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Published: July 26th 2012
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We travelled to Thakek via Vientiane, Loas's Captial. We only stayed there one night which we spent with Troy, a guy we'd met in Vang Vieng but there wasn't much to see so moved straight on.
We travelled '1st Class' to Thakek on a bright pink bus that smelt a little bit like mould and had leaky aircon. When we arrived we went straight to the recommended Thakek Travel Lodge alongside pretty much everyone else on the bus. We walked round the small town that night looking for somewhere too eat but gave up after a good 2km walk and ate back at the lodge in the end, it was not at all touristy there. We stayed up that night chatting to an older Aussie couple exchanging stories.
The next day we just wandered through town picking up supplies. We had a lucky walk from the bus station during which we managed to find everything we'd wanted (not an easy task in this place.) That evening we hired mopeds and had a practice ride before heading back to listen to the Wimbledon final as Murray took on Federer and then lost 😞
The next morning we rode the
mopeds 200km on the 'good roads' to Khong Lor. You have to be careful as cows chickens, dogs and humans may suddenly decide to dart in front of you. Jordan drove into a swamp to avoid hitting a puppy! We had a lovely lunch stop in a small town (although I had to pick the pork out) and the locals were again amazed by Jordans height.
After a few hours of riding through amazing scenery I came off my bike into a big pothole that Jord had just managed to avoid. I bashed my head and grazed up my arm but I was checked out straight away by the doctor in the clinic I'd conviently crashed outside and we were soon on our way.
Approaching Khong Lor the bright green rice fields framed by the dark grey moutains made for the best scenery we'd seen so far and the village was so peaceful it was lovely. After a good sleep we visited the 7km long cave we'd driven to see. The carpark is just mud and Jord got his moped well and truly stuck and I lost my flip flops once or twice but we made it to
the boats in one piece. They took us across the river towards these huge rapids I thought we were going to have to tackle but thank god you have to get out and walk round them. The cave itself was amazing. The lighting makes the whole thing very impressive and the shear size of it left us astounded.
The ride back to Thakek was relatively uneventful. Took a bit longer than expected as I was bit slow and we did 20km in the dark being blinded by full beams but all in all it was worth the butt ache and busted shoulder 😊
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Bob Carlsen
Just started following you on your fantastic trip...
keep up the great blogging.