Hi there all!
A bit slow to upload this as the trip was back during Songkran, me and my wife rode down from Vientiane where we live, stayed in Paksan for one night and then rode on wards to Konglor caves the next day.
Anyhow day one we set off at about midday as it's not far to Paksan from Vientiane
A few pictures from along the way
We then saw this smashed up truck shortly after
The truck was Thai registered and didn't look as though it had been there long, by the looks of the truck I should imagine the driver was badly hurt!
Anyhow not long after this we arrive in Paksan which is where we stayed the night, booked the hotel the day before on Agoda and it was really nice! Only two months old, cost 500 Baht a night which I thought was pretty good!
Here it is
After settling in we popped out for some dinner, Paksan is quite a boring place to be honest, it is very very small and also very dark at night so we decided to go out early:
The food was quite decent, the restaurant was run by a bit of a weird old Swiss guy and his wife who was about a quarter of his age and seemed to boss him around ha ha.
Went for a beer by the river afterwards but no pics as it was near pitch black due to the severe lack of street lighting.
Anyhow the next day we got up at about 8am, packed up and got on the road. We continued on wards until arriving at the small town of Pakkading where we stopped for lunch.
The town it's self is a small dusty little place, just a travel stop for trucks and buses really, lots of Vietnamese also. Stopped at a little bike shop to oil my chain which was kindly done free of charge
Anyhow we continued on wards across the Soviet made bridge and headed on until turning left on to road number 8 which leads to the Vietnam border. Literally as soon as you hit this road the scenery improved dramatically! Much more interesting indeed!
Stopped at a nice viewpoint
We rode on until arriving at Konglor and checked in to our guesthouse at about 2pm, shortly after checking in we went on up to the cave which due to it being Songkran was very busy!
The entrance to the cave where the river flows out in to a lagoon
We walked on up to enter the cave
Here you can travel through the 7.5km Long cave via a small boat for 110,000 Kip per boat return, here are the boats:
They even give you a life jacket!!!!!
Stopping along the way through the cave
At some points in the dry season you have to get out the boat and wade as it grounds out on the shale/rocks
Arriving at the other end of the cave it is lovely to get back to the light, it is a journey of around 40 Minutes
You arrive at a village at the other side which is only really accessible via boat as it takes four hours to drive there as opposed to 40 Minutes ish via boat.
Due to it being Songkran it was very busy!
The locals were having a party so we stopped for a quick beer
The sound system was being powered by a tak tak generator ha ha
This was the road to the village
Saw this cool Thai registered Ranger and had a chat with the owner who had come to see family, he was proudly telling me about how his Ranger was great in the floods
Anyhow after having a beer and a chat we walked back to the boat and head back through the cave
When we got back to the other side of the cave we went back to our guesthouse, had a shower and then chilled out on the balcony with a beer
We went for dinner to a local restaurant but no pictures as it was pitch black due to no electric, the food was good though! Very nice Laab and sticky rice.
An early night as it is a very quiet place and I was beer Lao'd out ha ha.
The next day we got up about 7:30 and got some pics over the surrounding tobacco fields
Had breakfast and then headed off back towards Vientiane which was quite a distance.
We stopped off along the journey back at a shrine for the mrs to ensure we had a safe journey (Thankfully it worked)
Not many other pictures from along the way back as we just road alot! We did however see the remnants of another very very nasty looking accident! The truck was really badly damaged, I'm sure the guy must have died in this
Look how far the steering wheel is back!!!
Really bad that the airbag didn't even go off! I mean I know it wouldn't have done alot in a smash like this but it should have deployed! Seeing things like this does really make you think!
Anyhow thats it for pictures, I hope you liked the thread?
Cheers