Chomphet is a place that you might want to explore outside of Luang Prabang town. You can easily follow the Chomphet trail to visit the temples and enjoy the beautiful views while you are walking from one temple to another.
Getting to Chomphet
Chomphet is a place that you might want to explore outside of Luang Prabang town. You can easily follow the Chomphet trail to visit the temples and enjoy the beautiful views while you are walking from one temple to another.
Chomphet is one of the areas that you should consider visiting while travelling in Luang Prabang. It is a less developed, laid back and rustic, however Luang Prabang town is filled with boutique hotels, French inspired cafes, expensive restaurants, and world heritage temples. Chomphet is located just five minutes cross the Mekong River by ferry or by boat.
We decided to visit Chomphet after we had been to most of sights in the town. We found out that there is less information about this place since it is not a tourist focal area. Less information on the area didn’t mean that we were put off going there: we just found our own way or other best way to do it. We tend to go and follow the flow and see what we can do.
I've gathered the following practical information so that other travellers, especially the first-timer, can use it as a guide to visit Chomphet for a day trip.
How to get to Chomphet District
Before we went to Chomphet we did some research on how, where and when to visit. As mentioned above, it is not that easy to find complete information about it on the internet when we were there. But we managed to do it based on our thoughts.
To get to Chomphet you have two options by crossing the Mekong River.
By ferry. You can easily join the local people crossing the river by ferry. The ferry departs from the main boat landing (Tha Heua Luang) on Khem Khong road, behind the Royal Palace National Museum. On Google maps, the location of this ferry is marked 'Cross River Ferry'. Walk down the steps to the river where you can see local people queuing to get onto the ferry. The most interesting part is the ferry not only carries people but also the bicycles, motorcycles and cars but sometimes even livestock too. It is a lovely journey even though it only takes less than 10 minutes. There is no ticket counter, pay your fare when you get to the ferry and the ticket person approaches you. The fare crossing the river is 5,000 kip per person and 10,000 kip if you travel with a bicycle.
The passenger ferry crosses backwards and forwards across the river at regular intervals and will take you directly to Ban Xieng Man. The ferry starts operations around 6am and ends around 8pm.
By boat. You can see some boats crossing the river from and to the main town. The boatman will approach you first when they see you walking towards the river and ask whether you need a boat or you can ask them. The boats are parked along the river bank. The boat that crosses the river is the one without a canopy or roof. Usually the boatman will wait for the boat to be full with passengers, but based on my experience we crossed the river without waiting for other passengers. Maybe it's because we crossed the river from Wat Long Khoun area to the town. We paid about 5,000 kip per person and we haggled for the fare.
If you can cross the river by private boat, it runs up until around 10pm.
Things to Do in Chomphet
You can follow the Chomphet Trails or just visit the main temples. We didn't know about the trails but we ended up at Wat Had Siaw and returned to Wat Long Khoun where we got a boat to return to the town.
If you take the public ferry you'll arrive at Ban Xieng Mane village. After walking up from the ferry landing, turn right and walk through the village. This is where you can see the village way of life. Walking along the trail is free but if want to enter a wat, there is a small entrance fee. These are the active temples where monks study and live, so please be respectful. Men should wear shirts; women should dress modestly and cover shoulders.
The highlight in Chomphet is to visit some of the temples. Wat Xieng Men, Wat Chomphet, Wat Long Khoun, Wat Tham Sakkarin and Wat Had Siaw are the temples that you might want to go to. Besides visiting these temples you are rewarded with beautiful views and the green scenery.
Wat Xieng Men is located within the village and located on the left. You can miss this temple easily if you do not look properly. Wat Chomphet sits on Chomphet Hill and overlooks the Mekong River and the town. The view from here is absolutely beautiful. Wat Long Khoun is the most beautiful amongst them. Wat Long Khoun is also known as Monastery of the Happy and was used as a royal meditation retreat for the Luang Prabang King awaiting his coronation. Wat Tham Sakkarin is a cave temple and located a short walk from Wat Long Khoun. This limestone cave was founded in 1889. The mouth of the cave is outlined by a large stone block entrance. If you go further down the path after visiting the Wat Long Khun and Wat Tham Sakkarin, after 800 metres the trail ends at the temple Wat Had Siaw. It is a small temple and monastery, which are very rarely visited by tourists.
Check out my guide for Luang Prabang Temples; in this guide you can find more details about the temples in Chomphet.
Returning to Luang Prabang
As for our experience, we returned to Wat Long Khoun and took a boat from there to cross the river. We were lucky because there was a boat waiting for passengers and we crossed it safely.
Another alternative is to return where you started from which involves a very long walk. I'm surely not recommending to do this. Next is book in advance with the boatman and agree the time and place that you want him to collect you. It is best to organise where you would like to be picked up before setting off on your hike, but at a pinch, you can usually find boats for hire hanging around Wat Long Khoune.
More reading // Things to do in Luang Prabang and a 3-day itinerary In Luang Prabang
Final thoughts The Chomphet unguided hike in Luang Prabang takes you into a different world where you can become part of the forest. The walk was amazingly peaceful and we did not see other fellow travellers except at Wat Chomphet. The trail is a mix of paved path and trail through the forest, past sacred temples and quiet scenes of monastic life. The temples that we visited started with Wat Xieng Men and going upriver: Wat Chomphet, Wat Long Khoune, Wat Tam Sackkalin and Wat Had Siaw. If you want to walk a bit further then you can visit Wat Khok Pab. This hike can take you up to two to three hours and depends on what you want to do and what time you are start.
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