If you would like to read my full Laos travel blog click
on this link and start at "Our Introduction to Luang Prabang"


90 minutes downriver from Pakse, Champassak sprawls for 5km along the right bank of the river. Behind this affluent town, rising above the Mekong on the slopes of Phou Kao Mountain (or Linga Parvata as the Hindu Khmers called it) Wat Phou is a majestic ruin, originated by Khmer kings in the second half of the fifth century when it was a key centre of the Empire that two centuries later made Angkor its capital. It remained an important axis of Khmer power well beyond this, however, as additions and modifications to the site were made up through the 15th century.