Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Located just off Route 6, 6km southwest of Ban Phao,
HintangArcheologicalPark
is home
to the
SuanHin
or “Stone Garden”. Surrounded by forest, the megalithic stone gardens con-
sist of large slabs of rock that have been stood upright and arranged in circles. The age and
origin of the sites as well as the culture that created them remain a mystery, though the pil-
lars have been linked by archeologists to the stone funerary urns of the Plain of Jars and it's
thought that they're approximately two thousand years old.
Nam Xam NBCA
Around 85km southeast of Sam Neua, to the south of Route 6A ∙ The park can only be reached by four-wheel-
drive vehicles; ask about trips at the tourist office in Sam Neua.
The hilly
Nam Xam NBCA
is spread over around 700 square kilometres. The conservation
area basically encompasses a broad bend in the
NamXamriver
where it makes a lengthy de-
tour around two large mountains within the NBCA, before extending over to the Vietnamese
border to the east that comprises the park's eastern boundary. The tallest peak is located in
the centre of the park and is 1741m. The eastern area of the park is said to provide a habitat
for elephants, bears, tigers and gibbons.
The road from Sam Neua to Vieng Xai
The road heading east out of Sam Neua passes through the Striped Hmong village of
Ban
Houa Khang
before descending into a valley of rice fields surrounded by shaggy karsts -
the first glimpse of the heart of Pathet Lao territory. Passing through the lowland Lao town
of
BanMuangLiat
and the Hmong village of
HouaiNa
, you'll arrive at a fork, 21km from
Sam Neua. Bearing left leads to Sop Hao and Xieng Khoun on the old French road to Hanoi,
right to
Vieng Xai
, 8km away, and eventually the Vietnamese border town of Na Meo.
Nam Nua waterfall
Three kilometres down the Vieng Xai road you'll come to a bridge over a swift-flowing
stream, and from here a track leads off left to the top of a 70m waterfall,
Tad Nam Nua
,
most stunning during the wet season. Cutting away from the path, it's possible to scramble
along the rocks and riverbank to a viewpoint at the crest of the falls. The classic frontal view
is harder to attain: back at the junction, take the Sop Hao road for roughly 2km where you'll
find a track leading for over 1km through paddies and eventually across a stream and a sticky
thicket of bamboo.
Vieng Xai
Arriving in
VIENG XAI
(“City of Victory”), you wouldn't know the Pathet Lao and their
communist allies in Vietnam had won the Second Indochina War. Sprawled across a val-
ley surrounded by the cave-riddled karst formations used by the Pathet Lao as their wartime
headquarters, Vieng Xai was cobbled together by comrades from Russia, North Korea and
Vietnam as well as labourers from Hua Phan's notorious
re-education camps
.
In 1973, at the
end of the war, there were plans to make Vieng Xai the heart of the newly socialist nation, but
