From Pakxe, daily passenger boats ply the forty-kilometre stretch of the Mekong south, past misty green mountains and riverbanks loaded with palm trees, to the drowsy rural town of CHAMPASAK . Of little interest in itself, Champasak is best-known as the gateway to Wat Phou and the Khmer ruins , though some people prefer to base themselves at Pakxe, which has better facilities, and take in Wat Phou as a day-trip in a hired car. Meandering for 4km along the right bank of the Mekong, Champasak is now an unassuming town, but was once the capital of an important kingdom, whose territory stretched from the Annamite Mountains into present-day Thailand. Scrap metal taken from wartime airstrips and crafted into fences encircles the emerald gardens of the former palace of Prince Boun Oum na Champasak , the scion of the royal family of Champasak and a one-time prime minister. As is the case with the naga in front of Boun Oum's house, which were taken from Wat Phou, the area's most exquisite pre-Angkorian relics have unfortunately wound up in the late prince's private collection. There is talk, however, of incorporating the collection into a public exhibition in the near future.