Explorations Notes

A series of production notes about Indochinese peninsula last frontiers. Enigmatic entity preserved of the last ten decades by their inaccessibility, the last frontiers form an ensemble of rough mountains, isolated wilderness and primeval forests, evanescent worlds, silent guardians of ancestral times and occasionally haven of rare ethnic groups. Since the early nineteen’s, Secret Indochina production department have studied and explored these frontiers, for several, have been created special adventure programs and sustainable projects. Other ought to remain in their protective shadows.

Upper Xekong - Laotian small Amazonia

Upper Xekong is located in southern Laos, in an Annamese cordillera occidental meander constituted of rugged landscape, long southward oriented mountain ridges, profound valleys, impetuous rivers, uninhabitable forests and mythical groves: a wild land forming a natural obstacle to the world uncertain influences, an unseen Laotian small Amazonia, lost paradise of some southern Proto-Indochinese Katu clans.

The Domain - a Vietnamese last frontier

In 1950 all French Indochina was completely explored, mapped, resisting tribal strongholds were submitted, authoritatively controlled and administrated. All, expect Cau Maa’ confederation heart, a rugged mountain range located inside the boundless loop formed by Daa’ Dööng river (Dong Nai), only two hundred kilometers north of Saigon and, paradoxically, impenetrable, impalpable, uncontrollable; a last frontier caught in the night of time, locally known as Nggar Yang, the Domain of the genies.

Phu Pha Thi - Lima Site 85

March 11, 2018 is the 50th anniversary of one of the most notorious episodes of the Secret War in Laos: the fall of the mythical Phu Pha Thi mountain, also known as Lima Site 85 or The Rock. Located in the Houaphanh province of northeastern Laos, Phu Pha Thi mountain reaches heights of 1,786 meters, appearing as a giant monolith extending from the heart of the Nam Et massif.