Historic Bridge, Don Det - Don Khon - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

Don Det is an island in the Mekong River in the Si Phan Don archipelago in Champasak Province of southern Laos. Don Det features a tropical wet and dry climate. The Khone Phapheng Falls, a succession of impassable rapids that gave rise to the construction of the railway, are among the main features accessible from Don Det. Freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins, an endangered species, can be viewed by boat.

The Khone falls, a series of cascading waterfalls in the Mekong river is one of Laos’ most beautiful natural attractions. The impressive falls in Champasak province near the Cambodian border are the largest in volume in South East Asia. A lot of tourists visits this place every year and it is one of the iconic place in Laos.

Si Phan Don (4,000 Islands) is an archipelago in the Mekong River containing a large number of islands of varying shapes and sizes, some of which are often submerged during the monsoon season. The southern islands of Don Dhet and Don Khong are the most visited, while the rest are uninhabited due to their minute size.

The Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary is a terrestrial protected area with tropical and subtropical moist and dry broadleaf forests. It is the largest remaining primary lowland evergreen forest in Cambodia with a wide range of flora and fauna. It also has a large range of wild animals also.

Wat Phou or Vat Phu, which translates to “mountain temple” was built during the late 10th to early 11th century, which makes it older than Angkor’s best known monument, the Angkor Wat, which was built during the first half of the 12th century. Over the following centuries structures were added to the temple until the 14th century when the Angkor empire went into decline.

This is an enormous park -covering 3,325 square kilometers and established in 1993- and most treks just barely put a dent in it. The park is under constant threat from illegal logging and poaching but the worst threat of all is the talk of a Chinese-funded road being bulldozed across the southwestern corner of it. No road plans have been announced to date, and a trek to the "holy grail" of Phnom Veal Thom rewards the hardy traveler with jaw-dropping views of the wild and unexplored mountainous b