Laos - Rivers, Caves and Songtaews.

Hello again and welcome back to hot and dusty Laos!

We had a long journey ahead of us, about 500kms, to get from the Four Thousand Islands in the south to a place off the main north-south highway called Tham Kong Lor. This is a cave that's supposed to be amazing. If it wasn't for this, we would have flown the long distance all the way to Vientiane, the capital. Instead, it would take us three days of travel to get there by public transport.

We booked a hotel in advance about half way to the cave for our first night. Once again, we bought a through ticket which covered a variety of transport. We started at 10am and were supposed to arrive at 6.30pm. You can see where this is heading can't you? 

But first we had to get to our starting point by tuk tuk. How old do you think our driver is?

We then boarded a boat and, coincidentally, our Kiwi friends were on it for a short time. We were dropped back at the port where we came in (we didn't see the dead puppy this time) and walked a short distance, stopping at all the bus depots to find which one was ours. We tried to get cash out but the ATMs weren't working. This left us with only a little money to see us through the day.

We only waited about 15 minutes and our bus was ready to go. The seats on the bus were mostly broken and uncomfortable but we made good progress. The bus was going all the way to Vientiane, the capital city, dropping tourists off at various destinations along the way. We got to a town called Pakse, about a quarter of the distance we were going that day, where, to our surprise, they put John and I onto a different bus. We just accepted this as the way things are but we later realised that they had taken us off the fast bus and put us onto a slow, local one.

The new bus was an old Chinese tour bus. There was no mistaking it for another one!

They told us the bus would be leaving in 15 minutes. This wasn't long enough to get lunch so we shared a packet of Pringles chips. Of course, it was over an hour before this bus even left and then we stopped at all stations along the way. At what was probably around dinner time, we pulled into a "bus stop" where there were toilets and some basic food. We were very hungry by this stage and I spied some satay sticks grilling over a fire. Just as I was about to buy some, a lady came up selling fried rats on sticks! I looked at the rats and looked at the meat on the skewers. I couldn't tell the difference. We bought a small packet of biscuits instead.....

Just as the sun was setting, we pulled up behind another bus and they told us all to get onto the other bus. Both buses were only half full, so it made sense. We were crammed into the back seat and the drive went on and on. We were tired and hungry but at least we were making progress.

We think we worked out why they took us off the fast bus (we had plenty of time to think about it!). John and I were the only people going to Savannakhet and Savannakhet is about 30kms off the highway. They would have had to drive 30kms in and 30kms back just to drop us off. If we had understood this, we would have fought to stay on the fast bus and make our own way from the highway. They put us on the slow bus that would take us into the town, however they put us on that slow bus about five hours too early. They could have kept us on the fast bus until the turnoff, 30kms from our destination.

When that second bus bumped us onto the third bus though, that bus didn't go into the town either! So instead of arriving in the town at 6.30pm, we eventually arrived at the junction to the town at about 11pm! Needless to say, we were pretty peed off. We then made an on-the-spot decision to lose our money on our previously booked hotel and stay on the bus as there was no obvious way of getting from the highway into the town at 11pm. The next main town, about an hour up the road, was the safer option. We approached the only other tourists on the bus, a lovely Spanish couple, and found out they had a booking at a hotel in the next town. It was after midnight when we got there - we had left at 10am! - so we all hired a tuk tuk together. We woke the hotel manager up and he found us a room. It was very basic but we weren't fussy at that time of night.

Needless to say, by this stage we were saying to ourselves that this cave had better be bloody good to be worth all this hassle!

The next morning we boarded a songtaew, a combi van-sized vehicle with seats in the back. Ours is the songtaew in the middle.

The people in the songtaew weren't very communicative, with the exception of one little old lady who boarded for just for a short time. She said hello to us and tried to talk to us but our Laotian is extremely limited! She gave us plenty of gapped-tooth smiles. When she couldn't get answers from us she tried to talk to others on the vehicle but nobody responded. The Laotians seem far less extroverted than the Cambodians so far.

Finally, we turned off the main north-south highway and started driving though incredible karst country. Karsts are limestone formations that stick up spectacularly out of the ground.

After an hour or so we came to our last transport changeover. We were told in advance that our songtaew would probably change to another one here if there weren't enough people to go all the way through to the village where the cave is. We were fine with that until the driver of the second vehicle informed us it would leave in about 1.5 hours if enough people turned up by then! We had had enough. The guy said if we paid for the other seats he would leave now. We paid, much to the delight of a couple of Czech backpackers who were also waiting. They were interesting to talk to. 

The scenery along the way was amazing. Tobacco crops stood in a vivid green contrast to the karst mountains behind them.

I love the bamboo fences here.

We finally arrived at our accommodation in the afternoon, about 29 hours after we left the Four Thousand Islands. We immediately learned that the room we had booked was just a really simple hut with three shared bathrooms between 10 cabins. The walls were just woven bamboo strips and the rooms were only a metre or so apart so everyone could hear everyone else. We thought it was going to be terrible but, with the help of good earplugs, this turned out to be an amazing place to stay! The location alone made the gruelling trip worthwhile.

We started each morning here with a walk through the farmland surrounding a nearby karst outcrop. There are many light coloured water buffalo here.

Termites build their homes inside tree trunks. Food and protection in one!

Huts storing hay and rice scenically dotted the landscape.

The fences were in great condition and we loved this cute stile. (Sorry for the farmer talk. We'll always be rural at heart!)

This water buffalo made some weird noises. I managed to catch one of them on audio. It's definitely not what you'd expect! Turn your volume up and wait til near the end of the video.

Friendly locals.

Finally it was time to visit the cave! Tham Kong Lor is special in that it is over 7kms long and you can drive a boat through it! We were a few kms from the cave entrance so we hired a boat to take us there. This boat ride was awesome! The waters were smooth and we floated through some gorgeous scenery.

These cool red dragonflies were everywhere. 

These buildings are for drying tobacco. The rock formations on the river were cool but difficult to avoid at times!

We motored along on the shallow waters (it's dry season here) and had a unique insight into village life. Water buffalo lazed in the coolness.

No, this one isn't decapitated! It's just getting as cool as possible.

Kids seemed happy to see us.

The river is the lifeblood of many communities. Fishing is extremely important.

After about half an hour of river bliss, we arrived at the start of the cave. We swapped boats and the captain of the new boat led us into the cave where his boat was waiting.

Armed with nothing more than a headlamp each, we climbed into the boat and motored off into the dark! It was a weird sensation floating through the bowels of the earth with only a faint light to guide us.

There was one section that had interesting stalagmite and stalagtite formations. This was the only part of the cave that was lit up. We walked along this section.

The water was quite low in places and we had to get out and push the boat a couple of time. It was all such fun!

 At last, after over 7kms of darkness, there was literally light at the end of the tunnel!

The scenery at the other end of the cave was just as pretty. 

We stopped at a small village for a bit before returning back through the cave. The most entertaining part of the stop though was watching a motorbike-riding tourist try to take his motorbike through the cave by boat! They did it!

Getting the boat out of the cave at the other end proved to be quite a challenge!

Our 'resort' was very simple but was set in a gorgeous location. Raised walkways led us through the greenery.

The 'resort' had kayaks and we had some fun exploring nearby rivers. It was so peaceful floating on the clear water past the lush greenery that lined the rivers.

We weren't looking forward to the long songtaew and bus trip to Vientiane, the capital. On our last night at the 'resort', we were talking to two Belgian ladies and found out that they were hiring a car and driver to take them to Vientiane. We all had a bit of a chat and we decided to join them. It was such bliss to climb into a car and ride in comfort for the 6 hours or so to Vientiane!

There was an amazing viewpoint along the way.

The two Belgians were going in different directions so we dropped Laetitia off on the main highway as she was heading south. From left to right, John, me, Bindu and Laetitia.

There were food stalls here. I love their ingenious way of keeping flies off the food!

Hmm, I can't get the video to load properly. Here's a photo. It's not easy to see but they've hooked up a long pink wire to a motor that spins around. Bits of plastic are tied to the end of the wire and the spinning plastic makes a great flyswisher!

John tried the sausages there and said they were pretty darned good.

We had a great time chatting in the car with Bindu and the time passed quickly. We pulled into Vientiane, the capital, just as it got dark. We were dropped off right at our hotel where said goodbye to Bindu. We were so grateful we hadn't made that journey by public transport!

Til next time.
Heather and John