Down south

I found a small internet cafe in Champassak, a tiny little town near the world heritage, pre-Angkorian temple Wat Phou.

It's not cheap, compared to Vientiane, but made much more reasonable by a quick thought about internet access prices in most other parts of the globe. They even have an old iMac, which makes me very happy as I'm not much of a PC fan at all.

I wanted to get online to let anyone interested know that C is just fine. She wasn't caught up in the riots or trapped in the convention centre, though she was involved in the rescue of several dozen members of Oxfam's International Youth Parliament who were caught up in the mess.



She'll be sure to write a bunch of stuff about it all soon, but is on her way here from Bangkok now, so might not have the chance for a while.

I went and visited Wat Phou today, generally considered a poorer cousin of the temples at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but I thought it was quite sepcial.

The temple itself is not very well maintained or restored, but it was very quiet and I pretty much had the place to myself as most people, sensibly, steer clear of the stinking hot midday sun.

Climbing up the steep heuan rock steps to the sanctuary was really interesting. Dozens of incredibly beautiful and extremely old frangipani trees line both sides of the walkway, growing out of and around the steps and temple itself.

It was very quiet and contemplative, in a way that Angkor seldom is, and I was very much in the mood to benefit from that.

While I would never suggest coming here instead of Angkor, if you're in the area it's well worth the effort.

There was a poster listing all the UNESCO world heritage sites around the world in the small museum that accompanies the temple and I was surprised to learn that I have somehow managed to visit 30 of them. Not much of a dent in the 1,576 sites listed (and no I didn't count them all, there was a handy tally), but I was kind of impressed with myself.

I'm off to take it easy for a bit longer before dinner and bed. I'm in the middle of The River's Tale : A Year on the Mekong by Edward Gargan, a former NY Times correspondent. It was recommended to me by Jono, C's brother who is living in Phenom Phen and who we will be spending the holidays with. The book tells the story of Gargan's journey down the Mekong River from its source in Tibet to the point where it empties into the South China sea in Vietnam.

I've just gotten to northern Laos and am keen to read about some of the areas I've been seeing lately.

Will post more in the next 10 days or so.

*The picture isn't mine, as C has our camera, it's googled and pilfered from some travel site...