Nakai-Nam Theun National Park

Nakai-Nam Theun was upgraded from protected area to national park in 2019, and it covers some of the least-surveyed forest in mainland Southeast Asia. The Annamite range here has produced a run of species new to science since the 1990s - saola, large-antlered muntjac, Annamite striped rabbit - most of which almost nobody has seen alive. On the plateau below, the Nam Theun reservoir has drowned a forest, and thousands of dead trunks still stand out of the water, which is the image most visitors come away with.

What you actually see

• The drowned forest - bleached trunks standing in the reservoir on the Nakai plateau.
• The wet evergreen forest - dense Annamite hill forest running up towards the border ridge.
• The species list - saola and large-antlered muntjac among animals described only in the last thirty years.
• The plateau villages - resettled communities along the reservoir shore, fishing rather than farming.

When to go

November to March is the dry season and the only practical window; the wet months make the tracks impassable and the leeches relentless. December and January are coolest. The reservoir is at its most photogenic at the end of the dry season when the water drops.

Honest expectations

Almost nobody sees the famous animals. The forest interior is difficult, permits are required, and independent walking is not the arrangement here. Most visits amount to the reservoir, the plateau and a short forest walk, which is worth doing but is not the same as seeing the park. Infrastructure is minimal.

Nearby

Thakhek and the loop road lie west; Kong Lor cave is in the same province.