Flashback to the Pakse Loop: Day 5

Champasak turned out to be the most wonderful experience! I'm really glad we decided to add extra time for it. My main motivation in going to Champasak was to see Wat Phu, the UNESCO World Heritage site.

Sunrise from out guesthouse

But it turns out there's a lot more to Champasak than just Wat Phu! The good day started with the most beautiful sunrise over the Mekong. Then we were off to explore "The Mountain Temple".

One of the beautifully carved temples in Wat Phu

Wat Phu is a pre-Angkor era temple complex at the base of a large cliff. The whole area was much bigger than I expected. It's quite spread and out, and that's great because it never felt too crowded, even later in the day when more tourists arrived. I was also pleasantly surprised by how well preserved and beautiful the carvings were!

There is a lot to see here, and there are many carvings and small temples in the lower parts of the cliff as well, before it gets super steep. We happily spent several hours exploring it all!

Either North or South Palace

I really loved the "windows" along the sides of the palaces on the sides of the main causeway. They were so well preserved -- even better than many of the same style in Angkor.

Unique carvings in the "windows" of the North/South Palace

But my favourite part was the beautiful frangipane trees growing on either side of the steps above the causeway. They smelled so beautiful. And the entire area was just so green and lovely, even during the dry season.

Frangipane trees all around us

Looking down on the causeway at Wat Phu

After our day wandering around the ruins, we returned to Champasak and decided to explore the town a bit. We stumbled upon a beautiful little spa along the river called Champasak Wellness Spa.

It's run by a very nice woman from France and she has created a very serene and peaceful little oasis here. We started off with a small snack and tea.

Nick's Lemongrass tea and snacks

Blue Butterfly Pea Tea

Nick went with lemongrass, but I tried a blue butterfly pea flower tea for the first time! The colour was absolutely stunning...but it looked better than it tasted, I'm afraid. But that might be a me problem. It was similar to a green tea, and those are not my favourite. I tend to like really strong teas, so this was quite mild for me. But quite pleasant!

Waiting for Nick. Almost fell asleep it was so peaceful and quiet

A massage and some time relaxing next to the river was just what we needed after 4 days on the motorbike! We cannot recommend this spa highly enough! We felt so relaxed and refreshed afterwards that we didn't want to leave the establishment!

And if all of this that wasn't enough to cement Champasak as our favourite part of the Pakse Loop, our evening experience sealed the deal. There was a Shadow Puppet Theatre that revives a Lao tradition that was lost during its communist period in the 70's. There are efforts to revive the music and story-telling and we were fortunate enough to experience one such performance that evening.

Some of the more intricate shadow puppets

We were seated on mats right behind the musicians and we thoroughly enjoyed what appeared to be a Lao version of the Ramayana. There were explanations in french, which I think Nick was able to absorb better than I did. But to be honest, you didn't need to understand a single word to appreciate the music, the atmosphere and the small dance that was part of the performance.

That's me, sitting right behind the muscians!

What a wonderful way to cap off our time on the Pakse Loop! We headed back to Pakse the following morning still riding the high of a great day from start to finish!