View allAll Photos Tagged Champasak
And here is a well deserved grimace by this little one that I surprised towards the pier of Champasak ..... the smile arrived after.
Lingaparvata or Phou Khao seen from Champasak.
There is a confusion as to the location of Lingaparvata, a sacred mountian.
The peak in the upper centre is the same peak that dominates the landscape in Vat Phou, and Google Map indicates it is Lingaparvata. However, the Linga-shaped peak is located in the upper right, which is also indicated by Google Map as Lingaparvata. The latter was almost hidden by the former if seen from Vat Phou.
It is not confirmed but Lingaparvata and Phou Khao could be different peaks and the former would be better called Phou Khao and the latter Lingaparvata.
The water body is a reservoir or a pond that provides water to the surrounding rice paddy. It may have had something to do with the urban plan of the kingdom's former capital.
If you see the satellite image of Champasak, a square shaped embankment is seen clearly although it is almost inundated in the pond. It may have been the original capital of the Kingdom of Champasak. There is an unfinished palace just beside the embankment. I could not find any document regarding the abandonment of Champasak, but I suppose there was a good reason for the French government to decide on building a new local administration centre in Pakse.
Abandoned Champasak is reviving as the base to explore Vat Phou and its related archaeological sites.
Somphamit Waterfall further downstream from the previous photo. There is a suspension bridge in the upper left, which was closed for maintenance when I visited.
A photo taken at the Nakasang pier on the eastern bank of the Mekong.
The town is served by National Route 13 leading to the Cambodian border. Khone Phapheng, another Mekong waterfall, is also accessed from Nakasang.
Southward view from Hang Khon, the southernmost settlement of Don Khon. The Laos - Cambodian border is drawn in the middle of the water from left to right, and the land seen near the horizon belongs to the Stung Treng municipality of Cambodia.
The lake-like expanse of water of the Mekong is known to provides a habitat for Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris). Dolphin watching is a popular activity in Stung Treng.
Alternative shot of Si Phan Don from Don Det.
The boat was probably heading for Don Khon, the southernmost island of Si Phan Don. There are waterfalls and rapids on the both sides of Don Khon; therefore it is impossible to go further downstream by boat.
Another photo taken in Wat Phabat.
Buddha statues of the Mahayana school are often flanked by bodhisattva statues, which is not the case with Theravada Buddhism as the latter is a faith exclusively in Gautama Siddhartha.
This one in Wat Phabat is exceptionally flanked by people who look like Sadhus.
Bodhi (Ficus religiosa) is the tree, under which Gautama Siddhartha attained enlightenment in Bodhgaya in the Bihar State of India.
There is a Vietnam - Laos border 80 km northwest of Kon Tum, which is called Bờ Y. This photo was taken just after crossing the Bờ Y border into Laos.
The bus painted like the Vietnamese flag was a direct service from Pleiku (Gia Lai), 48 km south of Kon Tum, to Pakse in the Champasak province of Laos. It took 10 hours to travel 358 km from Kon Tum to Pakse.
The road was OK and the bus was good, but the problem was that the bus did not use a bus terminal in Kon Tum. I was informed to go to a rotary on QL 14 near the city centre where I waited for almost an hour watching all the number plates of the busses passing by.
For tourists, taking a long distance buss is not easy in Vietnam except for Futa Bus that dispatches a vehicle to your hotel to pick you up. After travelling in areas that are not covered by Futa Bus, I realised how valuable that service was.
Wat Phu or Vat Phou is a ruined Khmer Hindu temple complex in southern Laos in Champasak Province. There was a temple on the site as early as the 5th century, but the surviving structures date from the 11th to 13th centuries. Wat Phu is an UNESCO world heritage site.
Scanned slide, photo taken im mid February 1998.
Wat Phu or Vat Phou is a ruined Khmer Hindu temple complex in southern Laos in Champasak Province. There was a temple on the site as early as the 5th century, but the surviving structures date from the 11th to 13th centuries. Wat Phu is an UNESCO world heritage site.
Scanned slide, photo taken im mid February 1998.
Wat Phu or Vat Phou is a ruined Khmer Hindu temple complex in southern Laos in Champasak Province. There was a temple on the site as early as the 5th century, but the surviving structures date from the 11th to 13th centuries. Wat Phu is an UNESCO world heritage site.
Scanned slide, photo taken im mid February 1998.
The Khone and Pha Pheng waterfalls (Khone Phapeng waterfalls) together are the widest (6.7 miles in width) and largest waterfalls in Southeast Asia. The falls on the Mekong River on Don Phapheng Island in the Champasak Province are characterised by thousands of islands and countless waterways giving the area its name Si Phan Don or the ‘4000 islands’. The highest falls reach a height of 21m, and the average discharge of the cataract is approximately 11,000 cubic meters per second. The highest flow on record is an astounding over 49,000 cubic meters per second. The falls are simply breath taking!
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Please take your time... and enjoy it large on black
In the south of Laos, in Champasak Province near the Cambodian border, some 200 km from Angkor Wat and about a one hour drive from Pakse on a good road, is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Vat Phou. It is an exceptional archeological site originating in the 6th century and thriving until the 15th Century. Its influences come from Khmer, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions that blend elegantly in its architectural, ritualistic, and artistic designs. Construction on what we see today as Vat Phou started around 1000AD, and bears clear visions of Hinduism. Taking advantage of a natural axis from Phou Kao Mountain - from which flows a natural spring that is still considered sacred nowadays - to the Mekong River, the ancient khmers designed a geometric pattern of temples, shrines, and man-made waterways. The deliberately chosen location of Vat Phou along an east – west axis, is coupled with the fact that the peak of Phou Kao Mountain is shaped like a lingam. Such a phallic shape is usually associated with the Hindu God Shiva, as is the worship of the rising sun, hence the east – west alignment of the temple. After centuries of lying in ruin, hidden within the jungle, a French explorer, Henri Pamentier, rediscovered Vat Phou in 1914. After photographing the site, it once again disappeared form the world’s consciousness. Interest resurrected itself again in the mid 1980’s when UNESCO initiated an archaeological survey of the site. This survey led to heritage legislation being implemented, with the conferring of protected status being given to the site in 2001.
Photo of the facade of Vat Phou sanctuary in Champasak - Laos. The sanctuary is in two parts. The front section, of sandstone, is now occupied by four Buddha images, while the brick rear part, which formerly contained the central linga, is now occupied by a large Buddha image and altar. The light and colors of the Buddha altar are perfect since the entire roof is missing, although a makeshift covering has been added to the front. Here you don't feel like a tourist but more like an explorer. Water from the spring which emerges from the cliff about 60 m southwest of the sanctuary was channeled along stone aqueducts into the rear chamber, continuously bathing the linga. The sanctuary is later than the north and south palaces, belonging to the Baphuon period of the later 11th century.
Het Wat Phou tempelcomplex ligt op een uurtje fietsen vanaf Champasak. Een fiets kun je voor 0,50 per dag huren via je guesthouse. Je kunt Wat Phou ook met een gecharterde tuk-tuk bereiken. Wat Phou betekent in het Laotiaans bergklooster. De Wat Phou, de meest interessante Khmer-ruine buiten, ligt op 8 kilometer ten zuidwesten van Champasak. Het is in feite een verzameling tempels en heiligdommen aan de voet van de Lingaparvata berg. Het Khmertempelcomplex werd in de 9de eeuw door koning Jayavarman IV als Shiva-heiligdom gebouwd. In vroegere tijden verbond een 200 km lange weg deze tempel met Angkor Wat in Cambodja. Hoewel de plek nu verbonden is met het Theravada Boeddhisme, wijzen zandstenen reliefs erop dat de ruines ooit aan de Hindoe-goden gewijd waren. Met de ondergang van het Angkor rijk werd Wat Phou overwoekerd door de jungle. In 2001 is Wat Phou door UNESCO uitgeroepen tot een World Heritage Site. Met steun van de UNESCO zijn restauratiewerkzaamheden in volle gang. UNESCO heeft inmiddels wel geleerd van eerdere restauratiewerkzaamheden aan Angkor Wat. De inmiddels gestarte herstelwerkzaamheden stuitten daar op opmerkelijk verzet van deze bezoekers. Ze waren ontstemd over de pogingen het overwoekerende oerwoud terug te dringen. Voor hen werden een paar gebouwen ongemoeid gelaten, zodat het beeld gelijk bleef aan de op foto's vastgelegde dromen die ze, eerder thuis hadden gezien. Gelukkig krijg je hier als je door de gedeeltelijk overgroeide ruïnes dwaalt een goede indruk hoe groot het complex geweest moet zijn. Boven op de heuvel staat een verborgen tempel in het oerwoud. Je voelt je even geen toerist maar ontdekkings-reiziger! Vanaf de boven op een heuvel gelegen centrale tempel kijk je uit over een groot deel van het complex en de in de verte gelegen Mekong.
Wat Phu or Vat Phou is a ruined Khmer Hindu temple complex in southern Laos in Champasak Province. There was a temple on the site as early as the 5th century, but the surviving structures date from the 11th to 13th centuries. Wat Phu is an UNESCO world heritage site.
Scanned slide, photo taken im mid February 1998.
private trade with cherokee
Vat Phon and associated Ancient Settlement within the Champasak Cultural Landscape
UNESCO WHS Ref. 481
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Please take your time... and enjoy it large on black
Champasak lies on the western bank of the Mekong river - Southern Laos, while the main route to the south - route 13 is on the eastern side. Getting to and from Champasak will involve a crossing of the Mekong as the town sits on the West bank. Our tuk-tuk will join our crossing. The ferry, which carries vehicles, even buses and people is more like a group of canoes tied together to make a large raft. A wooden platform mounted across three separate hulls; the height of marine technology. We decided to wait outside the tuk-tuk in case an emergency exit was needed. The ferry was driven by an old truck engine. We had to wait till the ferry was fully loaded. Crossing takes about 15 minutes, but loading and unloading takes a lot longer since there is no regular landing-stage just the river bank. Basically Laos is not the best place in the world to be if you are impatient or in a hurry. It took us about 1.5 hour to cross the mighty Mekong river. The ferry point is a quite busy place, actually a small market. There are eateries on the river bank but we decided to eat later and cross the river first. But women selling also food on the ferry. A vendor had just delivered a soup. I enjoy the river scenes of people having food on the raft and smaller rafts, just fit enough to ferry a couple of bikes making their way across as well. It's quite a happening. Half the fun of traveling here is in the travel itself.
Photo of an empty ferry crossing the mighty Mekong river to Champasak - Southern Laos. Such beautiful sinister scene where you can see it's raining in the mountains. We arrived with rain and now we're leaving with rain again! We're moving further South to the Si Phan Don - meaning 4,000 islands in the Mekong river. From our experience we can say even if you travel in the wildest rainy season you experience maybe much more about Laos than others in December crushing out with only other foreigners and learning and seeing maybe less...I guess its finally up to you which season you choose to visit Laos.
Van Champasak is onze volgende bestemming het eiland Don Khong. Onze tuktuk bracht ons weer naar de veerpont alwaar wij de Mekong rivier overstaken richting het zuiden. De veerpont is niet meer dan twee aan elkaar gebonden sloepen met een platform van planken. Eigenlijk een groot vlot op drijvers dat door een oude vrachtwagenmotor wordt voortbewogen. De overtocht is op zich al een belevenis. Er gaan zoveel auto’s op tot er geen één meer bij kan. Zodra we erop zijn gaat de ferry uiteraard nog niet varen, we moeten wachten tot deze vol is... wat ook nog even duurt. De overtocht opzich duurt niet lang maar het aanmeren wel aangezien er geen steiger is alleen de ruige oever van de Mekong rivier. Er wordt gemanoevreerd naar een goeie plek alwaar de autobussen "veilig" via twee planken op de kant kunnen komen. Het is behoorlijk druk op en rond de veerboot. Eigenlijk een kleine markt zowel aan de oever als op de veerboot. Op de ferry worden verschillende dingen verkocht, lemon-juice wat vers wordt gemaakt, diverse gegrilde stukken vlees op spies etc etc. Een delicatesse hier is kip-embryo, dus een gekookt kuiken in een ei. Aan de overkant stond een minibusje te wachten die ons naar Si Phan Don bracht. Si Phan Don is de naam van 4000 eilanden in de Mekong.