Destination: Laos
LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL ITINERARY INFORMATION
Itinerary: Southern Loop
ONE TO TWO WEEKS/VIENTIANE TO SI PHAN DON
This route covers 730km of river plains and rolling hills, bridging clear streams and tracing traditional Lao villages via Rte 13 before arriving at Pakse, from where you can go by road or river to the relaxed islands of Si Phan Don.
This circuit takes you through the heartland of lowland Lao culture, a world of broad river plains planted with rice and home-made looms shaded by wooden houses on stilts.
Start your trip in Vientiane, the country's capital city, now easily accessed via the Thai-Lao Friendship bridge. After enjoying the food, nightlife and historical sights of here, head south to Tha Khaek, where you can stroll the sleepy urban riverside and explore nearby caves in the Khammuan Limestone, best accessed from Tham Lot Kong Lo.
Your next stop heading south will be Savannakhet, where you'll get an architectural taste of how postcolonial Vientiane looked before it was gussied up by the Lao PDR government and international aid. Chowhounds can sniff around for the country's best fove (rice noodles) and sivn sawavn (literally 'heavenly beef'; dried beef).
From Savannakhet continue southward to Champasak Province, home to Wat Phu Champasak. The Angkor-style temple ruins at Wat Phu extend stepwise of the slopes of Phu Pasak, itself a sacred site due to a rock-shelter spring flowing near the phallus-shaped summit.
By either bus or riverboat, make a final short hop to Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands), an archipelago of river islands where the southern Lao farming and fishing life continues much as it has for a century or more. Here you can enjoy a relaxed pace of life and take a boat trip to see the rare freshwater Irawaddy dolphin before heading back to Thailand via Chong Mek or on to Cambodia via Voen Kham.
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