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TRAVEL THE WILD XEKONG RIVER
IMPETUOUS ARTERY OF THE MEKONG
Originating in the A Luoi District in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, the Xekong River flows for about forty kilometers before entering Laos, where it meanders for approximately three hundred twenty kilometers. There, the Xekong runs along the natural sanctuary of Xe Xap National Park, and continues southward passing through Attapeu province - one of the strategic focal points during the Secret War. It then enters Cambodia, where it twists for about one hundred forty-one kilometers before joining with the Mekong River near the town of Stung Treng. The journey of the Xekong is endowed with considerable natural beauty, high biodiversity, and a large variety of Proto-Indochinese ethnic minorities formerly called “Montagnards”.
From late 19th century until 1938, various French exploration missions failed to survey and control Upper Xekong, thus the river became something of a myth: an Indochina Heart of Darkness. During the Vietnam War, this wild land was transformed into a North Vietnamese Army maquis which was massively bombed, then re-fell into oblivion. Since 2011, Secret Indochina’s production department has led various surveys into the upper part of the river, creating special ethnographic and adventure programs among the Katu people
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TURBULENCE
A STORY OF SURVIVAL ABOUT A LADY AND A MOUNTAIN DEAR TO SECRET INDOCHINA'S HEART
“I forced myself to look at the beauty of the jungle, that’s what in the end got me through.”- Annette Herfkens
On November 14, 1992, a commercial aircraft carrying thirty-one people left Saigon for the beach resort of Nha Trang. En route, the plane crashed into a mountaintop deep within the Vietnamese jungle, leaving Annette Herfkens trapped in the wilderness as the sole survivor. Grieving the loss of her fiancé, she survived eight days with multiple injuries, sustaining herself on rainwater alone. Miraculously rescued by the Raglaï people, she rebuilt her life in New York City, resumed her career, and found love again. In 2014, she published her book Turbulence: A True Story of Survival recounting her daily struggle in the jungle and how she listened to her instincts to survive. Herfkens’ ordeal took place on the infamous Mount O Kha near Hon Ba Mountain, where French bacteriologist Dr. Alexandre Yersin, the discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague, built his scientific station and mountain retreat
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EXPERIENCE THE PLAIN OF JARS
SOUTHEAST ASIA'S LEGENDARY PREHISTORIC SITE
The Plain of Jars is located in Xieng Khouang province on the Tran-Ninh Plateau, part of a broad mountainous massif covering all of North Laos, at the northern end of the Annamese Cordillera. The region is dotted with thousands of enigmatic large stone jars dating from the Iron Age. This megalithic archaeological landscape is one of the most important prehistoric sites in Southeast Asia and subject of many legends.
During the Secret War, Xieng Khouang province was one of the most heavily bombed region in Laos by the U.S Air Force, which focused bombing raids primarily on the Plain of Jars. Today, the landscape still bears the scars of the war in the form of numerous craters, broken jars, and defused bombs – a some so large that they have been used to build fences, pillars for stilt houses, or as decorations on the streets of Phongsavan
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Secret Indochina was established in 2011, following the encounter of two professionals, Tran Quang Hieu and Nicolas Vidal, passionate about authentic travel. Secret Indochina, DMC branch of Amica JSC, strives to lead travellers to outstanding sites, magical places, and little-known ethnic communities
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