Heart of darkness

When we were walking through the Vientiane's deserted streets at 5.30 in the morning, the tuk tuk (local taxi) drivers couldn't believe their eyes. The long distance bus stations of the majority of Lao cities are located outside of towns, not in the outskirts but litterally in the middle of nowhere, usually at least 5 km or more far from the city itself. We reckon it must be because of some strong lobby of the tuk tuks that are waiting at the bus stations and are normally the only option how to get to the city center, thus gaining a fortune. Luckily Vientiane has a public bus that goes to its bus station and that was what we were looking for so early in the morning. We managed to find the right one (thanks to an extensive use of sign language) and shared the ride with the street food vendors who were on their way to work. They also looked surprised to see a farang on a public bus at this hour...

Breakfast on the way to work

The bus ride itself was surprisingly uneventful and we even arrived to the village of Ban Nahin on time (something that wouldn't repeat in Laos as we would find out in the next days). There were no other tourists in sight and there really wasn't much to do around so the only thing we achieved that afternoon was to hire a motorbike for our trip to the cave the next day. This time it was one with gears, we are upgrading!

I was feeling nervous about it but after first attempts when I almost ended up in a ditch, I seemed to have learnt the basics and off to the cave we went. The scenery itself was worth the ride as we were passing through the beautiful Khammouane limestone natural reserve past its rocks, small villages and fields.

When we arrived we were assigned two boatmen and headed to the cave. The Kong Lor cave is a natural 8 km river tunnelw under a limestone karst mountain. If you are a big fan of stalactites/stalagmites you might be a bit disappointed because the real draw of Kong Lor cave is the ride with the motorized boat through the dark tunnel. We got to see some nice formations in the small part of the cave that is illuminated but the best was definitely passing through the cave with only the headlights of our boatmen showing the way. In some place the tunnel is 100m high and lights flashing through the pitch black darkness make for quite a scary experience.

Our boatmen

The cave entrance

 

We stopped for a moment in a quiet village on the other side of the cave that until short time ago was accessible only by boat. On our way back through the cave we had to get out of the boat several times as it got stuck in shallow waters. I am still wondering whether it was because of our boatmen's lack of skills or whether I should start controlling my daily intake of Oreos. In any case having to step into the cold water and walk in the rapids without seeing a thing meant even more adrenaline!

At the village we had company

Riding out of the cave

Going back to Ban Nahin we ended up driving behind a procession that we thought was some religious ceremony since it looked like the entire village led by a large group of monks participated. We decided to follow them and it turned out to be ... a funeral. So that's why people gave us strange looks.

The ride back was peaceful and we would have enjoyed it even more if it weren't for the metal sounds our Chinese bike was making every time it hit a bump. It felt like it was going to disassemble right there on the road. But it survived and so did we. The fact that we very very nearly ran out of gas on our way to see the sunset from a viewpoint above the valley wasn't the scooter's fault...

Sunset view of the Stone Forest