The Loop

I've been told, already in Vietnam that I have to make The Loop in Tha Khaek. So from Pakse I've taken direction to Tha Khaek. You might think that 350 km which is the distance between Pakse and Tha Khaek should not take more than 6 hours, even if you drive slow and bear in mind bad condition of Laos roads. But no. It took like 9 hours before I got to Tha Khaek. At first it was not bad. After 5 hours on half full bus we got to Savannakhet. But than it took ages. Unloading some boxes from the roof, waiting on the bus station, picking some people on the way. And the last people that we've picked was a bunch of young Laotian guys who had to sit in the "corridor" on small stools and who tried to chat with me, even though they did not know any english and I did not know any Lao, but still it was fun. They all seemed a little bit guyish to me, leaning on each other and hugging and having that fancy hair style. One of them started to play to me and send me some Lao music via bluetooth. What he played to me was either covers of some western hits performed by Lao singers or Lao lyrics sang to the western hits melody. Still it was very funny and nice.
In Tha Khaek I went to Tha Khaek Travel Lodge which is the place to meet other travelers who want to do the loop. The first thing that I've asked when I got there was: who is doing the loop tomorrow?
So I've managed to find 3 guys with whom I could do that. Chris - Aussie guy and Kacper and Aspian from Denmark. We've rented motorbikes from Mr Ku, he gave us a map of where to go and so we did.
On Thursday morning we head off to see some caves and take a swim in the river. After we've spent half an hour trying to find Tham Pha Fa (Buddha Cave) and saw it and got so disappointed we've gave up and decided to take a swim only. We were also running slowly out of time as Chris's bike got broken and could not be repaired quickly, so Mr Ku had to come and give him a new one. We went to search for Tha Fa Lang, which took us probably another half an hour, but in the end we've made it too. We were very good at directions, but bad at finding things.
Spot was really cool, clean and almost still water. Some rocks to sit on. We've taken some pictures, jumped into the water, did some swimming and warmed ourselves in the sun. And that was probably when Chris got robbed. We've left our bags on the rock, and we were sitting behind the bush, so we did not see them at all. But no one had it in mind that in that place, some distance from the main road someone will come to steal. And what was surprising, my camera was lying on the top of my bag and they did not take it (thanks God!), but they took his camera, wallet and iPod that were in pockets of his jeans. Weird isn't it?
That was the end of his loop. He had to go back to the city to block credit cards, make police statement and so one. I also asked him to change motorbikes, as mine was old and slow and I wanted to have some fun driving fast. He was so nice and did that, which I've found out after we've come back was very good move as on the way back it got broken and I'd have a problem with it...
We were heading to Tha Lang, where we were supposed to spend the night. We almost did not have any issues, except that Aspian's acceleration line got broken and he had to have it repaired. It cost like nothing - 20000 kip, which is 2 euro.
Last 30 km was on a dirt road, very bumpy and uneven, but so much fun too. It was only appetizer for tomorrow, where we had another 60 km of such a road. And that was insane. We were faster than locals, which means a lot. I got completely covers in red/orange dust. Still my clothes have orange hue. But that also explains why all the kids in villages always have their clothes in similar orangish colour (I've realised that already in Bolaven Plateau), and even their clothes are white or green or red, in the end they are orangish. Everything is covered in dust.
In the evening in guest house we've met another 3 people doing loop so we were playing dices and having fun.
Next day we had to get up early to make everything in time, especially those 60 km on the dirt road, which in fact was the best part of the whole trip. Beautiful view over the trees with halves of their trunks in the blue lake water and orange road. Jumping on the uneven surface was very cool.
At the end of the road, at the city of Lak Sao we lost our 3 friends cause one of them got a puncture, twice in a row and we went to see hot spring, which was the biggest disappointment ever. Thre was no spring at all, only place where you can take shower with hot water from a spring, which we've found out later was not even hot. Failure.
Last 80 km were on the good road, a little boring sometimes, the only entertainment was that my motorbike did no0t want to start sometimes and once one of the pipes has disconnected so it's stopped and whole key socket was turning around and I could not stop/start it sometimes. After a while I've been able to handle it, only if I remembered not to pull key to strong when I was removing it from the socket.
In Konglor we've spend a night in a cosy guest house, where I've even met polish guy, who told me: but your accent is not polish at all. I've told him the same. But no wonder, after five years in Dublin you probably lose your polish accent.
Last day in the morning we've visited Kong Lo cave. And now imagine river 7.5 km long running in tunnel beneath limestone mountain. Here and there sandy or pebble beaches, stalagmites and stalactites all over. Rocks reflecting in water that look like those patterns which we used to make as kids: throwing some ink on the sheet of paper and folding it in two. Just amazing. Nothing like I've ever seen before. I'm pretty surprised though that this place is not yet widely known by tourists. I give it 5 years maybe and it'll be fully packed.
After sightseeing we had almost 200 km of good and boring road. I was afraid that I'll fall asleep. But cold was keeping me awake. I did not have too much warm clothing with me. My jacket was in Bangkok and I only had shirt, long sleeve and pullover. So to keep myself warm I've dresses plastic raincoat poncho underneath pullover to block the wind and that was cool idea. But I started to feel tired again until I almost got killed cause some freak decided to drive out from his garden just in front of me. And there was even no way of overtaking him as there was big truck coming from opposite direction. I could only brake and hope that brakes are good enough. Luckily they were otherwise I'd probably be covered in bruises and scratches right now.
In the end we've made it. We got to the Traveler Lodge about 3.30 p.m. Pretty quick.
For tomorrow I've planned quite day in Tha Khaek, but what you plan never is what happens, but this will be next long story to tell.

Kacper, Chris and Aspian tracing caves

Finally I've seen green rice paddies

On the road

Q: How many Lao women is needed to repair one motorbike?
A: It does not matter. Mr Ku has to come and replace it with a new one.

Are you sure that we are right?

Look at the dog. It's got necklace from a brake line

This is what we've found under the table in GH

Gamblers

Sunrise. I guess this is the first sunrise that I've seen on this trip. Usually I don't get up that early.

My red dragon



Lake




In the orange mist



Rice paddies

Bunny boy

On the road again

Boats in the Kong Lo cave

Kong Lo cave

Kong Lo cave - this is the reflection that I've mentioned

Tripping in Southern Laos

Although illegal and prohibited smoking joints is widely accepted in Asia and weed itself is easily accessible. Usually it's enough to go to one of the bars and ask bartender for it. The same is with all happy pizzas, happy shakes, mushroom shakes, happy chocolates.
I still get dizzy and want to throw up after chocolate that I had. To be honest I've tried them before, but in Cambodia and even though you could taste weed in it, it did not have any major effect over me. On my last night at 4000 Islands I also had one. And that one was a killer. It must have been stuffed with opium or mushrooms maybe, cause I practically did not know what's going on. I barely made it home, where when I lay in bed I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Worlds has been joining and separating, stripes, lines, dots, checks. Interfering, separating, running through each other. Nightmare.
When I got up in the morning I've thought it's better, I had my breakfast, made it to Champasak. But there again, the only thing that I was able to do was go to bed at 4 p.m. and sleep till the next morning until I was woken up to go for sightseeing of Wat Phu. Khmer temple (Angkor Wat like) dating between 6th and 12th centuries. No idea how I've survived that, bearing in mind that I barely had any food the day before, small baguette for breakfast today, I was still weak and my stomach was still sick. But I've made it and even made it to Pakse, where I checked in to Sabaidy 2 GH, I had some food and went to bed again. I was as unsocial as unsocial anyone can be. If you know me, than you know that it's completely opposite my normal attitude, so I must have been feeling really bad. But good amount of sleep again made it and on the third day I was pretty much ok, except my stomach that is still sick and not very keen on digesting, I think, so it still hurts. So I did some walking in Pakse and spend most of the time on the internet and reading. Something that I did not do since ages. And you might think that during traveling you have time for reading ;-)
On the fourth day I was almost good, only during the day stomach was sometimes strange, but finally in the evening I got my appetite back. Probably after whole day sightseeing of Bolaven Plateau.
First we saw Tad Fane - waterfall, next tea plantation - where we were presented with how green and oolong tea are made (or other way round?), than coffee plantation (now I know how to recognise Arabica from Robusta. To be honest I was told that in Dalat already, but I forgot) and Yuang Waterfall and Alak village (where they practice Animism and Shamnism) and Katu village (where owner of the GH where I stay with some help from people who I met in Sapa and who recommended me this GH built a school. She is Polish and he's Belgian and they met Mr Vong - who runs this place and speaks some polish as he studied in Poland - 5 years ago and he ask them if they would like to get involved into building a school and library and they've helped to gather some founds).
In Katu I took insane amount of photos of kids. Is my photography talent revealing right now?

Wat Phu - can you spot the similarity between it and Angkor Wat?



Wat Phu - view from the top of the complex



Wat Phu - Elephant rock

Wat Phu

The most ugly temple I've seen so far. Pakse

Tea bush. To make tea, only leaves from the top of the tree are picked and depending on the process green or oolong (red) or black tea can be made.

Coffee trees. Arabica coffee has small trees with big beans. Robusta's trees are big and beans are small. They are also processed differently. Robusa is first dried and next pelled. Arabica is first pelled and next dried.

Tad Fane

Drying robusta coffee beans



Robusta coffee ghost



Waterfall number 2

Alak village. They believe in animal spirits, and prolly in the soap operas living (see satellite dishes, officially there is no power in those villages, but still everyone has TV set, satellite dish and power generator)

Rooster - coffee guard

Drying coffee

School kids in Katu - villae where school and library were build partially from the founds gathered by the couple that I met in Sapa

School building build with the money gathered in Poland, Belgium, France, Germany and Lao

School kids

Boy

Is she copying homework from her mate?

Gangsta

Chcesz fangę w nos?

My favourite pic. Femme fatale.

Ready, set, go

In Katu kids smoke water pipe together with their parents. They even hold it for them. I had a draw as well.