PAKSE
Pakse was founded by the French in 1905 as an administrative outpost and still has a very French old world charm about it. It sits on the confluence of the Mekong and Don (Se Don) rivers.
One icon you won’t miss in town is the wedding cake like Champasak Palace Hotel, built in 1968 by the last prince of Champasak (Chao Boun Oum na Champasak). He was also prime minister of the Kingdom of Laos from 1960 t0 1962. The prince, a royalist and aligned with Thailand fled to France in 1974 with the rise of the Pathet Lao.
