Laos - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 389

5

Savannakhet. he old town of Xepon was
obliterated during the Second Indochina
War - along with every house in the
district's two hundred villages - and
was later rebuilt here, 6km west of its
original location. he old city had
become an important outpost on the
Ho Chi Minh Trail, and was the target of
a joint South Vietnamese and American
invasion in 1971, Operation Lam Son
719 (see box, p.391).
Buses and sawngthaews arriving from
Savannakhet or the Lao Bao border stop
at the market. Frequent sawngthaews
head west towards Savannakhet
(40,000K), and east towards Ban Dong
(see below) and the border with Vietnam
(20,000K). here are guesthouses along
Route 9 a short walk east from here,
including the central Vieng Xay , which
has doubles for 50,000K. If you need to
exchange money , there's a Western
Union branch at the eastern end of
Xepon's main drag (Mon-Fri
8am-3.30pm).
Halfway between Xepon and the
Vietnam border is the town of BAN DONG ,
the site of one of America's most
ignominious defeats during the war and a
popular stop on tours of the Ho Chi Minh
Trail . It is situated in the foothills of the
Annamite Mountains, where bomb craters
and unexploded ordnance still litter the
landscape more than 35 years after the end
of the war. If you're travelling by public
transport, it's best to visit Ban Dong in the
early morning; few late-afternoon
sawngthaews ply this stretch of Route 9
and facilities for tourists in Ban Dong are
extremely limited.

entered Laos from Vietnam, note that
there are four buses a day to Savannakhet
(4hr) from Dansavanh, and four daily
(1hr) buses to Xepon. hese buses are
supported by much more frequent
sawngthaews, which leave when full - or
simply at the whim of the driver.

The far south
Bordered by hailand, Cambodia and
Vietnam, the far south conveniently
divides into two regions, with Pakse
- the most important market town and
the access point for the Chong Mek
border crossing into hailand - as the
hub. In the west, the Mekong River
corridor is scattered with dozens of
ancient Khmer temples, including
Wat Phou , one of the most important
Angkorian ruins outside Cambodia.
From the nearby town of Champasak , it
makes sense to go with the flow of the
river south to Si Phan Don , where the
Mekong's 1993km journey through
Laos rushes to a thundering conclusion
in a series of tiny riverine islands at the
Cambodian border; the waters here are
home to a dwindling number of very
rare Irrawaddy dolphins . In the east of
the region, the fertile highlands of the
Bolaven Plateau separate the Mekong

INTO VIETNAM: LAO BAO
BORDER CROSSING
Crossing the Dansavanh/Lao Bao
border (7am-10pm) can take time,
so it pays to head for the Lao immigration
post early in the morning if possible.
Remember, travellers wanting to enter
Vietnam must arrange a visa in advance.
On the Vietnamese side, there are
motorcycle taxis to take you down the hill
to Lao Bao town where buses leave for
Khe Sanh and Dong Ha, where bus or
train connections can be made to Hanoi
and Hué.
This border is 255km from Savannakhet,
from where you can catch direct buses to
Da Nang (daily; 13hr) or Hue (daily; 13hr),
which stop at immigration, or four daily
buses that go as far as Dansavanh.

Dansavanh
Route 9 ends its journey through Laos in
the village of DANSAVANH , 1km from the
Lao immigration o ce. For a remote
border town, Dansavanh is relatively
tourist-friendly, with food,
accommodation and exchange services.
here's a Lao Development Bank in
town, as well as a branch at the Lao
immigration o ce on the border. From
Dansavanh, you can hire a motorcycle
taxi for the final 1km ride to the Lao
immigration o ce, or walk. If you've