With a long day ahead of us, we set our alarms early and were on the road by 6.00. We began the beautiful 40km journey to Konglor village with the sun rising in front of us and smoke lending the mountains a picture book eeriness. It was very atmospheric but it was COLD! Even as the sun climbed higher, the smoke hampered it’s efforts. The bluster from the bike was making us numb, and going quicker to shorten the journey only made it worse! Eventually we reached the village of Kong Lor and tried to warm ourselves up with coffee and breakfast.
We walked the final kilometre and paid the 2,000 kip entrance to get into the park area where the cave is. There were hundreds of people just waking up from a huge Songkran party, but they were wasting no time in getting ready to continue the celebrations. We were pointed in the direction of the cave and found ourselves some guides to take us through in very thin, very shallow long tail boats.
I was surprised by how big the cave was, I knew that it was long but it was so high and wide that at times it was reminiscent of a cathedral. It was also pitch black. All we could see were the parts of the cave lit up by a headlight on our boat and our guides’ head torches – it was spooky but also quite amazing whizzing through the darkness.
After a while the boat moored and we got off to walk through huge stalactites and stalagmites (don’t ask me which is which!) – it was like venturing through the Mines of Moria!
Back on the boat, the low water (it’s dry season) meant that we were sometimes asked to disembark and wade through the water or drag the boat over rocks, but it wasn’t too cold and it was well worth it.
At the other side of the cave was a small village where another Songkran party from the previous night was just revamping. There were small groups of men were gambling, teenagers recovering with a hearty noodle soup and everyone was staring at us!
We left them to their party and our guides took us back through the cave – in all the trip took a couple of hours.
It’s very difficult to do justice to the atmosphere and experience of the cave but this was definitely a highlight of Laos and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone who enjoys a bit of adventure!
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What to know:
- Price: Entrance to the cave is 10,000 KIP per person and the boats are 100,000 KIP. Since you can fit 2/3 people to a boat it’s worth buddying up with someone else if you’re traveling alone.
- Shoes: Wear flip-flops or waterproof shoes – squelchy trainers are no fun!
- Stay dry! Keep your bag on your back as the boats are far from water tight!
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