Introducing Savannakhet

Savannakhet is the country’s most populous province and is home to about 15% of all Lao citizens. Stretching between the Mekong and Thailand in the west and the Annamite mountains and Vietnam in the east, it has in recent years become an increasingly import­ant trade corridor between these two bigger neighbours. With the luxuriously smooth tarmac of Rte 9 now complemented by a new Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, opened in December 2006, the province is gearing up for even more traffic.

The population of 826, 000 includes lowland Lao, Thai Dam, several small Mon-Khmer groups (Chali, Bru, Kaleung, Katang, Lave, Mangkong, Pako and Suay), and long-established and growing communities of Vietnamese and Chinese. Particularly in the lowland farming lands east of the Mekong, the villages of Savannakhet are among the most typically Lao in the country.

There are three NPAs wholly or partly in the province, Dong Phu Vieng to the south of Rte 9, Phu Xang Hae to the north and Xe Ban Nuan straddling the border with Salavan Province. Eastern Savannakhet is a good place to see remnants of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the primary supply route to South Vietnam for the North Vietnamese Army during the Second Indochina War. It is also a major gateway for visitors arriving from Vietnam via Lao Bao.