Blogs from Tham Lot Kong Lo, South, Laos, Asia
Spelunking our Way to the Hammocks
Published: February 17th 2012Asia » Laos » South » Tham Lot Kong Lo
January 27th 2012
At 10am we boarded the bus to Ban Kong Lor. Although off the oft trodden path a little, we decided that it would be well worth a visit so we buckled up and started our 7 hour bus ride to Ban Kong Lor. Even before the bus got rolling we began chatting up the people sitting next to us. A couple from Victoria, BC named Kate and Matt were full of good travel stories (and other stories as well) so we spent the better part of the day getting to know our new friends. Around 5pm we arrived in the town (if you can call a teeny tiny village a town) and set out to find a place to sleep for the night. There was one guesthouse in the entire town, but we felt the need ... read more
May 21st 2011
Location at top might be wrong, but it sounds close enough. I'll add photos when I find a connection capable of it. Alarm goes off at seven, luckily the Korean girl beats me to the shower so I get another 20 minutes in bed. Need to do some washing at some point, hopefully before 4,000 islands. I'm wearing the same shirt as yesterday and there's only one clean shirt left in my bag. Bite marks from Vang Viang are healing nicely. Check out and start walk to bus station. Stop for breakfast (1 litre of chocolate milk) and to ask tuk-tuk cost of lift to southern bus station. He starts at 60,000, eventually drops to 30,000 but I decided to see how much the local bus to the station is so keep walking. Maybe 50,000 for ... read more
Ban Khoun Kham & Tham Kong Lo (12-13 Feb 2011)
Published: April 3rd 2011Asia » Laos » South » Tham Lot Kong Lo
March 27th 2011
Saturday 12th February 2011 At 7am we boarded the local bus to Ban Khoun Kham with Lee and Louise. It took far longer than stated - 7 hours when it should have been 4 :o( It started raining as we got off the bus (shock) so we booked into the closest guest house and went for lunch at the only restaurant in town with our only friends in town. Walking in search of the Waterfall, we ended up in small local village and the Sainamhai Resort, which was mentioned in Louise’s Lonely Planet guide 3.8km out of town, unfortunately in the wrong direction. We stopped for a drink deciding it was too late to find the waterfall. When it started getting dark while walking back along the lonely road, we were kindly offered a lift part ... read more
January 22nd 2010
Fredag den 22.1.2010 Minibussen er bestilt til klokken 8, da der er syv timers kørsel til Tham Kong Lo. Som sædvanlig må vi ringe efter minibussen der kommer ved halv nitiden. Vi prøver det første der ligner kø i Vientiane, da vi kører ud af byen. Chaufføren har aldrig kørt turen før, så vi følger med på et kort for at være helt sikre på, at komme det rigtige sted hen og uden for store omveje. Det går forbavsende hurtigt og inden der er gået fem timer er vi ved hotellet. Hotellet er ikke lige så pænt som i brochuren eller som hotellet i Vientiane. I forhold til prisen er det lidt nedslidt, men beliggenheden er flot. Vi bor i to sammenhængende bungalows lige ned til floden. På floden er det er pæn trafik med små ... read more
November 27th 2009
After getting off the Vientiane bound bus at Vieng Kham along route 13 we set off in search of sawngthaew - these are ‘jumbo’ tuk tuks that have a fixed route and a fixed price per person; they pretty much operate like a bus. We found one heading to Ban Khoun Kham also known as Ban Na Hin and made the 41km journey east along route 8; we arrived at the central market and headed off in search of a bed. We can’t remember the name of the place where we stayed but it was really nice and cost 80,000 kip. Ban Khoun Kham is a pretty cool little place, it’s very much a one street ‘town’ with a market at the end, so we had a wander in search of food and an ice cold ... read more
July 25th 2009
So we set out on a bit of an adventure post Vientiane. We heard of this 7km cave in central Laos that was a bit of a pain to get to but apparently worth the journey. So we took an early bus 6 hr from Vientiane to Ban Lao and then a 2 hr truck through the mountains (Lord Of The Rings Shit...) to Ban Na Him. Ban Na Him wasn't the most picturesque town we've visited. A mixture of animal dung, orange clay earth sludge (heavy rain that day) and a distinct lack of anything made us continue on further onto the cave area although this was the last proper 'town' before the big watery hole in the earth. Another 2 hour truck ride dropped us a mear 1 KM from the cave entrance, (thanks ... read more
June 25th 2009
So off we go on a 4.30am tuk tuk to the out od town bus station to get the local 5am bus to somewhere in the middle of nowhere to get a tuk tuk to some little village in the middle of even more nowhere!! The bus was actually fine , clean and had reclining seats and air con (at times!!) and we got charged the local rate!! However the scenery was something new all the jungle gave way to fierce looking karst mountains, totally different and worth battling with the eyelids for!!!! The only thing that happened on this trip was that Dan tried some manky old pork floss sausages and I tied these weird giant rice cakes that were neither sweet nor salty and had somekind of sweet bean dressing. i've had better!!! Anyway ... read more
December 24th 2008
I left Savannakhet for Tha Khaek just to go to a good jump off point for the famous Tham Kong Lo cave. So I went from one shithole to another... Tha Crap was a real piece of shit town and I stayed in the worst dump so far. I wanted cheap and I got cheap - a crappy and dirty room for 35 000 kip with a shared "bathroom" with the dreaded squat toilet and filthy floor. I prayed to unknown powers that I wouldn't get the "urge"... Luckily my prayers were answered. While in this crappy town I tried to get some info on going to the cave as I had nothing of the sort. I noticed a place where a bunch of buses were parked and walked in. A happy guy greated me and ... read more
Back to Nature in a wet way.... Central Laos
Published: September 1st 2007Asia » Laos » South » Tham Lot Kong Lo
August 24th 2007
Satisfied with the touch of quaint, small city hospitality afforded to us by Vientiane, we hopped on a tuk-tuk to the Southern Bus Station for the 7am bus towards Lak Sao but alighted at the market in the small and simple village of Ban Na Hin, SE of Vientiane. This 1 road town is an ease to navigate and we walked back along the road amongst Buffalo, Cows, Chickens, Goats and Pigs to one of the two available guest houses - XokXai Guesthouse is a comfortable, clean yet basic abode a little out of town run by a local family - we got a sizable double for 40,000kip (4USD). Desipite San's onset of a pretty serious dogdy tum, we chose to make the 2 hour walk through the rain forest to Tamsanam waterfall (5000kip entry payable ... read more
