The big thing to do for backpackers and intrepid travellers in central Laos is the 450 km Thakhek motorbike loop around the Phou Hin Poun national park. We had expected the scenery to be stunning based on what we had heard from other travellers, but we had not expected excellent quality, quiet roads (albeit with the odd cow or chicken with a death wish thrown in). These two combine to create what has definitely been one of the best adventures of our trip so far.
Thakhek itself is an old French administrative town on the Mekong. For most of central and southern Laos, the Mekong makes up the border with Thailand so looking across the river, you are looking into a different country. Getting to Thakhek proved to be painful. We got a small bus from Vang Vieng to the capital, Vientiane, where we had an hour or so waiting time for the sleeper bus. We had not eaten so Katharine managed to haggle with a lady for dubious barbeque sausage, chicken and sticky rice which we ate out of plastic bags in the bus station.
The bus itself proved to be a pleasant surprise. It was a huge double decker and each bed space was effectively part of a double (quite cozy) bed, making it a little unfortunate if you are a solo traveller. The bus was clean, had colourful lights and ample space giving it a weird but kind of fun sleepover feel. Unfortunately this didn’t last as the bus broke down after remaining stationary for a good hour in the Vientiane South bus station. Not only had we been in Vientiane for 3 hours, but we had also now been moved onto a far inferior bus with not enough room for either of us to lie down properly. Things got worse when we learnt that the hotel we thought we had a booking, actually did not… (Mekong Hotel). George telephoned them to alert them of our delay, only to find out they had either double booked us or just didnt fancy staying up late so were pretending to have done so… The rest of the 5 hours or so went by with us wedged in weird angles trying to sleep, thinking about the possibility of us having to sleep on a bench somewhere in the middle of Laos.
We arrived in Thakhek around 2.30am. There was nothing remotely resembling a bus station so our plan was to tag along with the other tourists who disembarked in the hope of finding spare beds of any sort. We were met at the bus by a young Laotian lady who seemed to be running operations and bundled us into the back of a truck with a group of 4 French lads and 2 Dutch girls. Conveniently, it turned out our driver was also running KGB guesthouse (it is unclear if there is any connection to the former Soviet Secret Service), and that they had a room. It was a pretty grim twin room but it was dirt cheap and, at 3.30am was perfect!
We woke up on 9th Feb with the mission of sorting a motorbike and deciding whether to commence the loop today or the next. Conveniently, it turned out KGB Guesthouse is only a small component of their business – motorbike rental is what they are really all about under the catchy brand “Wang Wang”. Already by 9am most of their bikes seemed to have been taken by keen loopers, but George managed to get hold of a standard black and red Yamaha semi-auto bike. Feeling pretty sleep deprived, we decided to have a rest day in Thakhek. We booked ourselves into nicer accommodation at a clean, spacious but otherwise pretty generic hotel a short way away, and began ferrying our things with our new motorbike. Having moved in, we then decided to head off to the “Travel Lodge”, a popular spot among backpackers, to chill and do some planning for the rest of our time in Laos. We also read through some of the legendary log books that they have there, full of entries of those who have completed the loop, for some tips.
In the afternoon we decided to make some use of the bike and head to a stupa / temple a few kilometres south of town. The Sikhottabong temple is a major holy sight for Laotians in the surrounding area, and, while it occupies a commanding spot overlooking the Mekong, it lacks the charm and grandeur of the temples we had recently seen in the likes of Chiang Mai or Luang Prabang. There had also been a big festival there and we had arrived in time to witness the aftermath and packing up. It looked like the post-Glastonbury clean up in terms of the amount of rubbish around… We got back to Thakhek, got ourselves a drink by the river, and had dinner on the floating Smile restaurant. All in all, we felt eager to hit the loop thr next day: Thakhek is not a particularly interesting town and, despite needing a rest day, were feeling a little angsty as a result!
Day 1, 10th Feb, Thakhek to Thalang
Day one of the Thakhek loop begun with a bit of an emergency: George’s wallet had disappeared. We traced its last whereabouts to a small shop we had bought snacks from the previous night just before returning to the hotel, so it was either there, fallen out of his pocket while driving or had been stolen from our room in the middle of the night. The latter option was pretty disturbing but seemed very unlikely. Luckily, it was in the local shop! We showed the lady a google translated text in Laotian and she immediately produced the wallet, neatly packed in a plastic bag. This caused great excitement among the 3 ladies who were in the shop who explained to us in sign language that they spotted the wallet just before heading to bed and had seen on their CCTV camera that it was us who had left it!
Feeling relieved, we headed off around 10am, via a petrol station, without having suffered too much of a delay. Coming out of Thakhek it became quickly clear why this loop was a thing: the road was in superb condition and the landscape was absolutely stunning, with limestone karsts emerging on all sides, and the road inhabiting something of a valley within this amazing national park. Our first stop was the so called “Buddha Cave” and nearby “Pa Sevan” cave, reached by about a 20 minute drive north on a dusty track. We first walked through arid bushland to Pa Sevan (around 20 minutes). The cave itself was just a dark opening that needed torches (and a guide) to explore but the setting was spectacular: a gorgeous lagoon surrounded by greenery, filled with birds and with massive limestone karsts on three sides. There was a small wooden platform over the lagoon which we sat on and meditated for about 15 minutes, just taking in this incredible peaceful scenery and the sound of the local birds inhabiting it. We walked back and headed for the more famous Buddha Cave. Predictably, the cave is filled with buddha statues, many hundreds of years old, that were discovered within the cave only a few decades ago.
Satisfied with our first stop, we headed on, deciding to take up the challenge of finding Tham Pa Chan cave and the Nam Don resurgence. Reading descriptions, this is a spot in the heart of the national park with an impressive cave and also where the Don river reemerges from under the limestone karsts. Unlike other sites on the loop that have clear brown signposts – made in partnership with the New Zealand aid and development agency – Tham Pa Chan has none of the sorts and we were only following some vague instructions from the Lonely Planet. After driving for about 45 minutes further north and asking for directions from school children, two monks, an old lady, a lady running a shop, and a group of men working at a temple, we finally gave up our search – not because we were lost, but because we ran out if road… The road turned into sand which was impassable for our humble Yamaha semi auto city bike. We considered walking the last few kilometres but sensibly decided to head back to the main road given we sill had a good hundred odd kilometres to travel before the village of Thalang: our destination for the night.
On the road back, we stopped at a small cave by a village, in which we found the two monks who had given us directions earlier! They welcomed us to come in and have a look at their humble temple-cave. It really epitomised our explorations into this corner of rural Laos. The villages are very simple and the surrounding scenery has an other worldly beauty. Yet even here, the monks in the cave were entertaining themselves watching videos on youtube on their phones.
We eventually rejoined the main road and were back on the loop! We stopped at the Xieng Lap cave a few kilometers along. This is an impressive cave with a stream going through. We walked through and reached the other side – or near enough, making the full trip would have entailed some swimming or wading. There are apparently soft shelled turtles living in the waters in the cave but we didn’t see any!
We headed back onto the loop and stopped for some very tasty noodle soup a few kilometres away – the food was really excellent both in taste and quantity. We came across a group of French folks who seemed totally knackered, one of the girls just lying on the floor. We reasoned they must have been on their final day of the loop – two days later we would come to understand why they were so knackered!
With only so many people heading on the motorbike loop each day, it quickly becomes apparent who was on the same schedule and route as us. For the rest of the day, we kept passing or being passed by the same two men – we never got to stop and chat, but each time we waved / honked. We drove for a good two hours in all before reaching Thalang. The scenery on the way was simply stunning. We emerged out of our limestone karst valley into wetlands. Throughout the journey, we only encountered a few loopers, locals going about their business on motorbikes, and the odd bus heading to Vietnam. We stopped at an information centre for one of the major dam projects in the area that has flooded a huge area just nearby and necessitated the relocation of a number of villages. The centre was obviously focused on the benefits of the project (work for locals, clean energy) but information on the human and environmental impacts was noticeably absent. After climbing for a few minutes, we came to the plateau that has now been turned into a giant reservoir, fuelling the hydroelectric dams. Dead trees emerge from the water throughout the area, giving the place a very spooky kind of beauty.
Finally, with about an hour of daylight left, we reached the village of Thalang, on the shores of this spooky reservoir. We had a simple room at on the lakeside and the place itself had a relaxed feel to it with plenty of seating areas, hammocks, a fire pit and even a boules pitch on site. In our week in Laos, we came to realise that travellers were broadly split into two groups: the French and the rest (largely Dutch, Swedish, German, American, Aussie, Kiwi and British). Nowhere did this become more apparent than in Thalang. Despite there being ample communal space, the place seemed weirdly quiet with nobody really talking to each other. It was mostly French people staying there but all seemed content on keeping themselves to themselves. We walked over to the other main guesthouse in the village, where there was much more of a communal atmosphere. That atmosphere can perhaps best be described, however, as French village fete! French language was spoken all around with people gathered by a bonfire and a good 10 people having a very serious game of boules – they were seriously good at ot as well! A French bloke seemingly took pity on us and came for a chat. He was nice and it seemed that the French village feel was a bit much for him as well. We had a very tasty barbeque buffet sat around the bonfire. Gradually, the non French natives found each other and so we got chatting to an Irish couple and Dutch couple. The Irish, Neil and Lauren, were great fun and heading in the opposite direction as us in Laos so it was good fun sharing stories of where we had come from. We would later keep bumping into them along the loop!
Day 2, 11th Feb, Thalang to Kong Lor
There are dozens of caves, natural pools / lagoons, viewpoints and picturesque villages along the Thakhek loop, but the highlight without a shadow of a doubt is the epic river cave of Kong Lor. Kong Lor is 40 kilometres south of the loop itself, right in the heart of the Phou Hin Poun national park, and was the destination for day 2 – although we did not plan on visiting the cave itself until the day after.
We set off after an early breakfast, with the road winding around the spooky reservoir for a good hour. The road climbed steadily and we got pretty chilly riding into fog on a few occasions. Gone were the linestone karsts from day one, the terrain was now hilly jungle. We eventually readed the town of Lak Sao (50 km north of Thalang), which seemed pretty uneventful but did have plenty of petrol options for us to fill up! We turned west in Lak Sao, away from the Vietnamese border, and shortly stopped at the “Dragon cave”. The cave was the most spectacular we had seen so far, with a narrow cavern eventually opening up into a big hall filled with stalactites and stalagmites lit up in beautiful colours. The route climbed steeply above the hall, exiting into the thick jungle above, with the return trail being above land. It was a great all round cave and a good rest from the bike.
Gradually, the road re-entered the limestone karst valley, with luscious jungle in every direction. Our next stop was the village of Tha Bak, famous for its river boats made out of American unexploded bombs! We parked the bike and walked for 10 minutes through the village and found a few bomb boats to have a good look at and snap some photos. The village felt rustic and we were greeted by lots of animals, school girls and a lady working on a loom in her home. George unsuccessfully tried to become friends with a cow. We felt that seeing the bomb boats rather than going for a ride was sufficient, so we hit the road once again again.
The road gradually grew more winding and mountainous and we eventually came to a simply phenomenal viewpoint, as a huge valley opened up in front of us in among the limestone karsts. A river outlet for a hydroelectric dam flows past the villages in the valley. This valley is the road to Kong Lor. After bumping into our Irish friends Neil and Lauren again at the viewpoint, we set off down hill and then along the valley. At first the road had a really surreal feel to it: it goes on in a straight line as far as you can see, lined with huge electricity pylons on either side, carrying their hydroelectric produce away over the karsts. Finally, the road bends and the feeling grows more rural passing cute villages with stilt houses, water buffalo, cows, chickens and children occasionally straying into the road keeping us on our toes. Lush green rice paddies line the side of the road with the ever present towering limestone karsts seemingly guiding us through to Kong Lor.
In the last few kilometres the road grew increasingly patchy, having to navigate chunks of dust track and finally, we reached our destination for the night – a turn to the right just before the village of Kong Lor, to “Spring River Villlage Resort”. We had managed to book us a bungalow in this beautiful spot – and wow we were pleased we did. The main reception and restaurant sit on a stilted platform overlooking the Nam Hinboun river, which is, of course, backed by sheer and stunning limestone karsts. The bungalow itself was also lovely and walking between the restaurant, toilets etc. is a delight, via lantern-lined, raised wooden pathways through a forest of banana trees. We got to Spring River in good time and so hired a kayak for us to paddle up their “private lagoon” – a narrow waterway that comes off from the river and out towards the karsts for about 800m. Because it felt a little like a river itself, we were not sure if we were in the lagoon itself or on the way to it, until eventually we hit a dead end in the water and realised it was definitely the former. Paddling along this peaceful paradise was a real highlight – it was so surreal being in dense jungle, alone in crystal clear waters, shaded by the ever present karsts.
We enjoyed a couple of moments of silence to soak up this amazing place on our paddle back. As well as nature, we were also immersed in a very local, rural setting. We had a quick swim in the lagoon, being passed by a boy no older than 8 paddling his family’s long tail boat up the lagoon to fetch water. Another slightly older boy wet up the lagoon, this time with a motorised boat and returned with a whole load of firewood. Arriving at the resort a few hours earlier, we came across a local elderly lady going about her business topless. Writing this from just across the border in Vietnam, we recently visited an ethnographic museum by a French photographer who made it his mission to meet and photograph every one of the country’s 50 odd tribes. For almost all tribes, he managed to get hold of their traditional dress to preserve the culture of these people who are rapidly being assimilated into wider western / Vietnameze culture. Why this glimpse into the future of our trip? Well, it provided us with real sense of the richness of ethnic diversity inhabiting these remote parts of Southeast Asia, with these people usually living across both the Laotian and Vietnamese sides. It was a shame we did not have this level of insight into local tribes and ethnicities while we were on the Thakhek loop, but then again, it is telling how the French photographer’s research took him 6 years to complete – it is serious work!
Day 3, 12h Feb, Kong Lor to Thakhek
Our third and final day on the Thakhek loop was also the longest (150km). We had made the ambitious decision to catch a sleeping bus from Thakhek down to the city of Pakse in south Laos, and had also signed up to do a 2 day trek / Mekong river trip the very next day. Given how tired we were from hundreds of kilometres of motorbiking, this may have been slightly rogue but it did mean that we had to make it back to Thakhek that night no matter what. We had learned from Neil and Lauren that it is possible to put your motorbike on a boat and take it through Kog Lor cave and continue down dirt roads on the other side as an alternative loop. While slightly terrifying, this had the appeal of avoiding the final 80 kilometre stretch down the uninteresting and quite busy highway which the classic route entailed. In the end, we decided to stick to the classic route, knowing we had to make it back to Thakhek that night and having been warned by the hotel staff that the road beyond the cave was very bad.
So, after breakfast, we made our way up to the village of Kong Lor where a scattering of guest houses have sprung up. We bought our tickets, were handed a head torch and life jacket each, and were led by a boat driver down to the river. It is an odd feeling starting by a bright, tree-lined river and then suddenly seeing it disappear into the mountainside. We walked along the river bank and into the cave for about 50 metres, where all the boats are moored, and on we went into the darkness. It was a real powerful experience being plunged into darkness, getting only glimpses of the detail in the walls of the cave as we planned our head torches around. The first section of the cave really feels man made, an almost perfect tunnel shape with the river flowing straight through. And then the real wow moment: out of nowhere, the tunnel opens up into a simply gargantuan, vast space you could fit cathedrals in. It really is Lord of the Rings-esque and being in the vast dark underworld, virtually alone was a hugely memorable experience. We eventually reached a docking spot where we disembarked and walked through a magical 100 metres or so of lit up stalagmites and stalagtites. Meanwhile, our boat driver had to perform an acrobatic manoeuvre to get up a mini waterfall through a seriously impressive run up! We joined up with our boat again and continued through to the other side. Exiting felt a little bit like a rebirth – going from total darknes, suddenly into a tropical green paradise, with jungle clad mountains and beautiful clear waters. We stopped for about 30 minutes at a clearing on the other side. Katharine found a beautiful scarf made by local women in traditional colourful patterns which was too cheap to decline. This was where bikes could disembark from the boat and continue down the alternative loop trail.
After soaking up the colour and light of the outside world, we returned to our boat and journeyed back through the darkness to where we had come from. Disembarking at the cave entrance, we once again bumped into Neil, Lauren and a young German bloke they had picked up called Maurice. They were just loading their bikes onto the tiny boats – a really quite spectacular operation and we could not imagine how the boatmen make the leap over the mini waterfalls withing the cave! We bid our fairwells and went on our way back down the valley we had come up yesterday.
Our next stop was the so-called “limestone forest”. We rejoined the main road and drove up a steep road, overtaking numerous struggling, lumbering massive lorries on the way, and came out to a viewpoint on the top. Ir turns out the name “limestone forest” is about right: a large area where the tops of limestone karsts are jagged and spiky giving an eerie beauty to the place. We had lunch and pondered doing the 2 hour adventure around this forest, entitling ziplines, via ferrata and walking across some pretty scary-looking rope bridges and “spiderweb” bridges. We psyched ourselves up to do it, only to realise we did not have enough cash, so on we went with the loop!
It turned out to be a sound decision as it was already mid afternoon and we still had a good 100+ kilometres to travel. The last stretch of road before joining the main north-south Laos highway was unexpectedly beautiful. The road winds around karst scenery here rather than driving through the middle of a valley, giving it a more mountainous feel and different vistas appearing on every corner. The final long stretch was about as uneventful as expected although the traffic was not as bad as we expected with the lorries being easily avoidable with sensible caution.
We made it back to Thakhek utterly exhausted with very sore bums, and made it to the Mekong just in time to see the blood-orange sun setting over Thailand. With our night bus scheduled at around 1.30am, we luckily struck a great deal with the motorbike rental company to use two of their dorm beds for cheap to get some sleep before heading out. We had a much needed shower and headed out to find some food, when we almost immediately bumped into Neil, Lauren and Maurice again sat at a restaurant outside! It was a great surprise (though perhaps should not have been surprising) seeing them again and we ended up having dinner together exchanging stories of the day and our travels in general – they were really great craic and some of the more similar minded / background and age folks to us that we have met on the trip. It turned out shortly before we saw them in the cave, they had had a motorbike accident… A water buffalo had crept onto the road and Maurice had fallen badly in an effort to avoid it. He had badly scraped his entire right side and was unable to walk with a very swollen ankle. Lauren and Neil slid but were luckily unscathed. Maurice was planning on heading to Vietnam the next day where he would get himself checked out at a hospital if his ankle was still bad… not fun!
Despite hearing of Maurice’s accident it had been a really lovely evening chatting to those guys and a great way to cap off and reflect on an amazing 3 days motorbiking around rural Laos. We said our goodbyes (Maurice hopping off supported by Neil) and got some shut eye before heading back out to meet our bus to Pakse and the south of Laos.
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