Quick Note – The internet has been pretty bad here so my pictures have not all uploaded and so the photos in this post may improve over time as more photos upload.

Leaving Vang Vieng via mini bus was an uneventful trip except for a traffic jam which we got stuck in for an hour or so.  I wasn’t that interested in seeing Vientiane as most people said there was not much going on there, but it is the capital after all and is worth at least one night to check it out.  I arrived around 3pm and hung out basically until it got cooler before heading out on an adventure run.  I figured I could hit all of the main sights of the place on my run so I wouldn’t have to worry about taking a tuk tuk out to see things that were far away.

I saw the Patuxay arch and That Luang which are the two most famous landmarks in Vientiane.  Patuxay is a large arch resembling the arc de Triomphe and was a war memorial built between 1957 and 1968 and is dedicated to those who fought in the struggle for independence from France.  That Luang is a gold covered large buddhist stupa in the centre of town which is usually the image most people see when the city is displayed.

I enjoyed the run and after cleaning up went on a walk towards a brewery in town called Core Beer Brewhouse.  It was about an hours walk, but I figured I might as well see some of the city.  When I arrived the place was dead and I was the only one in there.  They only had two beers on tap and were advertising Budweiser and Corona deals so was a little skeptical.

They did have a brewing system behind the bar and had a lager and a stout on tap.  They were both pretty meh, but the food was good.  When it was time to head home, I asked the staff if they could call me a tuk tuk and they said my best bet was to get a cab at the hotel next door.  Shortly after, they said that one of their employees was heading home and would be able to give me a ride.  I agreed and probably should have asked for a price because nothing in this country is done for free.  When we pulled up at my Hostel she asked for 50,000 kip which is $6 which is probably 4 times would I should have paid.  I didn’t want to get into an argument with the person, so just paid it and moved on with my life.

I went home and went to sleep in preparation for my bus ride to Thakhek the next day.  The bus was a VIP bus but was not really that comfy, whenever you end up on a bus you need to just roll with the punches as you never know what you will get.

We arrived in Thakhek at around 8pm and all of the foreigners on the bus were generally headed to the same Hostel as most were planning on doing the loop.  The loop is a 3 or 4 day motorcycle loop in central Laos which has a lot of caves, beautiful scenery and the Kanglor Cave.  I had read that there was a specific hostel in town that is full of people planning on doing the loop and so I headed there in order to find a crew.  It didn’t take long to find people as we were all crammed into the same tuk tuk and started talking.  When we arrived in at the hostel, everyone ended up in the same dorm room and we decided to embark the next day together.  Staying at the same hostel was my long lost Italian friend Matteo who had made his way to Laos after failing to get into Laos with his motorbike from Vietnam.  we shared a beer which was nice.

We rented scooters and were off to the races the next day.  The initial crew was made up of 3 dutch girls (Nina, Cherise and Laoni), a German guy (Adriene) and me and our first stop was one of the caves a few km outside of town.

The cave was pretty cool and it was fun to explore for a while but had worked up a sweat and was ready for a swim.  We went a few km up the road to a swimming hole and ran into two British cousins (Joe and Jack) and a Swedish girl (Karoline) who were talking about getting food.  We mentioned that there was a climbing hostel nearby that apparently had really good food so they joined us for lunch.  After lunch we decided to stick together and ended up as a crew of 8.

First day of riding was 100km and included some amazing scenery, a few caves and a “Waterfall” that was more or less dry due to it being the dry season.  There was also an ATM in the middle of a parking lot in the middle of nowhere that actually had money in it.  Was kind of bizarre but helpful because some of the people in our group needed money.

The first hostel we aimed for was called the Sabidee Guest house which is well known for their All you can eat BBQ dinner.  We arrived just before sunset and were excited to enjoy the first of a few Beerlao.  The dinner was 50,000 kip which is about $6 and consisted of a great spread of salad, spring rolls, french fries, pizza, sticky rice and soooo many meat skewers.  I ended up having 16 meat skewers and a lot of the other assorted snacks.  I for sure got my monies worth and enjoyed the hearty meal.  We chatted into the evening and had a grand old time.

The next morning, I got up for a run and then met up with the crew for day 2.  Day 2 had a few less stops but more driving.  We stopped at a cave and had lunch then headed towards Konglor.  There was a guy at Dragon cave that seemed to just hang out there so he could talk to tourists and practice his english, because he struck up a conversation and asked us all sort of questions.  Pretty cool dude.

We also stopped at a swimming spot called cool springs and it was very similar to the lagoon in Vang Vieng.  It was basically just a local swimming hole filled with plenty of locals.  One such group of local girls were very interested in Adriene and were cat calling him as he walked by.  Eventually they gained the courage to ask for some photos and they were all blushing a lot.  It was pretty funny.  It was as if he was Justin Bieber or something.

We arrived in town just before sunset and had not made any arrangement for accommodations.  The place we had been told to stay was full and the guy told us that there was some sort of government event in the town and that everything was full.  He called up a friend a few km up the road and confirmed that they had space.

We arrived there and were basically the only ones staying.  We had a dinner and started on the beerlao.  We were having a great time until the beerlao ran out and at that point we decided we should probably hit the hay since we were planning to get up pretty early in the morning.

Konglor cave is a 7.5km river cave that extends through an entire mountain.  You pay 2000 kip to go into the national park and then rent a boat for 120,000 kip which will take you through the cave.  It’s three people to a boat and a driver and there are no lights except for the headlamps you can get for a deposit.  You jump in the boat and speed off into the darkness.

It takes about an hour to get to the other side and there is a small village for you to take a break before heading back into the cave for the return journey.  In the middle of the cave there were a few spots where the water level was very low and we had to get out and push through some rapids.  There were a few other parts where the cave was pretty narrow, yet our driver, was a champ and navigated it amazingly.

Many people do the loop in 4 days because it takes about a half day to do Konglor Cave and then driving 180km in an afternoon is a long day.  However, the town that most people stop at on the 3^rd night didn’t seem very interesting so the group of us decided to just push ahead.  Joe, Jack and Karoline decided to go back the way we came as the shorter way is much less scenic and so after finishing the cave we had to say goodbye to our friends and then hit the rod so we could book it back to Thakhek.

Final Thoughts

• There is a Belgian bottle shop in Vientiane, I would skip the brewery and go there instead if you are looking for good beer.
• Vientiane is probably only worth staying one night.
• I stayed at the Thakhek Travel lodge which has a motorbike rental shop next door.  Pretty much everyone there is doing the loop and the guy running the place has lots of tips.
• Go to Konglor Cave, even if you don’t do the motorbike loop.
• The loop is totally doable in 3 days but most people do it in 4.