Caveman

A reasonably good nights sleep, I’m ready at nine when the guide comes knocking at my door. I’ve packed all I can think of into my day bag and climb into the back of the Daihatsu ute with side bar seats and nine kayaks on the top. There is a couple already on board and I ask if they are doing the half day caving and they say no they are doing the full day, half day caving and half day kayaking.  

We pick up a few more couples that are doing the same. I’m getting worried I’m on the wrong tour and quiz the guide about it saying that I am booked only for a half day, he looks at me confused and shakes his head, now I’m worried I’m going to be stuck out there all day. After a couple more pick ups and a few phone calls, it’s sorted out, they have just crammed the half day and the full day people onto the one truck. It’s that packed that I have to stand on the back rail but that also probably makes me the most comfortable person. 

We arrive about fifteen kilometres out of town near the first cave and split into the two groups. My group is an older couple of ladies, two young couples and……me, damn couples! 

We walk straight into the elephant cave, It is named from a stalagmite. It has a Buddha in it and also another Buddha’s footprint, I get to get on my knees and thank him for the day when everyone turns to walk out, don’t want them to know I’m a weirdo.  

 Our group heads off through the bush and rice paddys where for some reason the guide turns around saying we will take the short cut. There is some confusion, some people were expecting to see the blue lagoon which is in the other end of town and we’re all a bit suspicious on why he has decided to turn around, I kept quiet but it seemed to me the tour companies had booked two tours on one truck and the guides were only now sorting out how to keep the two groups happy. Anyway, we got to see all four caves which is what I came to see although I thought my tour booker mentioned the blue lagoon also. 

The second and third caves were ok, one had a Buddha in it. The biggest shame being that although Laos is full of caves the tourist thing is new so they are killing the caves, nothing is roped off and everyone touches the stalagmites and stalactites. 

The final cave is the water cave and we climbed into tyre tubes and pulled ourselves under a tiny little slot in the side of this mountain where the water was flowing out, along a rope. We went for about one kilometre under the mountain which was pretty cool, is was just an endless tunnel half full of water, I think he said it actually goes for about three kilometres. I couldn’t take the camera of course but it would have made some cool photos, I was kind of expecting a big wall of water to come rushing down the tunnel with “Indiana Jones” on the front of it.

When we finished this we had a quick lunch because the full day group had already been waiting an hour for us so they could get on with their kayaking, which explains why the guide turned around to take the short cut when we started our leg of the caving. The companies should have taken two trucks but of course it is a poor country, this is just the way they do it. 

After lunch we headed back towards town, stopping halfway to let the kayakers off. I arrive back at my room about three, rest on the bed for about an hour and Greg knocks on the door.  

He has arrived, checks himself in and gets the room next to me. We head straight down the street, I’m hungry and he’s thirsty. We go to a pizza bar, get a pizza and a couple of shakes and catch up on each others last week. We formulate a plan to head to Vientiane Wednesday, his VISA is up then and we’ll at least get to the capital and sort it out. 

That sorted we head back to our Guest House reasonably early, we’ve both had big days.