Champasak
After a few days on the Bolaven Plateau, during which it rained considerably, we headed to Champasak. This small town sits on the west bank of the Mekong River, about thirty kilometers south of Pakse.
Unlike the Bolaven Plateau – less than 50 miles away as the crow flies – Champasak was hot, humid, and sunny.
Champasak’s claim-to-fame is Wat Phao, the ruins of an ancient Khmer temple. The ruins lie just a few kilometers southwest of Champasak, and the town is the place to stay when visiting them.
The town of Champasak is small; with a potholed, almost-one-lane road running through it. There is a handful of guesthouses for visitors, and a single bank office with no ATM. We stayed here several days, and it was not a bad place to park for a while.
More on the guesthouses…
We stayed our first night at the Anouxa Guesthouse (click here). It was marginal at best, so we started looking for other accommodations.
One of the places we looked was Dokchampa Guesthouse. It gets some favorable comments in the Lonely Planet guide, but the guide is dead wrong. The place sucks. We would never stay there.
So, we went upscale to the Inthira Hotel (click here). Although pricey, this place is nice by most any standard. We were there for the remainder of our stay in Champasak.
More on the bank…
There is no ATM in Champasak. There is just a small branch of the Lao Development Bank, open Monday through Friday, closing at 3:30pm, and vacant for lunch. Unlike ATM withdrawals we have done elsewhere in Laos, where we have had no transaction fees, withdrawals using this branch involved a 3% transaction fee, plus a forty-kip spread on the buy and the sell. Tack on your own bank’s international transaction fee, and you are losing 4-1/2% or more on the deal. Lesson learned is to hit the ATM before heading to Champasak.
Champasak
After a few days on the Bolaven Plateau, during which it rained considerably, we headed to Champasak. This small town sits on the west bank of the Mekong River, about thirty kilometers south of Pakse.
Unlike the Bolaven Plateau – less than 50 miles away as the crow flies – Champasak was hot, humid, and sunny.
Champasak’s claim-to-fame is Wat Phao, the ruins of an ancient Khmer temple. The ruins lie just a few kilometers southwest of Champasak, and the town is the place to stay when visiting them.
The town of Champasak is small; with a potholed, almost-one-lane road running through it. There is a handful of guesthouses for visitors, and a single bank office with no ATM. We stayed here several days, and it was not a bad place to park for a while.
More on the guesthouses…
We stayed our first night at the Anouxa Guesthouse (click here). It was marginal at best, so we started looking for other accommodations.
One of the places we looked was Dokchampa Guesthouse. It gets some favorable comments in the Lonely Planet guide, but the guide is dead wrong. The place sucks. We would never stay there.
So, we went upscale to the Inthira Hotel (click here). Although pricey, this place is nice by most any standard. We were there for the remainder of our stay in Champasak.
More on the bank…
There is no ATM in Champasak. There is just a small branch of the Lao Development Bank, open Monday through Friday, closing at 3:30pm, and vacant for lunch. Unlike ATM withdrawals we have done elsewhere in Laos, where we have had no transaction fees, withdrawals using this branch involved a 3% transaction fee, plus a forty-kip spread on the buy and the sell. Tack on your own bank’s international transaction fee, and you are losing 4-1/2% or more on the deal. Lesson learned is to hit the ATM before heading to Champasak.
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