The bus ride from Vientiane to Pakse was long and full of surprises. We seemed to spend more time stopped than moving, and every time the bus pulled over, a waiting team of young merchants would climb aboard, selling everything from chewing gum to BBQ meat on a stick! There were a thousand toilet stops, although they usually involved a good old squat in the bushes, in view of half the bus! Fourteen and a half frustrating hours later we gratefully arrived.

Pakse wasn't all that pretty, although it was a convenient stop to break up the long journey down to Cambodia. After a day familiarising ourselves with this sleepy little city, we decided to visit the world heritage listed Wat Phu Champasak, only 50km away.

We were still buzzing from our 60km bike ride in Luang Prabang, so we decided to test ourselves and go the extra distance for this one. Besides, this road followed the Mekong, was newer and flatter, and almost completely void of traffic!

Despite our aching legs, the ride to the temple was beautiful. We passed lush rice crops and shady little wooden huts along the shores of the river, with a huge limestone mountain range rising up to the west. The quality of the road made it easier and we arrived in just under three hours, feeling alive, but slightly anxious about the 50km that we now had between us and our bed!

As we are getting nearer to the world famous ancient Khmer temples of Angkor Wat, it seemed appropriate that we found ourselves standing in front of another, earlier relic of the ancient Khmer empire. Impressively, Wat Phu was originally built in the 5th century as a Hindu place of worship, forgotten and then restored by the Angkorian Empire, even before Angkor Wat existed. There is even evidence of an ancient road leading towards the temples in Cambodia.

Wat Phu, designed to represent a kind of heaven, demanded respect from the moment we saw it. The setting was superb, and the views phenomenal, with the temple complex resting against a lush sloping mountain side. A steep stairway, flanked by Frangipani (Laos' national tree), led to the main sim at the highest point.

Wandering around the ruins, which were covered by an almost unnatural looking bright green moss, we couldn't help but feel a strong, almost spooky, feeling of ancient greatness. This greatness was demonstrated by the once revolutionary, now obsolete, irrigation system. A natural spring, flowing out from the limestone mountain and hidden under a fortress of forest, was channeled through the temple, blessing the statues inside, and eventually flowed down the slope to supply the villages and rice fields below.

Although later converted to Buddhism, the Sanskrit inscriptions and Hindu carvings lining the walls, were a reminder of Wat Phu's ancient Hindu origins. Hindu deities originally displayed in the main sim have since been replaced with statues of Buddha, and attract a good crowd of dedicated pilgrims every year.

On the way back, we spotted a seemingly endless flight of steps leading up to a humble mountain temple. Our bottoms were crying out for a rest, so we parked our bikes and hiked up. A trio of young monks enthusiastically greeted us at the top, and we were rewarded with a fantastically peaceful Mekong River view.

Only ten kilometers from Pakse, we found ourselves riding through some of the heaviest rain we've ever seen, and the further we rode, the harder it poured! It was getting late so we powered on, arriving at our guesthouse absolutely drenched but giddy with pride, having successfully ridden 100km on our own!