‘This cave had better be worth it’, was the thought running through our mind when we began our journey to it, as we got onto a bus and headed to Pakse. We arrived at 11:00pm to a sleeping town and although guesthouses were closed with only the stray dogs up, we were fortunate to have our bus staff, actually drive around checking for a place to stay for us! Bless ‘em!
 |
| Tha Khaek |
We had to overnight there and the next morning travel down to Tha Khaek to be closer to the cave, which was all good as we made friends with 3 girls who were on the same mission - wayhay!
Gemma from Surrey, Jenny from Befordshire and Sherry from Canada. All great girls and who made the experience for us better and more manageable because on the real – I was scared! – (You’ll understand in abit…) The Kong Lo Cave is massive.
It is a natural beauty for its stalagmites and stalactites but was discovered in 1995, more so for its underground river (Bin Huan river)…It is a massive 7.5km cavernous space with some parts of its roof, reaching 100 meters high and is under a limestone mountain. To reach the mouth of the cave you have to travel by boat (long tail) to get there then walk along the edge into it, then sail through it again on a long tail boat.
 |
| In the middle of the aisle!!! |
From Tha Khaek we caught a bus to Bin Khoun Kham where there were no more seats available, so we had to sit on plastic children’s chairs in the aisle..I kid you not, well if anything it made the journey more memorable, especially on the bus turns LOL!
Then after checking our cases into a guesthouse, we got on a tuk tuk and travelled a further 40 odd km’s through the village of Kong Lo to the cave.
 |
| Jay, Gemma, Sherry, Jenny and me! |
Arriving at the rivers edge we got ‘life jacketed’ up – (Jason’s idea!) and headlamps etc for the journey. Only 3 to a boat, so we needed 2 of them. This was jokes as one of the guides only had one eye and looked like he lived in the cave! And considering the cave was pitch black neither of the girls or us wanted him and began debating how to handle this dilemma…A quick witted game of ‘paper, stones, scissors’ won Jason and me the good guide over one eyed cave man, which the 3 girls had to take!! Score!
 |
| The lagoon to the cave |
 |
| The mouth of the cave...eek! |
Entering the cave was incredibly scary and looking into the mouth of the cave you literally cannot see far, as all light disappears. Walking through the mouth of the cave and looking back at the daylight was so eerie, it had me wondering why we were doing this again..?!!
 |
| Goodbye daylight... |
It was pitch black, total darkness and so quiet except for the engines of the long tails. We were so nervous we dared not even hang our hands over the side of the boat! Then we came across a shallow shore where the boats could not pass so we had to get out and walk through the cave to meet the boats on another side…this was also scary! But along the way you came across the stalagmites and stalactites, which are so beautiful, before getting back into the boat and sailing on.
 |
| Inside the cave |
 |
The rock formations were beautiful
|
At one point we turned off our lights, just for the fun of it and the total darkness was so overwhelming… I was the first to switch my light back on!!
 |
| Jay and our guide |
 |
| It was so eerie inside the cave |
 |
| Safety in numbers..! |
 |
| We made it!! |
Several well deserved beers followed our departure from the Kong Lo Cave and when we arrived back at our guest house we were invited to have a drink with a couple of locals of Lao, Lao whiskey. Which offends them, if you don’t oblige so who are we to argue..! A few shots later, as the drink is taken neat, we were very ‘Lao loved up’..to say the least!!
 |
| 2 of the locals insisted we drank with them.. |
 |
| Let the drinking commense! |
 |
| Several drinks later, we're not a pretty sight! |
A great end to the day’s adventures!
No comments:
Post a Comment