Champasak West Pier—Champasak, Laos. - Ferries and Ferry Landings on Waymarking.com

The town of Champasak is a small town in the southern Laos province of Champasak situated on the banks of the Mekong River. The town is notable for the UNESCO World Heritage, Kymer era temple Wat Phu (Phou) Champasak a little to the west, however, the town has a number of other instrumentalities, including a small pier.

This pier is situated on the northern end of the town and consists of a small beach, several small dragon boats, and a small office/waiting area under construction. The closest destination is the town across the river, but there would be other destinations, villages the like, up and down the river. This town across the river seems to be also named Champasak. I can only assume that it is the same town, separated by the Mekong.

There is no schedule or other forms of regimentation. One merely arrives, chews the fat with the boat owners for a few minutes, and then negotiates a destination and price. I was charged $5 (with a certain amount of haggling) for a trip across the Mekong and back—no doubt to the great benefit of the locals. At the time of my visit the Mekong was in flood and there was not much other traffic, which brings me to ... the trip across was a little hairy. That is to say, the River centre water was rough and there was a lot of debris (mostly logs, branches and so forth) flowing fairly fast, not visible from the shore. My skipper had to twist and turn, duck and dive several times on the kilometre plus journey before we reached the opposite shore.

My reason for taking this trip (after visiting Wat Phu) was to reach one of DougK's coordinate palindromes, but after I walked through and past the village (much to the surprise of the residents) I found the area under a lot of flood water, so no palindrome. Nevertheless, great fun.

Body of water served: Mekong River. Places served: Opposite shore of Mekong (twin towns). Seasonal: no Hours of operation (non-scheduled ferry service): From: 12:00 AM To: 12:00 AM Dining room / cafeteria: no Gift shop: no Terminal / landing address: Not listed

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