Doing the 450 km Motorbike "Loop" in Central Laos

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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 and some interesting scenery and sights.

I set off on the good main road for about 6km before turning off onto a dirt track for about 10km where I arrived at the first sight, Buddha Cave. There were quite a few local tourists here making a pilgrimage to the cave which is famous for a couple of hundred very old bronze buddha statues. I paid a small entry fee, made my way up the concrete staircase and through a narrow gap into the cave. I found the cave very impressive with all the buddhas and some very nice limestone formations. The problem was that you were only allowed to walk in about 6 or 7 metres and you weren't allowed to take any photos. I got back on the bike, returned to the main road, and rode another 5 kms to another cave that was called Tham Xieng Liap. A young girl at a shop on the main road quickly offered her services as a guide which I took her up on her offer. She lead me to the entrance of the cave and then about 15 metres inside before telling me that was as far as we were going and it was time to head back. I was a little upset because the thing to do was to walk through the cave for about 200 metres to the other side to a very nice swimming spot. I returned to the shop dissappointed, paid the girl half of what we agreed on, and then rode another 5 kms up the road to a swimming hole called Tha Falang. There were 4 foreigners swimming here but unfortunately all were here on a day trip from Tha Khaek and not doing the loop. I hopped into the cool water for a refreshing swim and then sat on a rock in the middle of the river chatting with the others for an hour before getting back on the bike and continuing the loop. I then rode for about half an hour passed some very nice scenery before stopping at Mahaxai Mai for a cold drink. It was starting to get late in the afternoon so I thought I should find a guesthouse soon and leave all the bad roads for the following day. I found a new guesthouse just after the interesting town of Gnommalath and took a room for $8. I then walked to one of the restaurants on the main road and had some Pho and a beer. Later that night I returned to the same restaurant to watch some EPL and have some buffalo skewers with rice. I don't know what part of the buffalo it was but it was very chewy and not that nice.

The next morning I took off early and stopped about 10 km up the road at Nakai to have some club sandwiches for breakfast at a restaurant that seemed a little too swish to be in this part of the world. The next 20 km was on a sandy potholed road and I was relieved to finally arrive in the town of Tha Lang. This town is where most of the foreigners doing the loop stop on their first night. I had a coffee and then got back on the bike ready for the 60 kms of shocking road ahead of me. I found the first 15 kms surprisingly comfortable and the road in pretty good condition as I rode alongside the Nam Theun Dam. On this stretch I passed the first tourists I had seen doing the loop, although they were heading in the opposite direction to me. The next 45 kms were pretty bad with pothole after pothole until I finally reached Lak Sao and some bitumen. I had a late lunch of Pho at a local restaurant and had no idea what bodyparts or what animal I was eating. My arse was relieved to be back on bitumen and it was a very nice ride towards Khoun Kham. About halfway there I was looking for a place to go to the toilet whilst riding through the forest when I noticed I had a flat rear tyre. Amazingly, as I slowed to take a look I noticed a little shop on my right that repaired flat tyres. Very lucky indeed. He quickly removed the tube and showed me the other punctures that had been repaired. I decided to have a new tube fitted thinking that it would lessen the odds of having another puncture. $4 and 5 minutes later I was on my way. Not far up the road I stopped at the village of Tha Bak to take a couple of pictures of the "bomb boats". They look like missile casings but are actually the discarded fuel tanks of American jets from the Vietnam war. Once through Khoun Kham I turned off towards Kong Lo which was 40 kms away. This ride was very nice going along flat roads with limestone cliffs a couple of kilometres away on each side. I finally arrived in Kong Lo as the sun was about to set and found a nice simple guesthouse where I took a room with a view for $6.50. I had a short walk and then sat down to have some dinner and an early night. I was pretty tired after riding about 190 km over some crap roads and fell asleep quite easily.

After breakfast the next morning I rode just over a kilometre to the riverside where you can catch boats that go through one of Laos' natural wonders, Kong Lo cave. I waited about 10 minutes to find another couple of people to share the boat with. I joined an english couple and we paid about $7 each for the 2 hour return trip. I really enjoyed the trip and was impressed by the size of the cave and river. We had to get out of the boat at a few shallow spots and also to see some stalagmites on a short 10 minute walk. The cave is 7 km long and comes out on the other side of the mountains where you can walk 2 kms to a nearby village. We decided just to have a coffee and a snack and then return. Once back at the entrance I decided to have some lunch by the riverside before returning to my guesthouse to have a short rest. In the late afternoon I had a walk through the village and was also impressed with the scenery of tabacco plantations and clay buildings built for the drying process. I then had some dinner at a different guesthouse where I ran into Jan, the dutch guy I had done the hilltribe trek with up north. We decided to meet up in Savannakhet a few days later to do a 1 day motorbike trip together. The next morning I had breakfast and then started the 185 km ride back to Tha Khaek. Again it was wonderful riding the 40 kms back to Khoun Kham but a little chilly. From Khoun Kham I headed west for 45 kms through the mountains stopping once to have a coffee to warm me up. Once hitting the main road it was a pretty easy but a little boring 100 kms back to Tha Khaek. I took a room at the same guesthouse and just let my body relax after riding over 450 kms in the last few days. I thought this "loop" was quite a popular thing to do (it's in the Lonely Planet) but in 4 days of riding I only came across a handful of tourists doing the same thing.

The following day I caught a bus to Savannakhet, 2 and a half hours south. The first night I stayed in a quite expensive guesthouse but then moved the next day to a cheaper one up the road. The day and a half I had in town was spent looking at a few of the sights in town and enjoying the surprisingly relaxed pace of life considering it is a town of 140,000 people. That night I caught up with Jan and we planned the next days road trip.

We set off early on our chinese motorbikes and covered about 155 kms in the day, of which half were on unsealed roads. We found the 5 sights mentioned in our tourism brochure ok but probably enjoyed being in the villages and interacting with the locals more enjoyable. One of the highlights was talking to some young monks at a temple mentioned as one of the sights. Also we spent a fair bit of time at the Monkey Forest watching the locals feed the numerous monkeys. There were also goats and cows hanging around cleaning up the food that the monkeys left behind. At one stage we had a knee deep river to cross and I was quite afraid that I would flood the engine. After contemplating it for a few minutes I was glad that a local guy pointed out that we could cross at a shallower spot about 500 metres up the river. We didn't get to the last sight, Turtle Lake until about 5pm so it was a bit of a rush to cover the 60 kms back to town. We spent pretty much an hour riding in the dark and getting hit in the face by hundreds of bugs. We were both very dusty and tired but enjoyed the day very much. Again this ride is in the Lonely Planet but we didn't see any other tourists out there.

Today we took a very slow 6 hour bus to Pakse in the south where we plan on doing another motorbike trip and also hoping to do the "Treetop Explorer", a 2 day trip with ziplines, abseiling, via ferrata, and treetop accommodation.

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