Slept like a baby despite the quality of the hotel. Left early after showering the bicycles in the bathroom –the bikes where covered in red sand all over their sensitive parts so it was easier than asking the car wash guys again. Left by 8.30 and had leisurely trip on the bikes around the town. At some point we were diverted; part of town was blocked off by an overnight fire. The diversion took us to the market and we supplied ourselves with freshly baked Lao goodies. An American cyclist bumped in to us and told us his ideas on the best routes he has accomplished in Cambodia. Then he told us then he got mugged because of his own stupidity. We ate breakfast in the Bolevan Café with their lovely coffee (not as impressive as Nicaraguan - but the fair-trade sentiment was good). Couple of fruit iced shakes for the road and bobs your uncle. We left Pakse town with feeling that it was the best town in Laos so far. Cycling was painful and very frequent stops were needed. By about midday we had arrived at the ferry port to cross the Mekong to be told lots of lies and diverted to little private boat we paid 20 times over the odds (only about 5 US dollars J).
The temperature hit 40 degrees C and even cats where lying on top of ice-cream freezers (see picture for the clever feline). Impossible to walk, not to mention cycle! We kept clocking and resting in the horrible heat of a dirt track road. The dust and light sand where covering our faces, feet, bikes and bags.
Dropped dead at about 16.30 in front of the gates to historic Wat Phu Champasak. Completely drained of energy we entered Khmer paradise. From the exhaustion, we forgot the camera (sorry no pics but we’ve linked someone else’s to give you an idea).
The temple complex was definitely the most amazing thing I had seen for a while. The location, purpose and the building project are truly breath-taking. The buildings survived (not in a great shape now) eleven centuries of droughts and rainy seasons with torrential rains. The erosion has slowly but surely eaten the way through time.
We climbed all the way to the top where the natural water spring was – it was the holy spring which created the holy temple. The temple was created to honour the hindu religion and therefore adorned with the holy suspects of Vishnu and Shiva.
We religiously, hmmmmmm NOT, washed ourselves from the dust roads in the holy water (including our feet). The feet in this neck of the woods are the worst part of the body. Not too sure if we had meant the insult, but we hoped nobody had seen us as we were so desperate to rid our bodies of red earth after the terrible road conditions.
A lovely ”duck lap” and top vegie creation for Teresa concluded the day. We cycled the last few km just as the sun dropped behind the hill of the temple. Taking the quicker route back to the Mekong we ended up in a middle of nowhere next to a completely empty very loud Karaoke bar.
Refreshed by a cold shower we murdered a chilled Lao beer overlooking the Mekong from a grubby terrace.
Cycled 63 Boated around 700 metres of Mekong currents
The temperature hit 40 degrees C and even cats where lying on top of ice-cream freezers (see picture for the clever feline). Impossible to walk, not to mention cycle! We kept clocking and resting in the horrible heat of a dirt track road. The dust and light sand where covering our faces, feet, bikes and bags.
Dropped dead at about 16.30 in front of the gates to historic Wat Phu Champasak. Completely drained of energy we entered Khmer paradise. From the exhaustion, we forgot the camera (sorry no pics but we’ve linked someone else’s to give you an idea).
The temple complex was definitely the most amazing thing I had seen for a while. The location, purpose and the building project are truly breath-taking. The buildings survived (not in a great shape now) eleven centuries of droughts and rainy seasons with torrential rains. The erosion has slowly but surely eaten the way through time.
We climbed all the way to the top where the natural water spring was – it was the holy spring which created the holy temple. The temple was created to honour the hindu religion and therefore adorned with the holy suspects of Vishnu and Shiva.
We religiously, hmmmmmm NOT, washed ourselves from the dust roads in the holy water (including our feet). The feet in this neck of the woods are the worst part of the body. Not too sure if we had meant the insult, but we hoped nobody had seen us as we were so desperate to rid our bodies of red earth after the terrible road conditions.
A lovely ”duck lap” and top vegie creation for Teresa concluded the day. We cycled the last few km just as the sun dropped behind the hill of the temple. Taking the quicker route back to the Mekong we ended up in a middle of nowhere next to a completely empty very loud Karaoke bar.
Refreshed by a cold shower we murdered a chilled Lao beer overlooking the Mekong from a grubby terrace.
Cycled 63 Boated around 700 metres of Mekong currents