Today we’re finally flying down to Pakse and south Laos after a stopover in Vientiane - and we’ve got a full day planned there as we want to check out Wat Phou temple in the afternoon before meeting up with my mum for dinner.
We had the opportunity for a cheap upgrade to business class, and even if it’s only a one hour flight, we decided to take it, hoping for a little bit more legroom. Things don’t start that well - our flight is at 8am and as we are stressed tourists we head off to the airport at 6am, getting there way too early, and finding everything is closed including the supposedly 24/7 lounge our tickets should give us access to. Luckily, it turns out we’re not the only travellers needlessly getting up at dawn and we share the taxi to the airport with a friendly New Zealand couple taking the same plane - so we have a nice chat while waiting for the small airport cafe to open. Shutters slowly go up around us as we’re supposed to start boarding - but we wait and wait for an announcement and in the end it turns out our flight is delayed by one hour. We could have gotten up at 7am instead of 5:30! At least now the lounge is open and Ollie pounces to try and secure some of the croissants he could see behind the door - but apparently that’s not up for grabs: maybe they’re fake? Never mind, we get some (paying) pastries from the now-open cafe.
Exactly one hour late, we board smoothly - it’s not a small propeller plane as we were fearing but a standard one, and the minute we step in those fancy tickets come into their own. Contrary to the budget airlines we’re used to in Europe, this craft has a proper business section with much larger seats (2x2 instead of 3x3), adjustable in four different ways including lumbar support. We get a complimentary pillow and blanket, and as soon as boarding is completed hostesses come round with a warm towel for cleaning up and a welcome glass of fruit juice. We’re feeling very happy with our purchase already and are settling in for the flight after take-off when the hostesses come round again and announce they will be serving breakfast in a minute! This will be the third round for me (I had a snack on the way to the airport) but it’s sumptuous for airplane fare and we wolf it down happily. The minute we’re done, trays are taken away and we’re on our way down, feeling quite sad this isn’t a longer flight so we could fully enjoy our extra comfy seats!
Feeling very pampered, we stroll through tiny Pakse airport and wait for our Kiwi friends at the exit - we agreed to share a tuktuk to town as they regaled us with stories of their expert bargaining skills. This is a bit of a let-down however: they immediately accept the first, over-inflated offer a driver makes them as soon as we walk out of the doors - and having already agreed to ride with them we feel obligated to share the price. It’s not breaking the bank but we feel like right pigeons as we’re dropped off in front of our hotel not even five minutes later. On the plus side, it looks like we’re by pure coincidence staying in the exact same place as my mum, which will make meeting up tonight nice and easy! Despite us staying in Luang Prabang much longer than her group, our airborne shortcut has let us catch up to them easily as they’ve taken a few days to bus down the country.
We’re exactly on time for check-in and after dropping our bags in the room it’s time to sort out next steps: a tour of Wat Phou temple this afternoon, transport to the Si Phan Done region (the 4,000 islands) for tomorrow morning and lodgings there. The latter two are sorted easily enough through our hotel and online booking platforms, but the temple tour proves harder to organise. Our hotel has an in-house travel agency but they quote us the equivalent of £45 for transport there in a tuktuk. That seems expensive and also Wat Phou is at least one hour’s ride away - a long time to sit in a rickety cart open to the elements! If we want the comfort of a car, the price goes up to £65… Not quite ready to part with those amounts on the spot, we decide to take a walk round the town and think it over. We have a few errands to run and as we circle the centre looking for a reliable ATM and scouting out various shops, we debate the excursion. As we walk past a group of tuktuk drivers resting in the shade, we decide to market-test the price: the first driver quotes us just 500,000LAK/£25 (without even bargaining) for the same service! It’s decided then: we’ll charter our own transport.
We lucked out when we picked our ride: the tuktuk is rusted through but has very good tires and suspension, and our driver has an impressive ability to skirt around the various lumps and bumps in the pock-marked roads - it’s a very smooth journey compared to what we were expecting. We end up having quite an enjoyable hour contemplating the landscape and chatting idly, shirts flapping madly in the wind - it’s a decently scenic road with some lovely views of the Mekong and surrounding hills, a majestic bridge, and even a serene golden Buddha halfway up the mountainside. Our driver drops us right in front of the temple entrance, before parking in the shade and unfolding his hammock to wait comfortably - it’s nice to know he’s got a decent set-up while we explore around. We can’t see much from the parking lot: there’s a lengthy approach around a large “baray” (an artificial pond) and then a formal entrance path , hundreds of meters long, framed by several more. Wat Phou, a direct ancestor to the world-famous Angkor Wat, is a “temple-mountain” and its scale certainly lives up to the name. Luckily, we’re by now thoroughly used to the heat and we arrive to the first courtyard with barely a wheeze.
The temple is advertised as a nice, quiet spot to visit (especially compared to the crowds at Angkor) - as we’ve seen it’s not easy to get to and so often gets missed from the tourist trail. However, today the ruins are a hive of activity: we’re coming up to the yearly Wat Phou pilgrimage and Laotians of all ages are buzzing around preparing for the festival. Children play hide-and-seek in the remains of the buildings, food vendors have set up their stalls in every patch of shade, and saffron-wearing monks prepare meditation beds. We’re probably missing out on the quiet majesty of deserted ruins but it’s also really nice to see the monument still in use for its intended purpose, more than a millennia after it was built.
The first courtyard is framed by two crumbling “palaces”, large winged structures built out of massive blocks of laterite, with carved lintels and pediments around the entrances. The roofs have long fallen down and it looks like the top of the walls isn’t far off from following suit: large cracks loom over the various openings, despite wooden props helping secure the doors. We don’t really know what they were used for but they are impressive buildings and the carvings are beautiful.
Moving on, we start climbing along the slopes of the sacred mountain the temple backs on. Going is treacherous as we’re on a road that was probably paved when the complex was built, between the 5th and 10th century, and the massive slabs have shifted significantly since then, resulting in a broken, very uneven surface. Soon enough we get to successive sets of stairs, just as uneven as the road if not more. It’s an arduous climb but a magical sight as the bowed steps are shaded by beautiful frangipane trees in bloom - it seems straight out of a fantasy book.
Despite the shade, we’re starting to struggle when we get to the top of the seven tiers and to the main sanctuary. It’s another, smaller ruined building with more of those lovely carved stones, set against a backdrop of jungle and sheer cliffs. Just like the rest of the temple, it’s actively in use and people are praying in front of the four Buddhas - those ones have particularly unsettling eyes. As we walk around the small plateau we’re on, we see the cave the sacred spring stems from, and then, guided by a couple of impish children, visit elephant boulder, a sinister rock slab with the shape of a crocodile carved out from it (possibly used for human sacrifice!), and another gigantic Buddha footprint. At least his shoe size seems consistent, if unrealistic.
Having toured the entire complex, we head back down, watching our footing on the gigantic stone steps. The visit has been an incredible experience: Wat Phou is an impressive site, historically hugely significant, and the ruins and their beautiful setting really gave off proper explorer vibes - despite the many locals milling about. We’re both very happy we made the journey over, and jump back into our (almost) comfortable tuktuk ready for the windy ride back. On the way, we catch pretty glimpses of the setting sun, but we’re a bit early for the main event.
Luckily, our hotel has a panoramic rooftop terrace, where I catch mum for a drink just in time to see the sky go red - it’s a lovely view with the town as foreground and some lit-up monuments punctuating the horizon. Ollie joins us for a pleasant dinner overlooking Pakse and we catch up on our various adventures since we parted in Vientiane. Tomorrow we’re all leaving for Si Phan Done (although unfortunately we’re staying on different islands this time), but in the meantime, with less than 24h in Pakse we feel we’ve had a very productive time!
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