Catastophic Coffin Cave

The Tham Piu (Piu Cave) area is like a movie that evokes a wide range of feelings: sadness, curiosity, introspection, resignation, and hope.

Though accounts of the fateful day when a missile from an American jet found its target—Tham Piu—differ, one fact goes undisputed: the explosion killed hundreds of innocent villagers. Today, a statue of a man, straining to hold his anger as he carries the body of a lifeless child, presents a solemn monument to those who died, and calls for an “Annual Day of Remembrance” for the 24 November 1968 massacre.

Before the ascent, go to the visitor centre and contemplate the display showing the history behind the bombings.

Tai Dam Cultural Hall

Culture vultures can taste the Tai Dam lifestyle at Ban Xieng Kio- government-designated cultural villages locate about 48 km north of Phonsavanh near Kham town on Lao route 7. The two-storey Tai Dam Culture Hall greets visitors to the village, and the traditional Tai Dam bedroom leads off the tour: a row of thin mattresses with patterned cotton sheets, square pillows, and decorated blankets on rattan mats with back mosquito nets knotted overhead.

The Hall also exhibits wooden farming tools, gadgets used for transforming raw silk and cotton in to loom-ready dyed threads, and a collection odf basketry employed for variety of reason from cooking sticky rice to trapping fish. You can also purchase the wares-finely decorated sine (traditional skirts), wall hangings, table clothes, and back head scarves, alongside baskets and shoulder bags-before wandering around the village to watch women weave.

Big Hot Springs

 

The Big Hot Springs, or Nam Hom, are located 69 km east of Phonsavan and 19 km from Muang Kham town. This hot spring is a natural creation, where the water temperature is about 40 degrees Celsius. Large trees surround the site and local people believe that the jungle is sacred. The resort is now equipped with a number of tourist amenities, including restaurants, a guesthouse, a ferry wheel, a small swimming pool and nature trails among pine-lined walks.

A visit to the Big Hot Springs can be combined with an excursion to the Plain of Jars Site 23, a quarry with finished and partially carved jars sculpted from conglomerate rock. Site 23 is located 2 km from the resort, on a moderate hike up the mountain.