Advertisement
Published: January 8th 2010
River goes in here...
Hard to believe this leads to 7 km of river cave and a small fleet of boats.Laos' internet cafes can't keep up with our travels, so once again we are in catch up mode....
Determined to do at least one adult activity off the main tourist trail, we decided to aim for the town of Ban Khoun Kham so we could visit the amazing Kong Lo cave. The 7 hour local bus trip held little appeal, so we splashed out and hired our own private mini van for the trip which had been paired back to 4 hours. It was comfortable and our kids could make as much noise as they liked. Which of course they did! Our remote hotel sounded most unlikely, described as having cable TV, air con and even a 25 m pool! The town is a kind of frontier town out in the middle of a wild landscape of limestone peaks. Didn't feel like there was any way on earth there would be a 25 m pool in this wild west town. Which of course there wasn't. To say that the kids were unimpressed with a 25 m hole in the dirt and no TV at all, cable or otherwise, would be close to the understatement of the trip. Lips were dragging
...and comes out here
Believe me I was smiling too. in the town's ample dirt.
Fortunately Kong Lo cave was enough to make up for the scabby hotel. What an incredible place. A river flowing for 7.5 km through a mountain, through a cave/tunnel big enough to take small motorised wooden boats. What a fantastically unique experience to travel for an hour along a subterranean river in a boat. Some sections of the cavern were vast, 80-100 metres across and almost as high. Some were subway sized tunnels and in some places you almost needed to duck you head. As it was dry season the river was low in places creating shingly rapids that meant getting out and dragging the boat to deeper water. It was surreal walking through the pitch black, in a river waiting for your boat to get going again. The whole experience went straight to the top of our list of great outdoor (?) adventures.
Caught a painless local bus to our next stop, Tha Kaek resting on the banks of the mighty Mekong. It's safe to say that Tha Kaek's best years are behind it. Peeling paint and crumbling buildings should be the town's coat of arms. The colonial era plaza with dusty
Back in to the darkness
Heading back into the cave for the return trip. fountain summoned up (just) the bad old days of French rule. Still the hotel was nice, the river was languid and the town was peaceful.
We hired motorbikes and set off the next day to explore some of the local (you guessed it) caves. I must have said before that Laos is well and truly 'land of a million caves'. Saw a cave stuffed with hundreds of 600 year old buddha statues and then went on to visit another huge river cave. Unlike Kong Lo, this was a DIY job. A couple of cute kids emerged from the bushes just as we were looking lost and showed us the way to the enormous cavern. They guided us through the 200 m long cave, even carrying Jude over some rough patches. These kids were only slightly bigger than Jude and not much older either but they were in their back yard and knew it inside out. We had a lovely swim in the river at far end of the cave where it emerged into a Shangri La kind of hidden valley. Another magic spot and not another falang (crazy foreigner) in sight.
A looming deadline to meet the Eastons
Great swimming spot
This was our reward after a 3 km walk through the local coffee plantations. What a swimming spot. on an island in southern Cambodia saw us crack on apace to reach Pakse in Laos' far south with a couple of back to back bus trips. The final 6 hour local bus trip was a true horror. The bus was jammed to overflowing, including plastic stools in the aisle for the hapless latecomers. Temps inside would have been around the 40 degree mark, made worse for me by the fact that the conductor, a feisty woman, insisted on wearing jeans, denim jacket, face mask and (true) fingerless gloves. Every time I spied her my core temperature rose another couple of degrees. I was drowning in rivers of sweat, she didn't have as much as a sheen on her forehead. I guess that was because she was cold...
Stayed in a really nice hotel in Pakse but we had a kids revolt on our hands because the pizza was all wrong and the movie channel on the cable TV was in black and white. Six hours in a bus at 40 degrees and they didn't raise a murmur of complaint but movies in black and white - that would never do.
Headed up onto the nearby Bolaven Plateau
More great swimming spots
This small fall was just above the 120 m high Tad Fan. Fortunately many rocks and logs lay between the swimming hole and the precipice. to check out the cool air and numerous waterfalls. Stayed at a fabulous lodge nestled in the jungle, looking directly across to Laos' most spectacular waterfall, the 120 m high twin torrents of Tad Fan. We spent a lovely two days walking through the local coffee plantations to reach a series of sublime swimming spots, all at the foot of picture postcard waterfalls. The kids absolutely loved it and it was so relaxing to be out of the sweltering heat of the Mekong Valley.
Back to the heat of the valley and the route ever southwards. Faced with the usual bun fight at the local bus station and then a 3 hour trip crammed in the back of the local utes, we ended up getting the lovely Mr Ko to take us all the way to Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands) in his tiny Tuk Tuk. Plenty of fresh air and no stops to unload chickens and tractor tyres meant the trip was a breeze (literally).
A short boat trip across the Mekong on a tiny boat delivered us to the sleepy 'capital' of the island of Don Khong. Our hotel is right on the river with
Tad Fan resort
In Laos, resort means hotel not in a town. To Reuben it means cocktails and swimming pools. Still this jungle hideaway was a huge hit with all the kids. a stunning restaurant location on a deck above the river. The Mekong slides right by your table and the whole place just oozes relaxation and delicious peace and quiet.
Our next day was less relaxing as we hired motorbikes to visit the surrounding islands along with the mighty falls of Khon Phaepeng, where the Mekong drops over some massive rapids and into Cambodia. However a combination of Reuben waking up with the trots, a day that was 35 degrees in the shade and no less than 2 flat tyres on my motorbike, made for a less than relaxing day. Still a swim in the Mekong back at 'our' island was all that it took to turn Milla and Jude's frowns into smiles. Reuben is currently in bed with the TV on and food and drinks being brought to his bedside while he works on smiling again.
Tomorrow, into Cambodia.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.39s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.2776s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Gwen Lansbury
non-member comment
more entertaining adventures
Dear Steven and Julie and family We are reading your wonderful stories whilst we are in the Yucatan, Mexico visiting Mayan ruins -makes our travels pàle in comparison! Love the stories,they must go into a book, best wishes, Gwen and Russ