International Travel Adventure

We started last post, with the reality, possible today, of traveling back to ancient times and places. It’s always accomplished more quickly and easily (and generally more cheaply) in the movies. But, as discovered, time travel is possible – for the price of airfare. As promised, borrowing some information once again from Patricia Schultz’s “1,000 Places To See Before You Die”, the theme is continued here, traveling even further back in time.

Shifting our focus a little from the Angkor region of Cambodia, our destination will be Champassak, Laos, where we will visit the hilltop temples of Wat Phou. Since they were built in stages between the sixth and fourteenth centuries A.D., they pre-date Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, by 200 years. These temples contain some of the best Khmer art in Southeast Asia.

While largely in ruins, the most remarkable and breathtaking features of the huge complex are the large scale, and the age. Climbing the massive steps to a ninth century temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva reveals a fantastic setting against the majestic backdrop of the mountain Linga Parvata. Exploring the spectacular landscape on clear days will yield views as far as Vietnam and Cambodia, while the foreground below contains the Mekong River winding through the fertile, village-dotted lowlands.

The jungle trek to the less elaborate temple Oum Moung farther downstream is also remarkable, as it takes one through an area that seems not to have changed at all since the thirteenth or fourteenth century, when it is believed this temple was built.

Contact information for scheduling and arranging your personal time travel to these ancient places in history can be requested via the Contact page; while I’m not in that business, I can provide information to help fire up your time machine, if desired.

If you’re still unsure of anything about your next international travel - and you want it to be cheaper, safer, and more adventurous, get my free “Smart Tips Handbook” available exclusively to Registered Readers! Click the link below.

International Travel Adventure

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Travel Ideas, Travel Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.