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Thakek Loop - Day 3

פֿאַרעפֿנטלעכט: 03.03.2020

Even though we were sure it wouldn't rain that night, we didn't leave our helmets outside this time and took them inside. It was a good decision because as it turned out the next morning, it had rained again.

Our alarm went off at 7:00 am. After having breakfast and watching the sunrise, we started the day with the Kong Lor Cave. It was only a few hundred meters from our accommodation, but it took us quite a while to get there because the road was a gravel path. Once we arrived, we parked our scooters and walked to the cave.

We were given water shoes and we left our shoes in a small house. We could see that only 2 tourists had been there before us. Our guide gave us life jackets and we walked into the cave. After climbing some stairs and descending a few, we reached the boat, or rather a small boat, and we rode for about 15 minutes.

Then the driver stopped and gestured for us to start walking. We were a bit surprised when he turned around and got back into the boat, so it took us a while to understand what was happening. The floor of the cave was uneven, creating mini waterfalls. The water level was very low, so the boats had difficulty going up and often scraped on the floor. To lighten the boat, we walked a few meters while he piloted the boat. In the end, it was a good decision because the rocks looked really beautiful.


After a few meters, we were picked up again and then we rode through the cave for about 30 minutes and came out on the other side. There's a small village called Natane where we had 1 hour to spend. If you choose a different route than ours on the loop, you have the option to transport the scooter on the boat through the cave and continue the loop on the other side in Natane. Yes, you read that right, the scooter is transported on the boat. Unfortunately, we didn't see how they put it in or take it out, but it definitely looked very interesting on the small waterfall.

We ended our stay in Natane early when the following happened: several Laotian men, some of them not even 10 years old, walked down to the water with a cow and gestured that they were going to prepare their food. Shortly after, we heard a noise and then the men returned with smiles on their faces. The cow was nowhere to be found, but we knew what had happened. So we quickly got back into the boat and our driver took us back to Kong Lor. When we got out of the boat, we saw the cow... in the boat next to us... lying down... We quickly made our way out and were glad to have fresh air. I'm aware that cultures handle it differently and that it's part of the circle of life, but I don't necessarily want to witness it.

At 11:30 am, we hopped back on the scooters and it took us over an hour to travel a few kilometers on the gravel path. After that, we sped up because we knew how many kilometers were still ahead of us. On the way back, we stopped at a viewpoint that was on the route. This was definitely one of the most beautiful moments on the loop.

Then the road, which was relatively well built, went straight. We held our breath for the last few meters in the city until we reached the hostel. My fuel indicator had been on for 15 kilometers, and we still had about 10 to go. We drove in a fuel-efficient manner and made it to the hostel without any incident around 5 pm.

On that day, we drove 200 km. We had read a lot on the internet beforehand, and there were some horror stories about the condition of the scooters. So we were very glad that nothing happened and we arrived safely. After having dinner, we went to bed early.

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#backpacking#asia#laos#thakhekloop#konglor#cave