We finally made it to Kong Lor Cave!

So, we awoke major early, had breakfast at the guesthouse and then said goodbye to Dave as we probably wouldn’t see him again. Then we made the 15 min walk through the village down to the river where the cave was. We paid our fees for the boat (maximum of 3 people per boat) and then followed our guide down to the opening of the cave. Because the water was quite low and the rapids quite vicious we could only get the boat from inside the cave. So after walking across a bamboo bridge, of which half was submerged in water, and walking 10mins down to the cave, we had to help push our boat to where it was easier to get in, and trapse through water and rocks to get into the boat. Once in we began our journey through the spooky huge 7.5km long cave. After about 10mins we stopped off at the main part which was illuminated in funky colours like the one in Halong Bay so you could see the stalagmites/stalactites. We got out of the boat and walked through this with our guide, taking some jump photo’s in the process (luckily, we are all obsessed with jump photos), before returning to our boat which was moored up on the other side.

We then continued right to the end of the cave where it opened up into a beautiful mountainous setting where the river continued on to another village. The ride through took us around half an hour and was very spooky and dark. At the end where the cave opened out were some wonderful rapids, which our drivers made us get out the boat for, stand on some very unstable rocks while they pushed the boat up the rocks until it was safe for us to get back on. In the process Devyn stepped into a massive black hole of water and we almost lost her to the depths of David Jones Locker! We were however awarded with the most amazing scenery of limestone crags and bright green forest at the end – Laos is just stunning at every turn and constantly taking us by surprise – we made some photos here and then turned back around for our spooky journey back, which took another half an hour and we actually rode the rapids back woop! I scared the girls deep in the cave, as I was at the back so could creep up without them knowing!

We then moored up once we’d returned and evaluated our trip to the cave – was it worth the horrendous off-the-beaten track journey? We had to say “Yes! Best Day Ever!” Just to make ourselves feel better, though we all agreed that the scenery was probably more worth it than the cave itself, but it was impressive – how can you say a 7.5km underwater cave ISN’T impressive?! We then walked back – taking some jump photos, obviously, with the stunning scenery in the background. Poor Devyn had us amateurs taking her jump photos and we couldn’t get it right so she had to jump a million times before we got an actual jump photo! Crossing the bridge we were suddenly surrounded by a million white butterflies which was absolutely amazing so of course, more photos were taken with the butterflies. We then went for a meal at the restaurant close by and walked back to the guesthouse. By now with the bright sunshine the scenery surrounding us was stunning, it was one of those moments when I say, ‘Girls, stop for a moment, and let’s just appreciate this, take it all in, because it’s a once in a lifetime picture.’

Once back we grabbed our stuff and waited for the tuk tuk to take us back to the other village, we decided to watch The Dictator on the TV to bide the time, expecting to have to cut it short for the tuk tuks arrival...we watched it to the end and the tuk tuk STILL hadn’t arrived! But about 1.45pm, 45mins late, Devyn managed to flag it down, by which point it was already full of people. So we dumped our bags on the roof, the girls went up front with the driver and I situated myself at the back of the tuk tuk, legs hanging over the edge and off we went...picking up more locals and their produce along the way, including a bag of live frogs. By the end we had 18 people and one baby in the back of this tuk tuk, plus bags of frogs, rice and other things and 8 large baskets of mushrooms!

We arrived at Ban Khoum Kham an hour later, all dusty and sweaty, our bags were transferred onto another tuk tuk and we went to get some food – we tried to get a Mango-selling lady to cut us some mango, but we realised why she was so reluctant to cut them – the first one she eventually cut had a maggot in it! Yuck! So we went to the market instead and picked up some Mangos and some freshly made iced sweet coffee...in plastic bags! It was so good though. We then started our journey back to ThaKhek. Luckily this tuk tuk was going straight back to ThaKhek instead of via Vieng Kham, however, this meant we had a 4hour journey ahead of us, which turned into 5 because of south east asia times! Which meant today, we’d spent 6 HOURS IN A BLOODY TUK TUK!! By the end of it our arses, and our will to live were quickly deteriorating.

We arrived in Tha Khek around 7pm, where we managed to buy

our tickets down to Pakse. After a debate we decided to catch the 10pm bus as the 8pm bus would have got us in at an unholy hour in the morning. So with 2 hrs to kill we thought we’d treat ourselves to somewhere nice for a meal...LP recommendation, Inthira hotel and restaurant, where we had the most amazing meal ever! I had steak, with veg, salad, and BBQ potatoes. We then went back to the bus station where we arrived just as the bus was pulling in, oh yea, and so we dumped our bags down below, headed up to get our seats and settled in for the night. The great thing – we had awesome aircon and managed to get two seats each, the bad thing – the aircon was too full-on eventually, and they insisted on blaring out Laos music until we left. But needless to say, this was probably our best bus journey yet, even though we got hardly any sleep. Seeya in the morning!

The journey...part 2

Tha Khek to Kong Lor village


Awoke, checked out, got a tuk tuk to the bus station for 10am. Got our bus tickets relatively easily, 30,000 kip, bus didn’t set off until 10.25 so we got some breakfast; I ended up eating noodles that I didn’t realise had uncooked liver in until I’d got down to that part! Oh well, if I was going to get ill it’d be in the next 6hrs...so here goes!

Got on the bus, again, a local one – why did we ever want to go off the beaten path, we find ourselves asking! Some Irish girls had moved our bags saving our seats so me and Devyn ended up separated from Maaike. There were too many people as usual, so out came the plastic stools for them to sit in the aisle. We were a star attraction as there were only 7 tourists on the bus, us and the group of Irish girls. Oh and of course, on went the Laos Karaoke video, full volume so you can’t even hear your own music, coming through your headphones, straight into your ears: that’s how loud the S.E. Asian bus-karaoke video is!

So 2 hours later (it was supposed to be 90 minutes), we arrived in Vieng Kham a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, where we had to walk round the corner and charter our own tuk tuk to what we were told was to be Kong Lo village. Negotiating this with the Irish girls who were going to the same place, we found a tuk tuk, put all our bags on, then he turned round and said (well , mimed as no one here knew English) that he was actually going back the way we’d just come! Meanwhile, we met Dave, the guy from Holland Maaike knew who we had met in Vang Vieng during the SAELAO Project, he had pulled up on his motorbike and was going the same way, so we made plans to meet when we all got there and maybe share a room.

So we took all the bags down and went back to the other tuk tuk guy who was overcharging us and gave in to the extra 10,000 kip for him to take us, to again, what we thought and were led to believe was Kong Lo village...over an hour later we got dropped off, but after checking with a British couple, this was not in fact Kong Lo village but Ban Khoun Kham, another village, 40km away from Kong Lo!!! ARGGGGHHH! So I didn’t pay the tuk tuk guy, and he didn’t even notice, so it ended up only costing us 20,000 kip each!

The British couple told us that they were getting a tuk tuk to Kong Lo at 3pm, so we had an hour to have some lunch, walked practically the entire village looking for food with our back-packs on, and after passing the ‘bus station’ (a little shack)for the 3rd time they allowed us to put our main bags on the tuk tuk while we searched for somewhere to eat. Finally found a little cute restaurant, ordered food, and then...saw the 3pm tuk tuk (at 2.45pm), with the Irish girls, the British couple and OUR BAGS just drive on past!! Oh well, at least our bags were on the way to Kong Lo Cave!!

So we had a mini panic until 10 seconds later it had turned around (the Irish girls had seen us shouting and waving thank god) and parked up outside the restaurant. Our food had only just come so the lovely couple who owned the restaurant put it all in take-away boxes and so we paid up, got onto our tuk tuk and had our food on the go! Let me tell you, rice plus chopsticks, in a moving tuk tuk is NOT an easy feat, it should be classed as an Olympic sport or something!

So what we had been told would be a 20 minute drive, turned out to be an hour and a half – are you starting to get the hang of ‘it will take us x amount of hours, but in S.E Asia-time, it’s more likely +2 hours extra’? And HALLELUJAH!! WE ARRIVED IN KONG LO VILLAGE!! We checked out the Kong Lo Eco Guesthouse, but me and Maaike took a walk down to Chantha GH, recommended by the LP, and it turned out to be the better option, with FANTASTIC views – Kong Lo is a tiny village (we’re talking maybe 20 houses, 3 guesthouses and one road) in the middle of no-where, surrounded by fields and mountains.

So we freshened up (by now it was almost 5pm), watched some TV in the common area downstairs, went onto the balcony to watch the sunset, took some jumping photos as it was the perfect opportunity, and then went for food down the road. Dave ended up joining us just as we finished with another guy who was motorcycling Laos – Alejandro – so they got a room together in the same GH as us, which meant I got a double room all to myself for the night. Tried to figure out how we’d be getting down to 4 thousand Islands tomorrow – turns out we have to do the exact same journey back to Tha Khek (grumble), then a night bus to Pakse at 11pm, then from there another bus down to Don Det. So, another two days of travelling then!! The cave better be freakin’ worth it tomorrow morning! Up for the caves at 8am, then two tuk tuks, and a bus back to Tha Khek – you couldn’t make up a story like this one! Idiots.