Disregarded by a lot of travelers, Southern Laos can be a rewarding part of the country to explore. It offers some great scenic rides, underground rivers, towering waterfalls, ethnic diversity and ancient ruins. Far fewer travellers venture here and many of those who do tend to dash straight down from Vientiane to the southern hub of Pakse with it’s Wat Phu complex and 4000 island to the south of it but there is so much in between that is well worth exploring. Considering our freedom of movement, we decided to take slower approach and explore as much as we can on the way to Cambodian border. Our first stop was Kong Lor Cave.
Kong Lor Cave, considered to be one of South Asia’s geological wonders, and there are reasons for that. This karst limestone cave is not an ordinary limestone cave. In fact, it was formed by the Nam Hin Bun River running through an entire mountain, sculpting the rock along its way. It’s hard to imagine how much time it took for mother nature to create this masterpiece. On the way through this beautiful 7 km long cave you will be able to explore a bit on foot. Colored lights along the walk path create a dramatic light show bouncing off the shadows.
The river passage through the cave is also used by locals for transporting goods and connecting town of Nam Thone. If you visit the cave at the time of harvest, there will be a smell of freshly harvested tobacco through the cave. For your information, somewhere inside, there is a pool of water with an emerald-tinted glow that locals believe is sacred so maybe ask your guide to show it.
Once you end up on the other side of the cave another beautiful landscape appears. We weren’t expecting steep milestone mountains surrounding us. Just imagine this change: after adrenalin ride you start an almost meditational cruise along this slow and sleepy river. At our second stop it almost felt like the time was paused there.
After a night spent in nearby village Na Hin we moved further to the south and found some quite remarkable landscape on the way. Here we are talking about man-made reservoir that caused death of millions of trees. It was created by the Nam Theun 2 Dam that flooded the plateau in 2008. Approximately 6,200 indigenous people living on the Nakai Plateau have been resettled to make way for the reservoir. More than 110,000 people downstream who depend on this rivers for their livelihoods, have been directly affected by the project. Still nowadays there are many social and environmental issues related to the construction of the dam.
Savannakhet area can offer some really interesting and sometimes even bizarre attractions. Our first stop was at That Ing Hang buddhist temple. This sacred stupa is an important place for Laotian and Thai Buddhists and is registered as a National Treasure of Laos. Located 15 km from Savannakhet, its 9 metres tall 16th-century tower is believed to house Buddha’s bone. A long time ago, the Lao believe that the Buddha has stopped here when he was sick during his wanderings backs in ancient times.
While driving towards Hotay Pidok Library we couldn’t miss monkey forest, that situated 4 km before it. Nice experience if you get some sliced bananas and share them with monkeys (don’t forget about goats though).
Finally we arrived to Hotay Pidok Library. This impressive old library was originally built in the 17th century. It is the most important repository of palm leaf books written in Burmese Pali, Khmer and ancient Lao alphabets in Laos.The books are maintained in good condition by monks and novices, as well as the local people. There are currently 4,000 books containing 361 different stories. Its really peaceful and almost meditational to walk around this buddhist complex barefoot; considering amount of attention monks dedicated to us we came to conclusion that there are just few tourists visiting this hidden gem.
Here our exploration of Savannakhet area concluded and we are ready to move further to the south, where even more surprises are waiting for us! So see you in the next video!