A Visit to Champasak, Wat Phu, Wat Oum Muang, Li Pee Falls, Khone Phapheng Falls, and Boloven Plateau.

Champasak. This province, whose capital Pakse, lies 300 m above sea level, has had a turbulent history. From the 10^th to the 13^th century, it was the northernmost province of the Khmer empire of Angkor. After the fall of Angkor, the empire of Lan Chang extended its sovereignty to include this region during the 15^th century. After that, the kingdom of Champasak regained its independence around the beginning of the 18^th century. More recently, during the 1960s and 1970s, Champasak played a role in Laotian politics, when Prince Boun Oum, opted for cooperation with Thailand and the USA. The agricultural town of Champasak stretches along the right bank of the Mekong for about 4 km. It is a relaxed town and a good base from which to explore Wat Phu and the surrounding area.

Pakse. The name Pakse means the mouth of the river Se. It is the second largest town in Laos. The town lies in an enchanting mountain landscape on the Mekong, surrounded by fertile rice fields. The most important Champasak cultural landscape is the Wat Phu Temple complex and several archeological ruins around Wat Phu.

The fertile highlands of the Boloven Plateau have an area of about 10,000 sq km. at an altitude of about 1,200 m. The highest mountain, Phiamay, reaches 1,716 m. The climate is pleasant all year round, favoring the cultivation of coffee, tea, cardamom and vegetables. The plateau is inhabited by minorities Lao Theung and Lao Soung peoples. The French identified the Boloven, in the northeast of Champasak Province, as a prime location for settlement by hardy French farming stock. The area badly suffered during the war years when the major surrounding towns were completely destroyed by US bombing campaigns. There are numerous villages dotted between the small settlement of Tha Teng and Salavan. Today, these are a particularly popular tourist destination.

Wat Phu on the Phu Pasak, a hill about 70 m high, can be seen as spring bubbles coming out of the ground. The combination of hills and water was, from the very earliest times, considered sacred. We learn from Chinese sources that the Chen La, who were the forerunners of the Khmer, occupied the hill from the 6^th century onward and built shrines to the water spirits and mountain gods. In the 6^th – 7^th centuries, a temple in the form of the lingam stood on the rocks. The town at the foot of the hill and the temple on its summit formed a single entity, which has been retained in the later buildings that have survived.

Wat Phu was built as a shrine to Shiva by King Jayavarman IV in the 10^th century, in the style of Koh Ker (921 – 944 AD). It is thought to have been linked with Angkor by a road, a distance of about 100 km. The temple complex is surrounded at a distance by an outer wall and consists of a hilltop shine and the temples at the foot of the hill, which are connected by a staircase. In the plains, irrigated rice fields stretch along the Mekong. At the foot of the hill, the ruins of two temples have been preserved. The view from the hill temple over the Mekong valley is magnificent. There are a few more ruins and small museums in the area.