Doumer's original plans called for several more branch lines to connect different parts of Indochina, including a link from Quy Nhơn to Kon Tum in the Central Highlands, along with branch lines leading from the Chinese province of Guangxi to Savannakhet in Laos, and from Saigon to Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
Kouanchao was born in Savannakhet, Laos in 1971 and resettled in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1979 with her parents and four siblings as refugees from the Laotian Civil War.
Prince Suriwong, ruler in Ban Luang Phonsim of Savannakhét, established a settlement at the mouth of Muk Creek, across the Mekong from Savannakhét.
In March 2005, conservationists found a nest containing juvenile Siamese crocodiles in the southern Lao province of Savannakhet.