As Caves Go, This Takes Tha Khaek

We headed south from Luang Prabang in a pretty decent bus on newly sealed roads. They were still very winding and so it still took ages, but it wasn't half as bumpy as I had been led to believe.

Our destination, Vientiane, was also not what I'd been led to believe. It's supposed to be a bit like Paris. It's not. The place is in a transitional stage I think. It will probably be really lovely in about 2 years time, but right now there is still lots of construction going on and it's not quite taking advantage of its placement along the Mekong (they're building manicured gardens which will make it a stunning promenade at sunset, but for Sean and I it was just walking through builders sand and partially laid pavements). So we didn't stay long as it was a bit of a disappointment after Luang Prabang.

We continued the next day down to a town called Tha Khaek. From here you get to go out and about in 'cave country'. On arrival we got a tuk-tuk to a guest house noted for being good to get information on visiting said caves. And it did just that, with its central camp fire, information office and 'traveller logs' it was a great place to figure out the best and cheapest way to see them. We weighed up the odds of hiring a motorbike for the first time (costly, risky) versus a minivan (outrageously expensive, less risky) and going on local transport (longer, cheaper, not sure about timetables). After finding two fellow travellers, Stephanie and Pedro, and discussing the two later options above with them we all decided it would be wise to do the local transport option and that with increased numbers our negotiating powers for tuk-tuks (which often don't run unless full we were told) would be greater.

We set off early to the 'bus station' and found ourselves on a jumbo. This is essentially the back of a pick-up truck with a wooden bench down either length and one bench in the middle.

The benches on the edges can seat about 8 each and then it's anything goes for the space in the middle. Turns out that 4 other travellers ("The Irish") and a girl called Lisa were going to do the same journey as us, as were a myriad of locals, several sacks of something, buckets, baskets, corn, more sacks, bags and bags of something else - it goes on! 5 hours later and we're still not the 150 odd kms to the place we're supposed to change. It was a long, hard and squashed experience (not to mention dusty, windy and petrol fume smelly). After 6.5 hrs we got to Ban Khoun Kham (Ban means village in Lao). Here we all piled out, thankful for the leg straightening, and started out negotiations with the next transport - a smaller version of the jumbo called a 'Sawngthaew'. The 9 of us 'westerners' all piled in thinking it would be a pleasant spacious journey for the next 40km to the cave. What fools we were. The driver beeped his horn as soon as we set off and tons of women piled out of the shops with stuff to transport. There were about 12 crates of beer shoved in the middle, 6 boxes or so of rice wine, the usual buckets, baskets and sacks of things, some mattresses and duvets and several empty tubs. Now this wasn't so bad until we then stopped at the nearest petrol station and they promptly started filling up the tubs (there were about 20 in total). So alcohol and petrol. Nice combination.

Of course, this is the norm here and of course nothing happened and we arrived at the cave safe and sound. And this particular cave called 'Konglor' was worth all this effort. It's 7.5km long for a start and you head into the cave in motorised long boats of 3 (how handy that we ended up a group of 9!). For a start you're in awe at the darkness, save for the odd headlight that we had. We only passed two other boats so we had the place almost to ourselves which was awesome. Then the boat stopped at a tiny rapid, we all had to get out (into the water), the driver pushed the boat up the rapid and we all got in again. This happened on several occasions on the trip into the cave - this is impact of climate change, even after the monsoon when this water should be at it's highest it was too shallow to go the whole way - pretty sure that someone in Chelsea in their 4x4 owes Pedro a new pair of trainers!

There is one lit up grounded area that you get to walk around and the formations of the rocks and the stalactites/mites etc easily rivalled those in our 'amazing cave' in Halong Bay. But this cave experience is about the journey in the darkness, the shear thrill of knowing that this place even exists and you're right it the middle of it.

Once you reach daylight on the other side you promptly turn around and head back. For Sean, Lisa and I this was very interesting. Not only did our boat run-aground once thus creating a small hole in the boat that started letting in water (slowly thankfully) but the engine also died (but started after 15 mins thankfully) and because we therefore lost the 2 other boats we were really really in the dark. I have to admit to actually being slightly nervously excited at this point! But don't worry mums, we lived to tell this tale.

We stayed in Konglor for the night in a homestay - a bamboo hut with bed and hole in ground toilet with a family with a puppy, a kitten (to whom we wish the best of luck after seeing it being used as plaything to the children) and a family of 6. We stuffed ourselves on sticky rice and chilli dip, duck soup and Beer Lao and played cards with the children and Stephanie and Pedro who'd stayed with us. Then we got a good night's sleep in order to survive the next epic jumbo journey back to Tha Khaek the next day.

Other things I'll remember:

1) The sweet couple Maddie and Tim who we met on our journey back home and with whom we hope to meet again in Thailand at the end of phase 1 of our Big Trip

2) The Paci ceremony where a white string is tried around your wrist for good luck

3) The very pink bus from Vientienne to Tha Kheak

Here are the photos:

BT30_Vientiane 6 - 7 Nov 2010

BT31_Tha Khaek 8 - 9 Nov 2010