Wat Phou: causeway

This is a map of Wat Phou area. We started our journey from the palaces which are on the right. We continue our journey from palaces through a causeway to the first step.

The palaces are behind.

The close look of stone columns (ເສົາເສ)

And the first step. Stone columns are behind

Wat Phou: The palaces

The large sign is welcoming us to the second world heritage place in Laos and its cerebration festival for the fifth anniversary of being the world heritage place.

The bazaar in front of the festival
My pictures are not good enough in strong sun light. This is North Palace.
We still will be in Wat Phou in the next posts. We will take a long walk from Palaces to the cliff.

Local handicraft on the way to Wat Phou

To go to Wat Phou I decided to use road no 13th which need to cross the Mekong using ferries.
As your vehicle reached the river bank you will see a lot of handicraft shops along the road.




If you don't know what are they or what are they for, you just buy as souvenir.

The fresh market along the road

On the way from Tomo going back to Pakse. This market is located on 19th kilometer.
They sell snakes, fish, frogs, all kind of vegetables collected from forest.

This deer is looking at itself

And These reptiles are under arrest

Wat Phou: Crossing the Mekong

I went to Wat Phou two times. The first time in 2005. I went there in the evening. We started from Tomo at 7 p.m and we reached Wat Phou at 11 p.m. because of traffic jam. The road was full of vehicles and crowd heading to Wat Phou festival which is held once a year. The vehicles must cross the Mekong using ferries, there were about ten of them going from one bank to another. It was dark that night, I could not take photo to show here.
But I have another pictures taken in the day time during my second trip to Wat Phou.





In the ferry you can find noodle soup to eat and if you have motorbike and you don't prefer big ferries then choose the choice shown in the last picture

Tomo: The world heritage of Tomo

If you begin from Pakse and going south, you will find Tomo at kilometer 40.
You will find the sign on the rightside. Turn right and go along unpaved road about 1 kilometer (could not remember exact distance).
There is a kiosk for tourists for buying tickets but the day I went there I could not find anybody who sells tickets.
Among the high trees you will see the stone ruins of Ancient Khmer empire like in Angor Wat.






People may know Wat Phou which is also the ancient Khmer architecture better than this place.