed on with our guide Pheng.   

Another pillar lined path behind the twin palace structure.  This leads up to the very steep steps.

One of the sections of uneven stairs.  There are more of these to navigate to get to the upper terrace.

At the top of the terrace are lots more ruins, the most impressive is the sanctuary building which is now used as a Buddhist temple.  

The Sanctuary building.  I took many pictures of this building and it wasn’t hard to notice the many large cracks in the walls.  I don’t think they were structural, but I was quick to take my pictures and move on.  

Beyond the Sanctuary was a cave where a mountain spring rose.  The water was captured into an open stone cistern.  Pheng said I should dip my hand in the cistern and splash the sacred water on my head three times. I’m not sure if that will cause good things to happen to me, but it did bring some temporary relief to a hot and humid day.  

We toured other parts of the upper site including a small quarry and many detailed relief carvings.  There was a large crocodile carving which Pheng said was used for human sacrifice.  Yuck.  

The view from the upper terrace is pretty spectacular.  

We walk back down the mountain and get back on the cart to take us back to the parking lot.  There is a museum there and we spend another hour touring through the information.  The air conditioning units inside the building felt great and we all lingered around the exhibits on that section of the wall…

We leave Wat Phou and go and have some lunch at a restaurant in Champasak.  The town is located on the banks of the Mekong river and much of its colonial past remains in its architecture.  Pheng helps us decipher the menu and get us connected to the restaurant wifi.  

Lunch time.  We have a great view of the Mekong.

We then left to check into our hotel located in Champasak.  The hotel looks pretty impressive and the accommodation looks like its going to be the best yet.  

Our view of the Mekong River.  

That afternoon there is a bit of rain.  It’s unusual for it to be so hot and humid and raining because it’s supposed to be the dry season now.  But we get treated to a shower before sunset.  

The end of the rainbow is about 25 feet away by the river’s edge.  I should have gone down to look for the pot of gold.

We spend much of the late afternoon at the restaurant/bar chilling on their deck.  That morphed into dinner so we ordered some of that too.  Eventually we headed back to the room.

We’ve asked to be ready for 8:30 the next day for a jeep tour.