Country Info
- Vientiane
- Capital
- Kip (LAK)
- Currency
- 5,635,967
- Population
- LA
- Country Code
Champasak Slideshow
Travel Blogs from Champasak, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
A Non-Christmas-y but relaxing start to Laos
This is a top pick! So Laos, Starting off in the 4000 islands... Don Det being the island of choice. We didn't do much for the first couple of days...other than lying about in hammocks, reading and enjoying the view of the Mekong...oh and enjoying the food...one of ...
Pen or money
This is a top pick! ... boats, all ready with a car and people on it ready to go. When we ask them however, they tell us they are going to Champasak, the next bigger island along. Instead we are pointed over to a tiny platform resting on two wooden boats going to Don Deang. We ...
Getting friendly with Pakse
This is a top pick! ... a visit to Don Deang to anyone. After another struggle getting our bikes on and off the make-shift boat, we make it to Champasak, the bigger neighbouring island. We stop for a drink at a riverside cafe and a tiny kitten jumps on Claire's lap away from an ...
Getting to know Pakse
This is a top pick! ... ;because the only thing he sells here is coffee. And it is good coffee too. Mr Koffie is a dutch guy who came to Lao to buy some coffee, and ended up marrying into a Lao coffee producing family who have their own plantation. Coffee. Claire leaves Jo ...
The Back of Beyond
This is a top pick! ... a bus which was heading north. After a couple of hours we arrived by the river again and from here we took a small boat across to Champasak. We realised that it was going to be quiet here as soon as we arrived at the other side. Not a tuk-tuk or tout in ...
Having a full blown relationship with Pakse
This is a top pick! 5/11/2011 We get up and get on the boat (after waiting a while) to take us to the mainland, very much looking forward to returning to Pakse. When on the mainland, we wait again for the bus to show up. While we wait the guys at the port entertain us by ...
Meeting Pakse
This is a top pick! 23/10/2011: Its a 5-6 hour journey to Pakse, depending on stops and breakdowns, and there is a French guy going the same way do we share a tuk-tuk to the bus terminal. He chats to the driver who speaks fluent French; an over hang ...
Sampling the medical care of SE Asia
This is a top pick! ... falang in sight and not because of my altered features. I still didn't know what was going on, and the itchiness was unbearable, but a nice Lao woman sat next to me and asked in English if I was alright. I wanted to hug her! She asked if I knew any ...
Day 69
This is a top pick! Throughout the night I just sat there in my chair waiting for the bus to arrive in Pakse. It did just that soon after sunrise and as I piled off the bus I found Patrick and Samantha and asked what they fancied doing here. They wanted to go to a nearby ...
Pakse & Champasak - Day 93-94
This is a top pick! ... bus, a boat, a motorbike and three tuk-tuk's were required in the last 12 hours to get me to the village of Champasak on the Mekong. I'm now only 70 miles from the northern Cambodian border. Staying at the Vong Paseud Guesthouse on the banks of the ...
Pakse - Day 95
This is a top pick! OK, so the mission to Bangkok commences today. Only 2 flights a week go from Pakse to Bangkok and I picked the wrong day, so the only option is to travel overland by bus. I first caught a bus with the locals to a small dock on the Mekong. We crossed the ...
Lao - the south....
This is a top pick! ... block twice whilst he remembered how to ride a motor bike). We took the ferry over the Mekong to the anchient city (village?) of Champasak, where a khmer temple Wat Phu (a world heratage site) is situated, on a hill side with lots of ruins of temples, ...
The Great Southern Lao Bike Adventure - Part 1!
This is a top pick! ... or ropes. We got back on the bikes and rode along dusty dirt roads through minority villages where the people dont even speak Lao let alone English! Their curious looks turned to broad smiles and waves when they saw us smiling and waving at them. Three ...
Pakse
This is a top pick! ... to find some people punching each other outside the Primark sale. The following day we took a trip to Wat Phu Champasak, an ancient Khmer religious complex. It was exceptionally naff compared to Angkor Wat where we had been the day before. ...
(Not) Painting The Town Red
This is a top pick! ... , a fertile area of plantations, forests and waterfalls as well as home to a number of Mon-Khmer ethnic groups as well as Lao coffee. Unfortunately not enough people had signed up for one which with a minimum of 4 people even when including myself still ...
Tour De Laos
This is a top pick! I just want to start out this blog by thanking everyone who has taken the time to comment, donate, or read my blogs. It really keeps me motivated and reminds me that I have a family. Travelling alone is really the best thing to do in a foreign country; ...
Day 70
This is a top pick! After breakfast Arjen took the initiative and started negotiating for the bikes. Apparently there are only three to rent and there were six of us so that meant doubling up on the bikes. I didn't fancy my first motorbike driving experience to involve a ...
Motorcycling Around The Bolaven Plateau
This is a top pick! The mission my travel mates and I have chosen to accept is a four day motorbike ride around the Bolaven Plateau in southern Laos. This region is very near the Ho Chi Minh trail so we bombed the hell out it during the Vietnam war. The country ...
Tat Fan, Wat Phu, Reflection, and Relaxation
This is a top pick! ... many goodbyes, felt like eating the last piece of a bar of bittersweet chocolate. Stu joined me for the trip to Champasak, the site of the Wat Phu temple. Our guest house overlooked the Mekong River, with three uncomfortable hammocks positioned just ...
Old Khmer outpost and more chillin'
This is a top pick! ... Wat Phu Lucked out in Pakse and met up with two really nice French people, Manu and Margot, and we shared a lift to Champasak, where we wandered around and marvelled at the old French colonial architechture and then rode out to Wat Phu on rented ...
Day 71
This is a top pick! ... side the restaurant we were in for a chance reunion. Patrick, Samantha and I were left and we quickly made our way to Champasak - about halfway to the border where we could visit some old Khmer ruins. The town was really quiet on arrival but not without ...
Temples and ruins
This is a top pick! ... faces - we declined this delicacy, this time and arrived in Pakse our base to explore the south of Lao. We hired a 100cc bike for the day and visited Champasak. The boat trip across the river was fun, three motorbikes and people on boards nailed to two ...
Chapter 39: Si Phan Don
This is a top pick! ... pestered by children and old women for money; that's something I hadn't experienced yet in Laos. We had lunch (and dinner) at the Lao-Paris cafe, which was heavy on the "Lao" and light on the "Paris." The old Catholic church was mildly interesting, and ...
The Great Southern Lao Bike Adventure - Part 2!
This is a top pick! ... noodle soup. Luckily it stopped pretty quickly and the ride back was pretty pain free. We have been planning the rest of our Lao trip this afternoon....we are running out of time! Need to be in Bangkok to meet Becky, my brother Chris and now Sarah ...
Hanging Around
This is a top pick! Learning that you can now obtain the visa for Cambodia on arrival at the Lao-Cambodia border I saw no need to hang around any longer waiting on the embassy to open tomorrow morning so booked my bus ticket to Pakse in the guesthouse with the guy telling me ...
Little Big Island
This is a top pick! ... of Don Khong though and I soon found the Mekong guest house where I planned to say the night with oddly both Canadian and Lao food on the menu despite the owners clearly being the latter. Arranging a meeting later on tonight secret agent style with a ...
Lone Wolves of Laos - Biking the Bolaven Plateau
This is a top pick! The area surrounding Pakse is known as the Bolaven Plateau, and having a newly found love of moped riding, Tom, Mike and I decided that the best way to see it would be to rent mopeds for a few days and head off into the ...
Paradise Lost
This is a top pick! ... German guy, Welf. He was drinking with another Irish couple, Derrin and Edele, so we joined them. After another couple of bottles, I mentioned Lao Lao, the local rice wine. I did tell them that last time I was here, I drank some on my first night and ...
Threesome !!!
This is a top pick! ... bags on the bus, and said seeya to George and Colin as they were on another bus. Actually, there were three buses, things were moving up in this country !!! And then we were off, on our way to Vientiane. Beer Lao's Drunk - 0 Beer Lao's Total - ...