Ba Na Hin - Kong Lo Cave - beneath a mountain

Trip Start Oct 07, 2007

Trip End ??? ??, 2008

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Flag of Lao Peoples Dem Rep Ba Na Hin, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Sunday, March 16, 2008

We're by now travelling with an English guy called Ian. His guide book includes information about a 7.5km long cave beneath a mountain that you can boat through and together we decide to check it out. Like all good things it's a right royal pain in the backside to get to. First off is a 5hr bus journey. Buses in Laos operate on an it's never full principle so by the time we get off it's very6 cosy and the aisle is jammed with people sitting on plastic seats and standing. We'd assumed the bus would take us all the way to Ba Na Hin since that was the destination we specified at the ticket desk but not so. We're dropped off at a junction about an hour away and left to figure out the rest for ourselves.

We meet three girls in the same situation and mull over the problem together whilst enjoying a Beer Lao. The girls are soon running around trying to hail any passing vehicles with brazen displays of flesh and it works a treat. They manage to hail down an empty cargo truck and we all toss our bags into the back and hop onto the bed in the cab. The drivers are Vietnamese and seem as thrilled to have something to break the monotony of the journey as we are to get the lift. They're particularly delighted when we give them our remaining Vietnamese money as a thank you.

Ba Na Hin itself is a dusty, one street village which is in a gorgeous setting surrounded by limestone peaks. We don't linger there long though and the next day we head for the caves themselves. The village by the caves looks like it hasn't changed in about 300 years.

Canoe Ride to the cave

All the houses are wooden and built on stilts and the main mode of transport are wooden trailers pulled by a tractor engine. We decide to stay there for the night and the group are dispatched to 3 different homestay houses. Our home for the night seems to be the local entertainment centre and there's a constant stream of kids in and out to watch the TV. The lady of the house indicates that she has 5 children but we never quite mange to figure out which ones are hers!

The same evening we do the boat trip through the cave and back. It's absolutely enormous and there seem to be huge caverns branching off to the side of the main route as well so you can only imagine how massive the whole network under the mountain is. Seeing the light emerging at the other side it feels as though you're entering a secret land cut off from the rest of the world.

The next morning we realise just how cut off even the village is when we try to get out of there! The villagers seem to want us to stay another night and failed to mention that the only public transport is at 6 or 7am. Our options are either stay or endure a painful 3hr ride squashed into a tiny trailer for a grossly inflated price. However, after about 2 hours hanging around we manage to find a pick-up willing to take us to the village for a fair price. From there we head on North to the capital, Vietenne. It's a long day and the 4 hour journey sitting on a plastic stool in the bus aisle doesn't help the journey go any faster!