We went down river for about an hour and a half. The scenery wasn't spectacular but it was still lovely being on the river. There were a few islands that the boatman steered past, and some fishermen. There were lots of diesel pumps for river traffic at various intervals along the bank, but very little traffic. The river can't compete with the cheaper and quicker roads, especially now most of them are surfaced. The Mekong along this stretch seems wide to me being used to small British rivers even in the low season. I bet when it's high it's truly majestic.... And I did see the flash of turquoise of a kingfisher skimming the water and up onto the bank...
Then we arrived at the local ferry terminal at Champassak
I got off and the boatman turned round to go back home. I started to walk along the road in Champassak towards the village centre, when a local guy on a motor bike stopped. He said he had a guest house down the road, and so I hopped on the back and he took me to his place.... Right on the river bank. Pretty basic but ok for one night. There I bumped straight into a French lady who had also just arrived about half an hour before me, and who had also been picked up by Mr Motorbike Man.... He seems to run a good business picking guests up from the street! She had also come from Pakse, but on the bus as she didn't think anyone else wanted to go by boat! Hey ho that's the way it works sometimes.
We both wanted to go to Wat Phu so we decided to go together
Way Phu is of Khmer architecture and originally of Hindu religion, but now Buddhist. Some of it was built in approximately the 6th century and was the original Khmer capital city before they moved it to Angkor, with other parts added during the 11-13th centuries. It is similar in style to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and is connected to it by an ancient road.
The temple complex leads up the hill past the frangipani trees
To the buildings at the top, now very much in need of restoration...
This is the view from the top, the barays or lakes very similar to those at Angkor. The lakes have a practical and religious significance, acting as a reservoir as well as signifying the oceans surrounding the earth....
The setting is magnificent and the peace all enveloping with hardly any tourists. Most travel straight past to the tourist mecca of Si Phan Don... 4000 Islands.... Which is where I was also heading but slowly slowly...
There is a sacred spring at the top of the religious complex where water to drink can be collected dripping from the rock.
After returning to Champassak Catherine and I had a wonderful late lunch by the Mekong, and while chatting discovered that she also knew Veronique from Luang Prabang, and had seen her after she was discharged from hospital and Veronique had told her all about her bicycle adventure and being helped by an English lady and a Canadian man...! It's a small world when you're travelling....
We had heard there was a really good spa in Champassak so wanted to try it out. Run by a French lady and her husband who had lived there 5 years. I had a wonderful body scrub...
Then as we were walking back to the guest house another guy on a motor bike stopped... This time a French man who had lived in Champassak for 10 years. He wanted to tell us about the theatre production that they were running that night and to which they were inviting visitors to attend. It was an old black and white film created in 1924 by the original creators of "King Kong"... And the locals had put their own music and noises to the silent film, using local traditional musical instruments as well as their own voices. We went.... What a wonderful evening! The film called Chang, Elephant, evoked a life gone by when local people living in the jungle had to fight the terrors of wild predators and where the jungle could be friend or foe. Slowly the villagers won their numerous battles, and killed the tigers, spotted leopards, snakes and other predators, and either killed or tamed the herds of elephants into submission and to work for them logging the vast acres of timber.... And you can see the aftermath 90 years later.... Where the film says that the mighty jungle will reign supreme forever, unfortunately that has proved not to be the case and much of the land is now barren and defoliated. And the wild animals have been killed to the brink of extinction. But seeing the film I can understand why they fought so hard..... Just to survive. And I can see why Laos was known as the "Land of a million elephants"....
Well I thought Champassak was a slow sleepy backwater but I couldn't have been more wrong! It was an enchanting place...
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