Southern Laos

I spent another 2 weeks in Laos after Vang Vieng. I briefly stopped in the capital Vientiane which, despite everyone saying otherwise, I actually quite liked. There wasn’t a great deal to do, but I went to the very random Budda Park and spent an evening bowling.

Some of the interesting statues in Budda Park

After Vientiane I headed to Savannakhet and I noticed the difference from Northern Laos immediately. Landscape wise Southern Laos is completely flat, and people wise I saw only 6 other Westerners in the 3 days I stayed in the city! I went for a bike ride around the surrounding countryside which was exactly how I pictured rural Laos to be; Paddy fields stretching for miles, goats grazing at the side of the road, locals fishing in the lake, no cars, about 5 mopeds… perfect!

View of the countryside around Savannakhet

After my chill out time in Savannakhet I decide to join a tour in Pakse to take me down the Mekong to Don Si Pan (4000 islands). Our guide took us on a long boat across the Mekong to a local Buddhist temple on top of a massive hill.

Hundreds of steps I climbed to the Buddhist temple, good view over the Mekong though

We then went onto the main attraction; the Khmer ruins of Wat Pou. I thought Wat Pou was awesome. The ruins climb up the side of a mountain and I was very surprised how much is still intact as it was built in the 7^th century. The view from the top level was really cool, you could see right over to the Bolavan Plateau (I think!).

View from the top level of Wat Pou

We sheltered from a sudden rain storm over lunch then headed to Don Khon, one of the 4000 islands and linked to Don Det by an old French railway bridge – no tracks any more though. In the morning we cycled across the little island to a massive waterfall - Tat Somphamit, made all the more impressive by the vast amount of water in the rainy season.

Waterfall 1 - Tat Somphamit off Don Khon

We headed onto another waterfall - Khon Phapeng, later in the afternoon which was just as awesome and is apparently the largest waterfall in SE Asia.

Waterfall 2 - Khon Phapeng

Had a brief stop in Cambodia for half an hour of Irrawaddy Dolphin spotting, surprisingly we actually saw the group of 12 dolphins several times! The next few days I spent chilling on Don Khong the largest of the 4000 islands before heading back to Bangkok.

If you look really closely there are a couple of dolphins there somewhere...

I really enjoyed exploring Laos and I’m glad I took the extra time to make my way leisurely through Southern Laos. It was the first time I’d really been travelling alone (as there were so few westerners to meet) but it meant I spoke with the locals more (or attempted to) and it felt like I was slightly off the typical backpacker trail!