Heading inland from the ferry landing, you soon come to a square, dominated by the octagonal spire of St Teresia Catholic Church , which was built in 1930. Objects of interest include an old teakwood confessional and, high up on the walls, a set of hardwood plaques, with Vietnamese mother-of-pearl inlay work, depicting the fourteen Stations of the Cross. Not surprisingly, the biblical characters have distinctly Asian faces: Christ resembles a Confucian sage, while the Roman soldiers look more like turban-wearing Mongols.

Roads laid out on a neat grid surrounding the town square constitute the Old French Quarter , and are lined with some fine examples of European-inspired architecture. Housed in a peeling colonial-era mansion on Tha He Road, about 1km south of the ferry landing, the provincial museum (daily 8am-noon & 2-4pm; 500K) is given over primarily to photographs of former prime minister and communist party leader Kaysone Phomvihane (1920-1992), Savannakhet's most revered native son, and to the events leading up to the communist takeover in 1975. Of more interest perhaps is a venerable bronze Buddha on display upstairs. Salvaged from a bombed-out wat in the eastern part of the province, the Buddha was brought to the museum after the abbots of local monasteries, fearing the ghosts of slain monks had attached themselves to the image, declined to give it a place on their altars. Nearby, you can view an assortment of the many types of unexploded ordnance which litter the eastern half of the province, and lined up in the yard is a collection of captured RLA light artillery pieces and part of a wrecked World War II-era fighter plane.

That Ing Hang is a much revered Buddhist stupa, just outside Savannakhet and easily reached by bicycle or motorcycle. Follow Route 13 north for 13km until you see a sign on the right and follow this road for a further 3km. The stucco work which covers the stupa is crude yet appealing, especially the whimsical rosettes which dot the uppermost spire. Off to one side of the stupa stands an amusing sandstone sculpture of a lion, grinning like a Cheshire cat, which could only have been hauled here from one of the Khmer ruins downriver. The stupa is best visited during its annual festival in February when thousands make the pilgrimage here, and can be a bit of a let-down during the rest of the year.