Thakhek – The Loop

I arrived at Thakhek Lodge early evening with the aim of securing a motorbike, and some travelling buddies, to be able to start The Loop the following morning. I had already met one woman who wanted to do this on the bus journey from Pakse, and we found another girl at the Lodge to join our little crew. There were a few other people preparing to set out the following morning, creating a small buzz of excitement and anticipation about the place.

Our plan was to set off no later than 9am in the morning, giving us plenty of time to visit the caves on route and then travel the distance to our first hostel by nightfall. This isn’t quite how it panned out. I had rented my bike from the shop at the Lodge, but Marta and Sue (the two people I was going to ride with) were renting from a place in town. They set off at 8am to get their bikes, and due to several difficulties along the way, didn’t return until just after 10am.

The caves we visited that morning were not overly impressive. The Buddha cave, although nice, was small and filled with a large number of Buddha statues, all with price tags stuck to the front. The best part for me about visiting these caves was riding down the dirt track road, balanced on the forks while bouncing through pot holes, pretending I knew what I was doing. We also visited the river which was a wonderful green blue, hidden away down a sandy road, which made for rather interesting riding.

Disheartened by the first caves we saw, as well as the troublesome start to the morning, we decided we had had enough of caves and now just wanted to press on to our first stop over destination.

Taking a break halfway we found a local market at the roadside and stopped to stock up on bananas and any other tasty food we could find. People here were friendly, though most spoke no English, so our communication was mainly through smiles and waves. A group of children came to stand near us, intrigued by this group of white women, and enjoyed posing for some photos. Not long before we left we were entertained with the sight of a pig running past us with a full fish in it’s mouth, followed by an angry looking woman with a stick! The pig eventually seemed to think better of the idea, dropped the fish and scarpered under a fence out of reach.

The last part of our journey was beautiful and resulted in many impromptu picture stops along the way. We passed a large lake, with rows of dead leafless trees standing tall within it, mountains lining the horizon in the distance. Riding over bridges we were able to see smaller bodies of water on our left, the same view spreading for miles, trees looking beautiful, but lifeless. We assumed this to be a recent change to the scenery, affected by the dam created for hydroelectric power.

On reaching Sabaidy hostel where we had been advised to stay, we were nearly turned away due to a lack of beds, but our excellent host was able to squeeze us into the ten bed dorm room, though Sue eventually chose to sleep in a tent to ensure a more peaceful nights sleep. The hostel was already buzzing, several other groups of riders already having arrived. People were huddled round the campfire sharing stories of the day’s ride, enjoying a beer or two and the camaraderie that seemed to come with this shared experience.

Our second day got off to a much better start, being ready to go by 8am. Or so we thought, as just before we got on our bikes Sue realised she had misplaced her key. After a ten minute search she found it, only to then lock it inside her bike seat! Luckily the owner of the hostel was able to lever the seat enough to get the key out, and so without too much delay we succeeded in setting off. The morning passed quite uneventfully after this, stopping many times along with way to appreciate and photograph the scenery.

We hit the famed dirt road section of the loop just before lunch time, a section which I ended up completing alone. Finding it easier to ride over the rough, rocky ground at a faster pace than the other two I decided to wait for them at the end of the dirt road. The route took me through several small towns and villages, interspersed with sections of winding mountain road, where I was continually awed by the mountainous landscape that spread into the distance.

Reaching the end of the dirt road I realised I would now be 30 minutes to one hour ahead and opted to continue riding and meet them at our planned hostel for that night. Somehow, perhaps due to some poor map reading on my part, as well as bad understanding and directions from locals, I ended up on the wrong side of some mountains down a dirt track through a village and on to who knows where! On stopping once again to ask for directions, a man managed to communicate to me through sign language that I was going in the right direction but was on the wrong road.

On my way back among the dirt road I came across two French girls doing The Loop, and appearing to make the same mistake as me. After a little confusion, and some very lovely women trying and failing to help us on our way, we were back on the right road. I made it to the hostel by 13.30 and had a lazy afternoon waiting for the others to arrive.

We had a much more relaxed start to day three, and our little crew had gone from three to four as we had met a lone Dutch guy who was doing The Loop and had similar sight seeing plans for the day. Our first objective was to visit a waterfall within walking distance from our hostel. As always seems the case, the 3km trail became a 3km amble through the jungle. It wasn’t without reward however, our path being shared with countless butterflies such a diverse range of colours and sizes. The waterfall itself was nice but not overly impressive, apparently a whole different sight during wet season.

Around lunch time we returned to our bikes to complete the one hour drive to the main sight of the day, Kong Lor cave. This cave has a river running through from one end to the other and is so immense in scale it takes around a 45 minute journey in a motorised canoe to travel through it.

We met a Dutch couple here who we had seen each evening at the different stopover points, and they told us about some nice bungalow rooms they had heard about as a place to stay that night. Following them out the cave to the main road we reached the destination in minutes and after a quick room inspection all agreed we were content spending the night there. They were a simple but beautiful set up, a row of attached rooms with blue roofs, with a walkway along the front. With the mountainous back drop to finish the picture we couldn’t ask for anything more.

Noticing the sun was setting to the right of our front doors, we realised it would be rising to our left over the mountains in the morning, and decided this would be an excellent opportunity to take a sunrise picture of our group. And so at 5.30am the following morning up were we, waiting for the perfect shot. What we had failed to take into account however, was that although the sun may rise around this time, it would take a little longer to make it’s way over the mountain. So an hour and a cup of coffee or tea (several of which had to be taken back due to the unwanted addition of ants) later we were finally able to get the perfect shot!

Setting off just after 8am we drove at a steady pace enjoying the last of the incredible views before hitting the highway (which we had been told was much less impressive) for the final leg. Our final treat appeared halfway down a winding mountain road where we pulled off into a marked viewpoint area. We were met with a sight that reminded me of a scene from ‘Lord of the Rings’, a sea of slate like rock creating jagged mountain tops, a huge contrast to the usual green.

Shortly after here we hit the highway and the final 100km of our journey. We reached the hostel mid afternoon, our bodies a little numb in parts and aching in others, but all feeling rather happy and accomplished.