Kong Lo Cave

When we arrived in Pakson we were a little confused. Where was everything? There were very few resturants and probably only two guesthouses. The town was rather miseralble. A dusty smelly mess. We walked from the bus station to our guesthouse and then went in search of food. We walked to the Mekong, where we had heard that there were a few places to eat and couldn't find these suposed restaurnts. We finally found a place to eat and then meandered back toward the bus station, picking up some fresh fruit on the way. Dragon fruit, mango and an unknown fruit with a thick purple skin and white, sweet and juicy inside. At the bus station we tried to gather some information about transportation to Ban Na Hin, a village near the Kong Lo cave. We didn't figure much out and just decided to get up early the next morning, head back to the bus station and work out transport them. So we went back to our guesthouse, took cold showers, slept on rock hard matresses and looked forward to getting out of Pakson.

In the morning there was a local man at the bus station who spoke remarkable english and helped us get rides on a songtail (a small truck with a covered bed that has been converted with bences to carry people). We climbed aboard and took off. We stoped many times on our trip, picking up and dropping off people and items such as bags of rice and some sort of water buffalo part that was bleeding all over the floor. Songtail brought us to a T in the road where we got off, grabbed some food and hopped on a new songtail that would bring us the rest of the way to Ban Na Hin. This songtail was packed. At its fullest there were 23 people packed on that vehicle. Garrett and Alex stood on the back the whole way while the locals teased them about how white they are and made jokes. This was one of the more gorgious drive we have been on. It consisted of steep, twisting roads through the jungle as well as across flat straight streches with rice fields and stilted houses and huts lining the road.

We reached the bus station in Ban Na Hin, loaded up with our packs and walked down the street and around the corner to a Lonley Plant recomended guesthouse. I was a lovely, inexpensive place, made of dark wood and quite clean. We ate at the restaurant at the guesthouse, paid to have some laundry done and just relaxed the rest of the day. In the morning we headed off to the bus station around 8 to catch a songtail to Kong Lo cave. Kong Lo is a 7.5 k cave through the base of a mountian that has a river running the length of it. We reached the park where the cave is located and paid for a boat trip through the cave. The boats were very shallow and narrow and quite long, wodden affairs that had an outboard with the propeler extended on a pole far behnd the motor. The area was stunning. The dark mouth of the cave was surrounded by jungle greenery and the river running from it was crystal clear and a lovely bluegreen color. We walked a ways into the cave, donned our headlamps and took our wooden slat seets in the boat. The cave was incredable, totally dark, erie and massive. At one point in the cave we got off the boats and walked throught a lit room full of spectacular columns, stalagtites and stalagmites. As it is  the dry season, the river was quite low at some points and we had to get out and push the boat till the water was deep enough. We came though to the end of the cave and continued down the river for a bit then climbed the bank to a rest area with some stands with snacks and drinks. After we had relaxed a bit we retraced our path through the cave. When we got back to the entrance of the cave Garrett and Alex took a dip in the river and we all relaxed enjoying the scenary as they dried off. We had a delicious meal of pancakes, fruit, french fries and fried rice at a near by restaurant and then took a songtail the approximatly 40 k back to our guesthouse.

Kong Lo was pretty spectacular and well worth the effort to get there. We will post again soon with more stories of Ban Na Hin, Tha Khek, Pakse and more!

Ash and Garrett