Today we drove to Wat Phou, an ancient site 200 years older than Angkor Wat. The ruins are still incredible to see and a lot of work has been done to restore some of the sites. We had thought we would have to drive south, then get a ferry to get to Champasak and hire a tuktuk to the site (it's 8km south of Champasak), but the tourist information told me that there was a new road, and the ferry does not run any more.

So we followed the road across the Mekong, then south to Champasak and Wat Phou, it was all sign posted and very clear. The road was good - just a 15,000 kip toll to pay each way.

The site entrance had a fee of 3,000 for parking and 45,000 kip each as "Other Foreigner". Nice. We arrived at about 8:30am and it was already 33 degrees and very humid. In the exhibition centre they had some very nice pieces and good descriptions of the architecture and symbolism around the Wat. Good to keep in mind for Angkor!

We started to climb up the stone stairways, it was so hot we tried to stick to the shade, but there wasn't much of that until we reached the top stairway where either side beautiful flowering frangipani trees grew. We walked around the Wat, visited the carved Elephant and Crocodile, Fintan marvelled at the goddess stone carving complete with nipples, and we sat in the shade looking out towards the Mekong, enjoying the breeze, cold drinks and a coconut-rice - baked thing. What a nice way to spend a morning!