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Published: December 22nd 2008
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The Loop map
With typical German efficiency a girl called Claudia had faithfully logged the km and drawn a detailed map in the Travel lodge log book. Much appreciated by everyone After the practice run in Pakse, complete with emergency braking exercise ("brace-brace!") it was time fortrhe lonely planet's real deal in Tha Khaek. We'd been told about a beautiful 450km trip called The Loop, which you could complete on a motorbike. So on recommendation we booked into the Travelodge (much nicer than it sounds) where there's a log book filled with a wealth of knowledge from people who had completed this trip.
They also have a lovely courtyard with an open fire which is where we met Enda who hails from Ireland and decided to join us on the biking trip.
The first part took us northbound for over two hours of driving - not much to see but a great chance to test the bikes as well as our endurance to sit on these bikes (we had none).With numb bums we finally started to reap the rewards, turning east at Vieng Kham you head up into limestone hills (or karsts) which are absolutely stunning.
Our aim for the day was to get close to Kong Lo cave and see about either camping or staying in the local village. It was getting dark when we got into the village but it
seemed we were very much expected. This was a bit scary -about 5 minutes after arriving we were guided to a house on stilts where a hot meal was waiting, mattresses on the floor ready and we ate under the watchful gaze of the family; grandma, daughter and grandchildren. The combination of the family not being able to speak English and Laos being a tonal language made for some interesting exchanges. Star of the show was no doubt betel-mad/intoxicated Granny who would sit there squatted, smiling with dark red teeth and spitting betel juice through a hole in the floor. We had brought several lists of words but our pronunciation seemed to confuse them. Granny however helped matters by saying "nhiaajhh"- not on our list... Questions on family size, numbers, and weather were all unsuccessful but in the grand scheme of things we did our bit for cultural integration. All this good and very important work was undone when shortly after Granny cried "nhiaaJHH!" for the umptienth time Enda changed position and surprised himself and all us present by farting. This seems to be as funny in Laos as it would be at home so all of us howled with
laughter, Granny in particular. Time to give up, we felt and we were safely tucked up to sleep by about 19.30 that evening.
A night's rest and the village getting up at about 4:30am meant we were the first to be at the stunning Kong Lo cave after a traditional Baci ceremony at the house. The Nam Hin Bun flows through this cave and you traverse it by boat - taking about an hour before you come through the other side into a beautiful valley. The caves are unlit and at some points you have to get out to wade through the more shallow bits - this only adds to the feeling that you are about to spy Gollum or be ambushed by Orcs. By midday we were back on the bikes and ready for biking part 2 but the combination of covering almost 200km the day before and feeling rather lazy meant we managed a measly few km before stopping for a prolonged lunch. A short bike ride later and about half way between Na Hin and Lak Sao we found an amazing camping spot off the main road. It was a wide open plain with a backdrop of
beautiful mountains and not a person in sight and plenty of firewood. We did need some to do some shopping so went back to the local village where we might as well have landed by flying saucer (helmet on off course!).
The next day was a long drive southbound and we knew that the roads along this stretch were dreadful. Part of the challenge on this stretch is the fact that a consortium is building a hydro electric dam and this means lots of deforestation, heavy traffic (dust!) and what would have been a great landscape turned into destruction of biblical proportions. Although we knew the road was supposed to be bad, the sight of all this; flooded valleys, torn landscape and whole new villages to relocate locals was depressing.
A full day's driving later a Beer Lao was surely deserved and we were pleased to have found a spot back in the limestone karsts of the southern part of the loop. Camping was once again brilliant (and a cheap option) and we knew the last stretch would be much more spectacular with a whole range of caves to visit. Congregrating around the fire, it soon became apparent
we had grossly underestimated our thirst for the golden nectar. And so it was that Zoe and Eric set off by foot to the pitch black village on a mission at the ungodly hour of 8 pm to buy some more. Not quite expecting a 24 hr supermarket we choose a shop not by the fact they looked open ( they were all boarded up); any shop/ house that had no rabid barking dogs outside seemed a good option. And so it was that we approached a shophouse complete with a mad tethered goat that conveniently drew the attention of the family in residence. The family seemed very happy with extra business and initially seemed to understand our need for Beer Lao' s. However when we tried to make it clear that we wanted more than the two bottles they clearly felt that this was too much - the Beer Lao' s disappeared and we were offered two cans of Pepsi. Some negotiation later and we had secured the beer and were on our way back to the camp, Zoe carrying a big stick to ward off scary dogs.
The last stretch of the journey took us along a route
lined by karsts and caves. One of the caves is called Tham Xieng which you can climb through to find a quiet pool on the other side where you can swim. However we had a gang of self appointed guides - all around the age of 9 - very, very noisy naughty boys who were probably too used to falang (foreigners). Zoe soon realised they were trying to look up her sarong while she was scrambling over rocks and so gave them a stern pointy finger telling off (very severe in Laos but they deserved it) and changed into trousers (that she later went swimming in). This didn't subdue their spirits and they kept shouting, pestering for money and throwing things until accidentally scoring a direct hit when one of them dropped a big rock into a pool of mud splattering all three of us liberally. From the look of their faces (half horror/ half delight) this was a much by accident as design but our reaction (shouting) had them running off, whooping and that was the last we saw of them.
After another stop at a peaceful lake called Tat Falang we decided to complete the 4 day trip
by biking the short distance back to Tha Khaeck. For us a wonderful experience made even better by the company as well as the fact that the bike held up (not even a puncture!). Same couldn't be said for Enda's bike which capriciously sprang two punctures on the last day - the last one on the outskirts of Tha Khaeck. Chilling for a day in Tha Khaeck and then onto Vientiane and Luang Prabang before heading back to Phnom Phen via Bangkok to spend Christmas with Eric's parents. Hurrah!
We have decided to return to Laos after Christmas as there is so much to see in the north. We are also considering chucking in our relaxing Thai and Malaysia plans and making a trip to into Burma.....
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