Hin Nam No National Park
Hin Nam No National Park comprises nearly 1000 square kilometres of rugged, forest-covered, limestone scenery in northeastern Laos along the Vietnamese border. It’s not strictly speaking a new listing for UNESCO as the mountains beyond the border are home to Vietnam’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, inscribed back in 2003, and newly added Hin Nam No is actually an extension to this site. The total area of some 2,200 square kilometres now forms a transnational World Heritage Site, which is new to the Laos UNESCO list, if not Vietnam’s.
The mountains of Phong Nha-Ke Bang, behind which lies Hin Nam No National Park This part of Laos – northern Khammouane Province – is very remote and not easily accessible and we confess to never having made it there ourselves. Therefore, for the purposes of this post, we’re relying on photos of the Vietnamese section of the new Lao UNESCO World Heritage Site, Phong Nha-Ke Bang, which we do visit regularly, as well as Hin Boun National Park in southern Khammouane Province. (The latter also features extensive, spectacular limestone scenery.)
In addition to some awe-inspiring karst landscapes and some of the World’s largest known cave systems, the region has been identified as a biodiversity hotspot and houses many endemic species of flora and fauna as well as several critically endangered species such as the Red-Shanked Douc Langur and the Sunda Pangolin.
Paradise Cave in Phong Nga-Ke Bang National Park Due to the remoteness of the area and bearing in mind the Lao transport infrastructure, we’re not going to be adding Hin Nam No National park to our Lao itineraries any time soon, although the more easily accessed limestone ranges of Hin Boun National Park to the south do feature in our Lao tours Far North to Far South and Mekong Adventure. (Our programme includes the unique underground boat journey in Konglor Cave.) A boat trip and cave visits in Phong Nha-Ke Bang are also included on our World Heritage Sites of Vietnam and Hanoi to Saigon itineraries.
