Into the Darkness: the Kong Lo Cave

After those great days of fun in Don Det, I left the Four Thousand Islands region heading north to my next self-appointed destination: the famous Kong Lo Cave, halfway up through the country. My best bus option was to go to the small town of Thakaek, still 200 km  away from the cave but with supposedly good access points. Our new Spanish friend, Patrícia, was going the same way, so we said our goodbyes to Erica, Dan and Anais, who were going to Pakse, and got going.

Boy, that bus was quite a ride. Luckily it was not as crowded as some buses we took in Laos, but then again… well, for starters, there as a woman carrying a full grown rooster in the seat in front of us, and every now and then it would cooockadoodledoooo!

Our friend the rooster

In the meantime, our brain cells were fried with non-stop Thai trash music videos. There was also a thoroughly drunk Laotian guy that was intent on communicating with us – except that the only sentences he knew in English were “Thank you” and “Darling, I love you”. At a certain point in the journey, we stopped in a small village, and the bus was flooded with little smiling kids selling us barbecue.

Darling, I love you!

Barbecue?

We reached Thakaek late in the night, after 12 hours in the bus, and went straight to a guesthouse and collapsed on the beds. We woke up early next morning and took a bus to Ban Khoun Kham. In that bus we were lucky enough to meet Kelli, Andrea and Brandon, fantastic fellow travelers from Florida, who were also in their way to the cave. In Khoun Kham we found a last pick-up ride to the caves, hoping to be able to visit it and get the hell out of there in that same day.

Kelli, Bran and Andrea on the left, Patri on the right

We finally got the cave entrance, a great black mouth by a scenic lake. The Kong Lo cave, 9.4 km long, is one of the longest caves in the world, and is only accessible by boat.

So we donned our lifejackets and headlamps, and braved the darkness towards our boat.

The interior of the cave is almost all covered by the river. There are small sand beaches here and there. However, there is a high bank (the only part in the cave that has floodlights) in which beautiful sets of stalactites and stalagmites create exquisite columns and patterns, and that’s where we leave the boat to explore on foot. The air there is also very, very dusty, leaving you to choose between using flash and getting hazy pics (as the dust reflects the flash) or getting blurry ones because of the aperture time required by the dark environment. So, forgive me the bad quality of the photos…

With flash

We get down from the stalactite bank by the other side, where our boat is waiting for us. We have to cross a shallow and slippery part of the river, being very careful in our steps.

At some point here, I asked Patri and our two Laotian guides to turn off their lights, so we could experience full darkness. It is a creepy, exhilarating moment, and the Laotians don’t seem to enjoy it very much.

Our boat proceeded to a rather long ride through the rest of the cave. The place is simply INCREDIBLE. There is a cathedral-like hugeness to it, and sometimes you can’t even see the ceiling. Unfortunately, there is simply no way of taking pictures in that kind of darkness. And, even if it was possible, I doubt they would convey the feeling of being there, feeling like an insignificant ant before the forces of nature. It’s humbling to think that everything there was sculpted by powerful forces set in motion long before any life form remotely resembling you  walked the Earth, and that they will continue to work long after all memory of you will have vanished. So much for our self-centered universe.

We passed through big and small waterfalls along the cave, created by rainwater from the mountaintop that finds its way between the rocks.

And suddenly, we see the light – the back entrance of the cave.

Our guides take a short way along the river, to a place with a small cottage where it’s possible to buy refreshments before going back into the cave. The jungle-and-mountains setting around us is just stunning.

We got back into the boats, and into the cave. This time, I had the presence of mind to shoot a short video.

The way back was just as awesome, and we’ve also seen the giant bats hanging from the walls. And then, it was over.

On the way out, we even witnessed the annual butterfly convention – thousands of them, at least 8 different colors that I could spot, flying together for some reason.

And then – last photos of the great place, and everybody rushing back to catch the night bus to Vientiane, the Laotian capital!

It was a great pleasure to visit the Kong Lo cave, and so much more so because of the great people I was sharing this with! Thanks a lot, dear Kelli, Andrea, Dan and Patri!

Kayaking on the Mekong

On our third and last day in Don Det, the most famed island in the region known as the Four Thousand Islands in Laos, we decided to take one of the kayaking tours promoted there. At 180,000 kips (around US$ 22), it was expensive, but then again it included breakfast, lunch, kayaking, dolphin-watching and two waterfalls. During the last night we had met Patrícia, a Spanish girl whom our French girl Anaís had met in Cambodia, and after she joined us we bought out kayaking tickets. Erica and Dan preferred to stay put and relax all day long, and who could blame them? Part of me was jealous.

We woke up at 8 am (SO HARD!) and after a quick breakfast headed to the shore. Each of us received -two essential survival pieces of equipment: a life jacket and a Chinese-style pointy sun-hat. We received some very quick instructions on the tricks of the trade, and soon enough we were all sliding through the Mekong. The girls shared a two-person kayak. I asked to go solo. Like a boss.

Spanish Patrí, French Anais, Brazilian me :)

Kayaking looks fun, and it is, but it’s no easy business. It requires a lot of effort from your arms to paddle your way down the river. The Mekong has a really faint current in that part of its course – which is great for control, but also means you have to do all the propelling work yourself. Kayaking alone is even harder – whenever you have to rest, there’s no one else to keep your momentum, and the kayak comes to a full stop, require more effort still to get it moving again.

Soon after we started, I looked to the back of my kayak to take my water bottle, and found a f@#$% big spider as a loving passenger. As I frantically tried to shove it off the boat, I flipped the kayak over and fell on the water. Luckily, there was no applause.

Our first stop was a waterfall. We parked our kayaks at the shore and went to check it out.

Here was the biggest disappointment of the day.  I had brought my camera along because the guy at the ticket booth guaranteed there was going to be a dry bag to everyone. It turned out that the dry bag was not really dry at all. My camera was wet and there was water inside the lens. As of now, it’snot working properly still, I just hope it will be back to life after it completely dries up… Still, the waterfall was beautiful.

The (hopefully not) last pic of my beloved camera

After that we returned to the kayaks and tried to spot some dolphins. That was the most miserable part of the trip. We were all there, just past noon, starving and enduring the relentless sun with not a single breeze around, keeping silent and paddling careful not to scare the dolphins off. The stupid things showed up very far away and didn’t get close.

We parked again in another island, this time one that was actually in the Cambodian side of the border, where we had a hearty lunch of rice, bread and watermelons, and took an hour resting under a merciful shade.

When that was over we took up our paddles again and kayaked for another hour and a half, until we reached yet another island, the one of the big waterfall. We helped loading all the kayaks into a truck, and the hopped on ourselves and hit the road.

We reached the big waterfall shortly, and it is indeed beautiful and impressive. No wonder the French soon concluded it was impossible to use the Mekong as trade route with China back in the day. A pity it’s not possible to swim there, as the currents are too strong and the terrain too dangerous.

Finally, the truck took us to the shore and we got into the kayaks for the fourth and last time for our way back to Don Det. Although we were very tired by then, it might have been the most pleasurable paddling time of them all. The sun was setting and it wasn’t too hot, there was a gentle breeze blowing, and the scenery was just gorgeous.

I had even a final gift from the universe: upon arriving to the Don Det island, I saw a bunch of guys jumping into the river from a high platform, looked like real fun. I went to investigate and found out it was a kind of trampoline built on the edge of a balcony from a nearby restaurant. I guess it was around 10 meters high. It was just perfect.

Well, some of us kind of chickened out…

Patri the Brave

All in all, it was a great day. Caressed by the beautiful sunset below, tired but happy, we went back to our bungalows to meet Dan and Erica for dinner, and prepare for the journey  next morning.

Kratie and the Irrawaddy dolphins

During my time in Phnom Penh, I’ve changed my travel plans – my initial intention was to go south to the famous beach of Sihanoukville, maybe hit an island or two, and then visit Kampot and Kep. However, I had received several reports from other travelers that said the beaches were nice but nothing special, and there was not much to see beyond them anyway. I was moderately interested in checking out the old French hill station on the Bokor mountain near Kampot, but it was a 2-star destination at the best. I still had all of Laos and north Thailand to check in the 20 days I had left before having to return to Bangkok to catch my flight to Myanmar, so I decided to skip the beaches altogether and head north to Kratie and then continue to Laos. I figured out I would have many more fantastic beaches ahead of me in south Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam anyway.

So I arranged my bus to Kratie, a city that is famous only for being at the margins of the Mekong, and on the best location to spot the rare Irrawady freshwater dolphins – a cousin of our pink-colored Amazon river dolphins in Brazil. Only around 100 of them remain in the Mekong, and the species is highly endangered.

After 8 hours on the bus, I arrived in Kratie (pronounced Kra-cheh). I was AMAZED! This such a beautiful, modern, fantastic, heavenly city and… just kidding – there’s nothing to see in Kratie but the dolphins, and those are 15km away. At least there’s a pretty riverside.

I intended to stay in Kratie as little time as possible. Luckily, I found a guesthouse with a helpful receptionist, and within 10 minutes of arriving I had arranged my bus to Laos next morning and was on my way to see the dolphins.

Never got to know his name - he'll always be Michael Jackson to me.

Happy tuk-tuk riding

Upon arriving to the spot I got into my boat and went hunting for the animals, camera in hand. Despite the fact that I was already past 4 pm, the sun was high and the heat was extreme.

Within a shorter time than I expected, we started seeing the dolphins all around us. They are really beautiful creatures – you usually hear their sprays when they surface to breathe, and some seconds later you can see them going up and diving again. I only got two mentionable pics of them – they are very fast, and my camera doesn’t have an instant shooting function anyway. Here are my pics, and also some good photos of what they look like from the internet:

You can also see other things but dolphins in the Mekong – what about a boat full of boy-monks? They were avidly taking pictures with their cell phones. All in all, it was a pleasant afternoon, with a little bit of lazing on the river after the dolphins got tired of us.

On the shore, I even played a little with the monks. They’re monks, but they are still children, and love to play once you break their shyness…

After that I took my tuk-tuk back to Kratie, where the Mekong gave me a beautiful sunset to close the day!

It was so nice to meet you Cambodia! Next stop: the Four Thousand Islands, in Laos!