Blogs from Tha Khaek, South, Laos, Asia - page 2

It had to happen sooner or later. Midway into my journey from Savannakhet to Tha Khaek, the minibus suffers a puncture. I believe this was the first time I'd encountered this since I started my little Southeast Asian adventure some five months ago. Not surprising at all though, considering the quality (or lack thereof) of the roads and vehicles that I've been travelling on all this while. The bigger surprise might have been that it hadn't occurred earlier! But in the end it was just a relatively straightforward one hour wait as the driver got things fixed, and before long I had arrived in Tha Khaek, another *thriving* Laotian border town right by the Mekong, on a part of the river so narrow you can see the Thai city of Nakhon Pathom very clearly across. Although ... read more

Vanaf de 4000 islands zijn we naar Tha Khaek gegaan. Hier hebben we twee motors/brommers (110CC) gehuurd om de " The Loop" te rijden! The Loop is een route van ongeveer 600km en onderweg kom je verschillende grotten tegen en als klap op de vuurpijl, de 7km lange grot (Tham Kong Lo). De eerste dag waren we aan de late kant weg gegaan. Dit kwam omdat we nog kapot waren van de bus reis en we de brommer en een kaart nog moesten regelen. Maar eenmaal onderweg....... wat een super mooie omgeving overal bergen met prachtige uitzichten. De natuur in Laos is echt TOP! Erg veel mooie grotten gezien. Mijn favoriete grot moet ik de naam nog van opzoeken,(dus die naam houden jullie nog tegoed). Door deze grot werden we gegidst door een klein knaapje. Tof ... read more

Casi 2 días tardamos en llegar a Kong Lo desde Don Det: autobús a Pakse (2,5 horas), otro a Tha Khaek (8 horas) a donde llegamos casi a media noche; al día siguiente otro bus a Viang Kham (2 horas), una cola hasta Nahin (1 hora) y un tuk-tuk al pueblo de Kong Lo... llegamos como a las 4pm y ya cuando estábamos instalados era muy tarde para visitar las cuevas. Nos quedamos en un homestay, una casa en la que tienen una habitación en donde duermes en unas colchonetas en el piso y te dan desayuno y cena; nadie hablaba nada de inglés, lo único que el hombre de la casa sabía decir en inglés era el precio, jeje; y en caso de dudas sacaba la calculadora y lo mostraba. Pues la cena del día ... read more

18th December Today we set off for Tha Khaek – another joyful Laos style public transport experience! When we arrived we started usual negotiations with a tuk-tuk driver. It didn’t work-at all! Tuk-tuk driver turned out to have a tuk-tuk big boss and he was very much in charge of his platoon of drivers. When we appealed to other tuk tuk drivers we were shunned! We weren’t being funny, he had asked for an extortionate price even by English standards. He won; we caved as we had no choice. If we had to sum up Tha Khaek in one word I would say “dusty.” “Dust anyone??!” Tha Khaek is full of it. After arriving at our guesthouse we got ourselves dusted off (sorry couldn’t resist) and got some yummy food and contemplated our options for the ... read more

I spent last friday in Tha Khaek looking for a decent motorbike to do the loop with, and hoping to find a couple of people to join me. I had a motorcycle rental place recommended by a guy at a nearby restaurant, but when I turned up the following morning they told me they had no motorbikes left. Also I didn't find any other tourists setting off the same day, so I decided that I would start off alone and surely find somebody that first night at whatever guesthouse I stop at. I hired a small Korean/Laos motorbike from the guesthouse I was staying at, and set off about 9.30am on saturday morning. The "loop" is a 400 km plus circuit to the northeast of Tha Khaek notorious for over 100 kms of very bad roads ... read more