Pakse

Pakse sits where the Xe Don runs into the Mekong and is the largest town in southern Laos, the place everything in the region is reached from: the Bolaven Plateau east, Wat Phou south, the Four Thousand Islands further down the river. The town itself is low-rise and busy rather than pretty, with a morning market, a few wats and the unfinished bulk of the Champasak Palace, built for the last prince of the region and now a hotel. Most visitors treat it as a night either side of somewhere else, which is a fair reading of it.

What you actually see

• The river confluence - the Xe Don meeting the Mekong, with bridges over both.
• Dao Heuang market - the big daily market, strongest in the early morning for produce and coffee.
• Champasak Palace - a large 1960s building begun for the last prince of Champasak, now a hotel.
• Wat Luang - the town's main temple, with a monastic school and a riverside compound.

When to go

November to February is dry and manageable. March to May is very hot in the lowlands here. The Bolaven coffee harvest from November to February brings the plateau's produce down into the markets.

Honest expectations

Pakse is a working town without much charm, and nobody comes for it. The traffic on the main roads is heavy and the riverfront is not developed for walking. Its value is as a base and a transport hub, which it does well.

Nearby

Champasak and Wat Phou are an hour south, and the Bolaven Plateau begins forty minutes east.