A Bridge over the Sedone River
The bridge on the Sedone river is a one way bridge with a walk way on the side. It connects the center of Pakse to the rest of the town. This is where the business district is located with Wat Louang (the oldest temple in Pakse) a few meters from the bridge. The Champassak Palace Hotel, Dao Houang Market, official buildings, banks, and the sport stadium are located in this area.
Before there was the Sedone Bridge, people would cross the river using good old fashion ferries or buk. There was a limit to this type of transportation because after a certain hours, there would be no service. An uncle told me a story of how when he was a teenager and went over to hang out with his friends on the other side of the river and lost track of time. There was no boat to take him across so he had to swim home. It was during the time when the water is low but it was cold so he got sick for a couple of weeks. I wonder if it was a fish story.
When we are kid everything seems bigger. This bridge was huge to me long time ago. When I look at this picture now, it doesn’t seem that big at all.
To the right of the picture is the Talat Sao? or that where it use to be. And further down is the Tah Bukk? (ferry)
My grandmother baby sit me when I visited her during the summer vacation. She would take me to sell vegetable with her along with an older uncle. My uncle would take me just to hang out by the Tah bukk to see people getting on/off the ferries. It was exciting.
We never took the ferry there. I would assume it possible to swim back and forth but one must be a good swimmer. The current is not strong but still there is current and the distance.
The world was so much bigger for us when we were younger. Places that we went to that took us so long to walk or bike to get there, now it’s like not much effort at all.
I didn’t get a chance to walk on this bridge yet and will have to do that the next time around.
You sure know your old neighborhood Dallas. Further down at Ban Houay Laou there is still a buk for people to cross over to Muang Khao. It’s faster for the people in the area to use a buk and not have to travel further to use the Lao-Nippon bridge and you have to pay a fee for using the bridge anyway.