The town of SAVANNAKHET , known locally as "Sawan" is southern Laos's most visited provincial capital. Its popularity is due in part to its location on the overland route between Thailand and Vietnam and the presence of both a Thai and a Vietnamese consulate . Laos's two neighbours are linked to each other, via Sawan, by the 240-kilometre-long Route 9, a popular overland route for travellers doing the "Indochina loop" - through Cambodia, Vietnam, across Laos and into Thailand. But Sawan also has its own appeal, with impressive architecture inherited from the French colonial period and narrow streets and shop-houses of ochre-coloured stucco that are reminiscent of parts of Hanoi. A large percentage of the town's population is ethnic Vietnamese, though most have been living here for generations and consider themselves to be Lao in habits and temperament.