Hoiesay / Huay Xai / Way Sigh

Names of Lao towns are hard :( The bigger cities, like "Vientiane" or "Luang Prabang", are established enough to only have one name version in the Latin-alphabet, but this doesn't apply to smaller towns, including "Hoiesay"/ "Huay Xai" (pronounced "Way sigh"). 

This was the town where the Gibbon Experience is based, and it turns out, there's not much else going on. It had a simple hotel, the "Riverview Guesthouse", recommended by the Gibbon Experience reception, right next door.  The rooms were spartan but also cheap- Thursday night we had an "air-con" room for 130,000kip ($16), and Saturday night we had a fan room (no A/C availability) for 80,000kip ($10). 

Weird seating- there were airplane seats everywhere...

For lunch the first day (and dinner the last day, since it was so good) we found this random riverside restaurant called "Houiesay Sabai". Seriously the most delicious morning glory I've had in Laos, and the pineapple fried rice had an incredible flavor.

Walking around Houiesay, we saw some interesting signs.

One night we went to "Bar How?", mainly because it was right across the street, looked pretty, and was playing Regina Spektor. They had a ton of (super clean looking) flavored lao lao (rice whiskey). We did not partake.

We split some mango with sticky rice and coconut for dessert, and while we were eating this cat came up and cuddled. Really he just wanted some of the rice. (I obliged.)

Our last day in Houiesay we climbed the dragon staircase to the Buddhist temple.

The temple was one of the prettiest I've seen, but I think what made it so interesting was the monks who were there. In SE Asia many of the sons from poorer families are sent to monasteries to get an education, and this temple had a bunch of pre-teen and teenage monks hanging out and talking in the stairwell. They were really excited to ask us our names and where we were from, and were super friendly!

If you look at the top left, there's a cat peeking over the Buddhas. 

There was also the Daawe (spelling?) House near the temple, which was highly recommended by Trip Advisor for the restaurants and the homestay, and I got a small patterned tapestry made by some Hmong women.

Like I said- not much going on, tourism-wise, in the town of Houiesay. I'm still confused as to why there is a daily flight between Vientiane and Houiesay.

Wat Phu (Champassak)

Wat Phu is "Lao's Angkor Wat". Built in the 6th century by some guy obsessed with phallic symbols (apparently even the location was chosen because a nearby hill was phallic-shaped), it's at a weird level of tourism. There's a ticket entrance and a lot of people to sell tickets, to bus you to the temple, etc., but not a lot of signs and very little information for what you are actually seeing.

That being said, I was really happy we went. This is a view of the top temple from the cliffside. 

Climbing the staircase to get to the temple- how pretty are those trees?!

According to a couple sources (looked up BEFORE we went to the temple; of course there was no signage actually at the site), the "Alligator stone", archaeologists suspect, was used in ancient rituals of human sacrifice. It even looks like it's human sized... very creepy. When we moved in to get a closer look, a weird looking salamander all of a sudden came out of the water pooled in one of the hand/claws of the stone. Bad sign; I got out of there fast) 

Buddhist shrine within the temple

In front of the "library"

Also, we biked there. It was only 15 k from the hotel, but the bikes weren't really meant for (a) speed, or (b) dirt/ gravel roads. But a 30k bike ride with limited sunscreen = a bit of a sunburn on my arms and legs.