Advertisement
Published: March 25th 2011
Edit Blog Post
After the island of Koh Tao, we had to head back up north to get to Laos. The journey ended up becoming an epic voyage as we made our way to the South Laos border on the east side of Thailand. We spent 33 hours on a epic journey to Laos. We spent the next day in Savannakhet cycling around and enjoying lunch along the river. We also stopped to chat with a Monk who was teaching younger monks at a temple. The 'mini monks' were so cute in their orange robes.
Our first major stop in Laos was at a small village called Na Hin, which is used as a place to base ourselves in order to experience the thrills of Kong Lo Cave. We had to get a bus from Tha-ket and get dropped off at a major junction. From here we had to wait to get on a songthaew with loads of locals heading in the same direction. We were lucky that the songthaew was quickly filled, although we were delayed as the sound of hissing from one of the tyres meant we had to stop off at a repair shop to fix on a new one.
The trip to Na Hin village from this junction was a pleasant experience itself, showing us for the first time the exquisite landscape and scenery of Laos. It was about an hour on a winding road built in and amongst towering and jagged limestone cliffs.
The village itself was small and basic, everything stretched along a large dusty road which was home to wandering cattle. Although the village wasn't much, it was nice and quaint and set at the bases of those sloping hills and mammoth limestone cliffs.
We had planned to go to Kong Lo cave the very next morning, but we had soon realised we had come across a preventing hurdle. On setting off on our journey to the village, we did not anticipate the complete seclusion of the small village and did not make sure we had plenty of Kip dosh on us. We saw there was one ATM in the village, but it was only for Lao bank cards - no Visa! We did not have enough money to do the trip. This meant that Adam had to go to the nearest cash-point the next day. This involved hitching a hour ride back down
to the junction, waiting for a passing vehicle going south 2.5 hours south back at Tha-ket, finding the Visa cashpoint, getting a tuk-tuk to bus station to do the same journey back! Luckily Adam was able to get back the same day, be it in the dark hour of 7.30pm (he'd left at 10am!).
It was worth it though because the Kong Lo Cave was amazing. The cave cuts through a limestone mountain, carved out by a long river that still flows through it. To experience the cave, you have to hire a local boatman to ferry you through. The boat is very narrow and long, made out of rickety wood and powered by propeller that the driver sticks in the water behind the boat. The boat is extremely low down to the water so as you're sitting in it, there is only 2-3 inches of boat above the water. It was both a frightening and exciting feeling, as well as eerie, as you enter the mouth of the cave on the boat, facing the pitch dark interior of the cave. We had heard it described as the closest thing to an Indiana-Jones experience and we had to agree
this was true. When the river was deep enough the driver really zipped through while the accompanying guide at the front of the boat shone powerful torches to light up the shadowy cave in front of us as well as highlighting rocks that strung up from the river so as not to collide into them. The journey took about an hour, including a pit-stop in the middle to admire the lit-up cave structures of stalactmites and stalactites that coiled and layered itself over the years. After that amount of time in the dark, it was quite a sight to meet the sunlight again at the opposite cave entrance, where we were met again with spectacular views of cliffs and greenery on the riversides. Our boat also passing through the middle of a small herd of water buffalo bathing in the river. Their heads and tails were just poking out from the surface. After the return journey, we enjoyed the sunset on our way back to Na Hin village, passing through more local villages and fields.
The following day, we made the trip back on the road going to the junction (Adam for the fourth time!), this time to hail
down a bus going to Vientiane, the Capital of Laos!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0463s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb