A fairly recent addition to the Lao landscape, Sekong town was cut out of the forest and laid out on a wide, map-easy grid spread across an area about ten times the size it needs to be. It seems the urban planners had high hopes for the future development of the town, but as things currently stand,aside from the admittedly very scenic Sekong River, there is just about nothing whatsoever to see in town and everything is a bit of a walk away from everything else.

But Sekong hasn't given up on its 'if we build it they will come' philosophy.' On our first visit in 2004 we found many of the guesthouses closed up, seemingly due to low patronage. On our revisit in December of 2006, we found staff available at every place in town, and despite only a smattering of potential guests showing up daily seeking rooms, several new, ambitious hotels had sprung up, ready and waiting to receive the throngs, if and when they ever decide to show up.

In the meantime, though, the place still has a bit of the feeling of a ghost town (and, in the case of the Sekong Souk Samlane Hotel, even a few ghosts). The most exciting thing to do in town is to get up at 05:00 and watch the locals fishing in the river, then walk along the river road, as the Buddhist faithful line up with donations of food for the monks who make a long slow promenade in their orange robes to receive their morning meal in begging bowls.

For some, though, that is the attraction. As the expansive menu is Phantip Restaurant reads: If... you can imagine just being, without the pretensions of always finding the most fantastic and remarkable things, and not running around expecting to see something unique and utterly picturesque around each and every corner. If you can endure a place with virtually no action whatsoever apart from the public radio broadcasting the local and national news in the mornings and evenings. Then Sekong town, or Muang Lamman as the locals say, is a place for you.

Orientation
Entering Sekong from Tha Teng or Attapeu, you'll find yourself on the main road at the north of town, with most of the rest of the town situated to the south, coming to an end at the northern bank of the Sekong River. None of the roads have names and many are unpaved. Nearly all the restaurants, services, and places to stay are in a rectangular area bordered by the market to the east, the Sekong River to the south, a large, conspicuous white stupa to the west, and the main road to the north.

The post office (T: (038) 211 057) is located on a parallel road a block north of the Woman Fever and Souk Samlane guesthouses. Open weekdays 07:30 to 11:30 and 13:00 to 16:00. Right next door is the telecommunications office, (T: (038) 211 005) with 2,000 kip per minute overseas phone calls and faxing services: Open weekdays 08:00 to 4:30. Further down the same road, closer to the market, is the Lao Development Bank, where you can exchange currency and cash travellers' cheques -- credit card advances are not available. Open weekdays 08:30 to 15:30.

There's a small book exchange with some English language, but mostly Scandanavian-language books, at the Phanthip Restaurant.

Motorbikes can be rented from Phanthip Restaurant.

There is no publicly-available internet anywhere in Sekong at present. There is, however, a tourist information office. But it is, we discovered when we visited, an office dedicated to collecting information about tourism in Sekong Province, and isn't actually involved in dispensing information to tourists themselves. The only treks and activities they had information on where thinks available in other parts of Laos. We did learn, however, that 7,111 tourists had visited Sekong province in 2006 -- sounds inflated to us.