Tha Khek: The Loop

The ancient map I used to find treasure/El Dorado/the Fountain of Youth/The Loop

Every so often something comes along that's just so unique, so epic, so beautiful--so AWESOME--that I have to try it.  This time, it was a phenomenon known as The Loop--a 450 kilometer ring road located in central Laos.  The embarkation point is typically Tha Khek, where you can rent a motorbike for $6 a day.

Having recently learned how to operate one, I was now able to complete this small dream.

The Motorbike

I woke up miserable after 3 hours' sleep on a bench since my guesthouse locked me out (this coming on top of pushing hard for over a week, and no breakfast), but, I was standing in front of the motorbike rental shop at opening.  Zombie-like, I rented a motorbike for 3 days and headed out on my quest.  It eventually perked me up.

Navigator

And that's all you do.  You get on the motorbike and drive in a large circle down a surprisingly well-paved motorway.  And you just...look at stuff.  There are innumerable caves you can visit along the way, a cold spring, lakes, carvings, a waterfall, and all kinds of wildlife.  The roads are in the middle of nowhere, you hardly meet any other drivers...and God the scenery.

The landscape is beautiful--karsts and weird-shaped mountains abound, you drive through cool mountain forests and emerald plains, and there are times when you just pull of the road and sing praises to God.  It is that beautiful--the kind of beauty that knocks the cynicism off your soul and washes away years of acquired corruption.  These photos are but an insulting misrepresentation of it.

Caves:

Outside...

One of the earlier caves I saw.  It was only this, as near as I could figure out.

Entrance to Tham Nang Cave

Thong Lor Cave...weirdly, it stretches for miles along a through-river.  This was the side where we emerged.

...and in

The trippy interior of Tham Nang cave

For some reason, when we got past the glowing stalactites, we came upon an internal lake...with boats.

Inside Thong Lor Cave

Thong Lor Cave

Thong Lor

Thong Lor

Thong Lor

Exiting Thong Lor on the other side

Some other part of Thong Lor

And check out these cave sparkles from Tham Nang cave:

The scenery:

Notice the stereotypical herons flying near the karst

Many worlds

Imagine living with these in your back yard

Uplifting guesthouse

Lovely dead tree zone

I don't know why there was a fairy tale castle in rural Laos.  It was behind the gas station.

Scenery from a boat

Actually this is the guesthouse I stayed at.  Or a resort, rather, because it was where my motorbike ran out of gas.

I mean, the lighting. God.

Thumbs up, lil rock.

The culture:

This was a Buddhist shrine in a cave, where there was also a New Year's celebration

You know what they say, if you meet the Buddha by the side of the road...

Can you believe there's just a highway in the middle of this stuff though?

Entry gate to a temple.  My favorite pic of all these.

And yes, this cold spring was COLD.

Lovely typical Laotian meal lol

Even the butterflies were celebrating

You meet people along the way--if you stop for a meal, if you cross paths with fellow travellers, or if you're like me, you go during New Years and kids for a road block and proceed to dump water on you (trust me, this feels good; just be careful of your phone).  And then they give you cold beer.

I ate at this family's restaurant.

This guy gave me free beer after pouring cold water on me.

These kids threw water on me

You can stop and look at everything (I couldn't keep up with the other travellers on my course because I kept getting off to take pictures of things) and you could stretch the journey much longer than the requisite 3 days typically recommended.

I wish I could put it into better words than this, but it's the sort of thing that has to be felt and experienced to really be understood.  If you do it, you will never regret it.