3rd – 5th October 2011
Our hotel was manned by the jolliest Lao who laughed at EVERYTHING. He laughed as we bundled out the back of the truck when we arrived, he laughed at the rain, he laughed at others trying, fruitlessly, to stop the sprawl of apples out of their soggy cardboard box, he roared with mirth at our soggy clothes, he chortled as he welcomed us extolling the virtues of his establishment ‘good rooms, cheap price, good food, hah hah haaaaah’. I cannot imagine how the clouds resisted dispelling at such a joyous sound. Giggling a bit ourselves we changed out of our wet clothes and into clean dry things by which time the rain had cleared up and the puddles had miraculously lost half their volume. We ventured out of our Mekong side location and along the dirt road which ran parallel to the river.
Champasak, until thirty years ago, was the seat of royalty, hard to imagine as we wandered down the main through-fare in town. Most of the restaurants were rather expensive so we looked and looked before we found a tiny little place on the side of the road selling amongst other things, the most delicious fresh spring rolls.
The village was very pretty, sandwiched between the Mekong River and mountains to the other side, forming a natural barrier between Laos and Thailand – for most of the border Laos and Thailand share the Mekong but further South the border moves back and you cross the broad expanse of water to still be in Laos – it felt a bit weird having been able to look out over the river and see a much more developed country. We wandered up and down the muddy road getting a good look at the surrounding countryside and several Wats. Children cycled past piled on bicycles coming home from school, small boys played in puddles and shared wafer biscuits, a man took his two cows for a walk to trim the grass at the side of the road, life was sweet.
The next day we were up fairly early and rented out a couple of bikes from our jolly hotelier and set off down the dirt road, covering the 10km to Wat Phu Champasak in about an hour. The morning sun was hot but the road was flat if not entirely even, we tried as best we could to follow savvy locals through the maze of some of the more overwhelming maze of pond size puddles and the potential potholes that lay underneath. We stopped several times to take photographs; a woman cutting grass, buffalo munching on the stalks of freshly cut rice, people passing in open sided trucks attached to a motor well out front and rice paddies. It was a beautiful ride to the town’s only claim to fame: A Khmer religious complex called Wat Phu.
Wat Phu is very, very old and stretches 1400 metres up a mountain known locally as Phu Khuai, or Mount Penis. Alright, history lesson over.
We started out at the bottom, walking up the promenade in-between two rows of small pillars we reached the middle level and two sandstone pavilions (which according to the LP guide, may date back to the 6th century). They were pretty but cordoned off so we couldn’t clamber round the structure to have a proper look. We continued up some more steps and stopped near a statue of a Buddha with beautifully wrapped offerings off flowers and incense sticks. Butterflies fluttered round the hibiscus bush behind it. Laos really is the land of butterflies.
After a short rest we clambered up more stoned steps, some of them steep enough to have me wondering that had I not been practicing lunges and squats in Bangkok, whether I would have made it to the top. Well we both made it, Djalma rather charmingly filmed my sweaty ascent on the final approach, and we were rewarded by some stunning views out over the surrounding countryside.
At the top of the last set of steps we reached the main temple sanctuary which once held a Shiva Lingam bathed by the stream of water from a the spring a little further up. For those of you who read about the things we did in India and Nepal, you may remember that Lingam means penis.
The Hindus worship anything that remotely resembles a proudly erect male member, be it short and squat or tall and thin. If it looks like a willy it’s a godlike thing and must be worshipped. The sight is still considered sacred and is also home to a footprint of the legendary Buddha (this dude really got around).
Continuing around the temple we walked a little further on to see the spring that bathed the spiritual schlong, not that impressive but there were more butterflies playing in the weeds and flowers that grew there.
To the right we walked up a little dirt track that lead to even more beautiful views and an elephant rock. Nearby was a crocodile footprint. Wonders of nature seen and knees recovered we headed back down the steps and through the field to our bicycles parked in the shade of a tree. The sight was tiny and we didn’t spend more than a couple of hours there. Actually that’s my favourite kind of attraction, plenty to interest you, set somewhere naturally beautiful, and small enough that you can see everything without becoming too tired to really enjoy the experience.
We cycled back home racing against the nasty looking clouds looming overhead, we stopped once to take a picture of a large seated Buddha, despite its size we missed it on the way there.
The following day, I started extra early and did some more power yoga, again in the tiny space between the bed and the wall. We had a couple of egg sandwiched prepared by the laughing man’s son, friendly but much quieter and skinnier before being whisked off by the laughing man himself in his minivan to his son’s boat. From there we were taken over the river to another spot where we sat and waited for a good hour for a bus to come and pick us up. It arrived in a cloud of dust and we drove for a couple of hours through the country before we disembarked and got on another boat taking us to the “party” island Don Khon.
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