Chompasak

After the biking adventures of Phonsavan we headed for Chompasak in the South West of Laos. This required some epic bus journeys and stops in smaller towns along the way (more on that coming later), but the main reason was to see the ruins of Vat Phu. Built by the same civilisation of Angkor Wat fame, Vat Phu is an earlier and now ruined Khmer Hindu temple complex which became a centre of Buddhist worship. It’s location at the base of mount Phu Kao makes for some steep steps and some beautiful views in a setting that is much quieter than it’s Cambodian sibling.

We arrived in Chompasak in the pouring rain after changing buses and being plonked on a tiny ‘ferry’ (think a boat two planks of wood wide) to cross the Mekong. The village was almost deserted and had a weirdly silent vibe that we weren’t expecting. We were the only guests at our guest house and on arrival decided that hiring a motorbike would be pretty safe given the lack of traffic and people. We therefore headed of on our own to Vat Phu along the only road in town which was uneventful apart from nearly running over a snake which was slithering in the road (terrifying!). The complex itself was stunning, and made us even more excited for Angkor. We had fun heading up the steps to the sacred spring and admired the engineering and expert stone carving of the Khmer people, as well as watching the resident goat families climbing and jumping all over the place. It was a great day which was well needed after being soaked on our journey to the region and we decided in the end it was worth the detour on our way to Cambodia.