One more review to give a post-Covid view on how things are working today.

The temple lies about 15 km down the road from small town Champasak. I stayed in Champasak after coming from Ayutthaya. I took the night train to Ubon Ratchathani (About 9 hours, slim but comfortable beds with privacy curtain, about 20 USD, arriving at 06:15 a.m.) and then the Bus from Ubon to Pakse at 09:30 a.m. from the bus terminal in Ubon. You have to cross the city to reach the bus terminal from train terminal e.g. by Grab, Tuk Tuk or taxi. The bus waits at the border to Laos keeping the big luaggage inside where I got my 60 day Visa for 40 USD (I was expecting to only get 30 days). The bus reached Pakse bus station at shortly after 12. Basically it depends a bit on the amount of not Thai and Lao people in the bus as only 1 person was working on the Visa on arrivals and the more people are in need of the Visa, the longer it takes. In Pakse I switched to the Songthaew but it was neither easy nor comforable. As indicated by Els it leaves from the market called: "ตลาดดาวเรือง" in Google Maps. More precisely it leaves from close to the big 16W street leading back to Thailand. It´s an important information as I walked around through many alleys of the crowded and labrynthine market until I found it and also local people were only partly giving helpful information. I paid 50.000 Kip (currently around 2€) for being transported on a Songthaew full of goods with my luggage to Champasak. Starting time was also unclear until we started as communication in English or even with the help of the smartphone was very difficult but finally it was at 2 p.m.. The drive takes about 1 hour and I was able to get off at my guest house. I stayed at Dok Champa Guesthouse and now in low season one room cost only 100.000 Kip (4€). It´s big however is lacking renovation and cleaning. But still a very good deal with beautiful Mekong terrace in the restaurant. I was renting a bicycle and it took me about an hour to reach Vat Pho. They charged 25k Kip for leaving my bicycle on the parking area (a bit of a scam it feels) and another 55k Kip for the entrance. The Electrocarts still exist and seem to be much to fancy for the area than the rest of the infrastructure (same like the new toilet complex at the entrance, where they cook lemons in a pot for the good smell inside). 

The museum was interesting as some different aspects around Vat Phou are presented and also a small exhibition on Khmer culture, connected WHS, and some sandstone remains that were taken from the temple. The supervisor watching loud TikToks was quite annoying though.

The cart drove me to the end of the two paralell ponds from where I walked to the lower temple area and afterwards up the ancient stairs to the temple at the top. It is a nice Indiana Jones kind of feeling to explore the territory especially as it was low season at the beginning of July (despite many French groups visiting with package tours). I find the many details in the nicely restored buildings very interesting to explore. Also the fact that the former Hinduistic/ Khmer site is now buddhistic I find interesting e.g. the Shiva figure wearing the Buddha orange textile. There are some shops selling snacks on site. Also the sad practice of capturing birds so that "believers" can let them free again for money can be found here as in many other places in Lao. Additionally some restauration work was ongoing at one of the two bottom buildings but it still can be easily visited. I spend around 3 hours in the temple and the museum. There are many restaurants outside the area for eating after the visit. The weather was nice for visiting a cycling. About 30°C and cloudy, however still a bit sweaty of course. Due to the clouds the mountain was only partly visible at the top was often behind the clouds. I have never seen the Phallus like top of the mountain that made the Khmer build their temple here in honour of Shiva.

For me it was the first Khmer site ever after Sukhothai and I have enjoyed the visit in this rather remote area.

My next stop was the 4000 islands, a touristy but very beautiful area in the south of Laos in the Mekong river. There a options with all transfers from Champasak to e.g. Don Det for 250k Kip and they worked very well.