The Bolaven Plateau and waterfalls had taken us 80km on a round trip out of our way, off Route 13 and once off the main roads some are metaled and some are simply dirt roads that slows up the journey considerably, but it's all part of the fun. Our sturdy 'Ford Everest' 4x4, a comfortable, but fairly heavy and cumbersome vehicle that took a bit of time to get used to the braking distances was standing us in good stead.
It was a long drive down to Si Pha Don, but we needed to keep good time, to reach the Four Thousand Islands as soon as we could. However the further we headed south, the closer we were getting to a distant and fairly large storm. We had been warned not to drive after dusk as the roads became particularly dangerous with drunk drivers and vehicles without lights together with all those things crossing the roads in the day that were still crossing them in the night! ..... only at night, they became almost invisible. It looked like to make up time we would have to drive some of the way in the dark, which I was not looking forward to, but this would give us more time to chill out when we got to our destination.With the looming dark clouds above, dusk came early and it wasn't long before we hit the storm, which was a pretty impressive one. First of all the wind started blowing, with trees being thrashed about infront of us, looking as if they would be blown over at any minute. There was no rain yet but we were surrounded by black clouds and lightening. .... Then the rain started in between lightening strikes, in very quick succession and huge claps of thunder. The rain was some of the heaviest we had ever seen and the streak lightening was all around us, some of it fantastic to watch but the children by this time were feeling a little uncomfortable and constant 'wow' sounds where coming from the back as another bolt of lightening hit the ground somewhere ahead, then a sudden crack of thunder right above us. ......... On the bright side there was not a lot on the road because of the weather, which meant fewer things to hit, ................... or perhaps they all new something that we didn't? ..... and I must admit it was getting a little worrying. We eventually saw the sign for Wat Phou and turned off the main road toward it, in the hope of finding somewhere to stay, however, once again, the rain was belting down, with thunder and lightening all over and certainly no sign of accomodation. After a couple of huge streaks of lightening, that seemed to hit the ground a mile or so ahead of us, we decided to call it a day and turn away from our destination and attempt to drive through the storm, heading south for The Four Thousand Islands, another 140km away. We eventually came out of the other end, the rain disappeared but the lightening could be seen all around us for quite some time, but unscathed, quite impressed and glad to be in one piece, we now needed a bed for the night, as soon as possible.
We stopped at a very basic business guest house/motel on the way down in one off the villages near Si Phan Dhon. A bit off the beaten track and not mentioned in the guide books and although very basic, it was cheap and a welcome rest. We tried the food at their restaurant, which was edible and our hunger made it taste even better and we got chatting to a group of men that were writing for a Thai guide book. They mentioned a local fish market that was going on at 7am tomorrow morning nearby and also one of South East Asia's largest waterfalls (by volume), that was also nearby, so we decided to take a look in the morning before heading for the Islands. We got to the market early and wandered around. It was not only a fish market, with all different types and sizes of fish laid out on the floor of each stall together with live frogs with their back legs tied to stop them escaping, but also a meat and vegetable market. The butchers stands were very impressive with every possible bit of the animal laid out in front of you and if you weren't sure from what animal it came, you needen't worry .................. it's HEAD was on the corner of the table to let you know!!! ................... And if that wasn't enough to make you feel peckish for breakfast you could always grab a quick bag (large green leaf) of fried bugs to nibble while you browsed the produce!!! ............................. maybe we'll skip breakfast!!
We left the market, buying a few mango's for breakfast and headed for Khone Phapheng Waterfall, which spans 14km across the mighty Mekong River. It is listed as the worlds widest waterfall, but by western standards is more like a huge tumbling rapid than a high fall. We climbed down the rocks to get a closer view - no elf and safety here - and had a fresh mango breakfast ................. with a view.
Don Khong was the largest of the Four Thousand Islands, 18km long and 8km wide, the islands of which comprise an archipelago of sandbars and rocky islets in an area of the Mekong River which is 14km at its widest point. It was a fairly laid back and relaxed island and with an hour and half's boat trip to the smaller island of Don Khon, it was possible to see the rare fresh water Irrawaddy Dolphins, however sightings were not gauranteed. We tried some of the local food on Don Kong, which certainly wasn't Laos food at its best and the accomodation was fairly limited, so after a tour of the Island (which if we are honest was not as scenic as we had anticipated) in the car, in the intense heat of the day, we decided to head away from Si Phan Don, back to The World Heratige site of Wat Phu in Champasak, that we had turned back from in yesterdays storm. We had heard that there was a little known fishing Island called Don Daeng here, off the beaten track and a French Company had recently set up a Hotel called 'La Folie Lodge Hotel', which comprised a number of timber chalets overlooking the beach (Mekong River beach), with a stunning backdrop of the mountains at Champasak, on the other side of the river. This was 140km trip north of the Four Thousand Islands, but a trip we felt was worth doing, and following a reasonable journey we came across the signs for Wat Phou and took a left turn off the main road, this time travelling down this same stretch of road in the daylight and not the horrendous storm of the night before!!
In-between villages we could make up time on the roads but one slight problem was bridges and there were many road bridges along the way ranging from 20m to 60m long. Now for the first 100km, the bridges were level with the road, as you would normally expect, so the transition from road to bridge was un-noticeable and there was no need to change speed. However, somewhere around the 100km mark, things changed for the next 50km ......... the bridges weren't quite level with the roads. This would result in a large dip in the road just before the bridge with a sharp rise up to the bridge level, but this was completely un-noticeable until you were actually about 10m from the bridge?!! ........................ trying to remember exactly which bridge this change occurred was the difficult bit!! ....................... We eventually found the bridge that indicated the start of the change over and like a scene out of ' The Dukes of Hazard ' we managed to get all 4 wheels off the ground, to the sound of "yeeeehaaa" from the boys in the back as Freddie bashed his head on the car roof, whilst 'Daisy Duke" (minus attributes), couldn't stop laughing and shouting "Again!! ..... Again!" .............................. I don't think so!! .......... Bridges for the next 50km would now be taken at very slow speed. However, clearly not slow enough!! ..... Just before a pit stop at Thakhek every car was being pulled over by military police, including us. Pleading ignorance and claiming not to understand, our officer insisted, with a large smsile, I was speeding, "you went through speed trap, please get out of car" ................. oh great!! thats all I need!! .... Now, a tourist being pulled over by the police means pound signs!! and I didn't have a lot of money on me! ....... so I was envisaging perhaps at least a couple of years chained up in a Laos prison, on nothing but bread and water, ........ well and probably eggs for breakfast, as that is what we always got for breakfast in Laos!! ......... I think we were each on 14 eggs a week!! ....... I was escorted over to an open tent where I joined another four smiling military policemen who showed me what speed I was doing in their litle note book. 90 had been written down next to my number. Clearly they had been in a slight disagreement as to what figure to put down, as several numbers appeard to have been written beneath the 90 and the number before mine, that was the car infront of me, was only doing 70!! ............. and he got away scot free!! ........... how does that work. After a little complaining, they asked for 50,000 kip (about $6) smiled, exchanged a few jokes, while they wrote out my ticket and we were on our way. ......................... Harsh, but Fair, thats what I say!!
It was a long trip and we eventually reached the turn off point for Kong Lor Cave. It was 85km to the cave and the first 40km were very winding and slow. At one point we saw a young local standing on the side of the road having come out of the jungle, with a rifle!! .......... That was a little nerve racking as we had heard tales from some of the other countries we had visited of historic hold ups in certain places ................. hopefully he had just been shooting his supper!! We eventually got off the winding road and turned on to, what used to be a gravel track but now had a metaled surface and was fairly straight alhtough some of the villages were very crowded with locals, scooters and tuk-tuks, so great care was needed!
Imogen surrounded by Butterflies.
We eventually reached Kong Lor Cave, organised our boat, which became 2 boats, and headed for the cave. It was an amazing experience and enterring the cave was extremely eerie, as the light suddenly faded to complete darkness. We all had head torches and this cave was 7.5km long, cutting its way through the huge limestone mountains, with some of the cathedral like ceiling heights reaching distances of up to 100m. The water level was very low and the narrow timber boats would sometimes scrape the bottom in various places. We walked inside the cave at the begining for a short section, winding our way through huge 'stalagmites and stalactites', which the children found awesome and they were very impressive, the children desperately trying to find some small crystal souvenir to remind them of their trip. Before coming out, our boat couldn't restart his engine on a couple of occasions ................ now that was eerie!! ....... all we needed now was the torch batterries to fade and die!!! After coming out of one end and stopping for a snack, we then headed back through for the cave for the return trip and the change in temperature was very noticeabale once you had enterred the cave, with a cool mist washing over you in some of the more caverness areas. When the journey was complete we disembarked from the boat and walked through the water to get back to land, at one point Imogen managed to fall through the last floating bridge section, up to her neck in water!! .............. much to evryones amusement! After drying off we now needed to get back to the Route 13, some 85km away and start eating up some of the journey back to Vientiene, as we had to get there by 11am at the latest the following day. The trouble was dusk was already upon us and I was not keen to drive back through the villages and winding roads, to the Route 13, in the dark, but it looked as though we had little choice. We would try to find some accomodation on the way but it was going to be very limited.
We drove through the first couple of villages which were bussling with life. Everybody was out and about, even the youngest of children would be sitting or playing, literally, on the side of the road. Scooters without lights were everywhere, 2 up, 3 up, without helmets and children as young as probably 8 or 9 were riding scooters! It was extremely difficult to see them until you were almost upon them. The third village we came to was the same, with loud music coming from one of the street stalls, but as we drove out of the village we were suddenly met by a large group of people almost blocking the road, with a tuk-tuk, 4 wheel van, on one side of the road. Thinking through potential situations, I slowed down but drove slowly through the crowd. The incident soon became clear as the wreckage of a scooter was all over the left hand side of the road, almost unrecognisable as a scooter, then the lower half of two bare feet and legs came into view, revealing the body of what looked like an 11 year old girl. She was lying, stretched out, no helmet or protective clothing, but clearly dead in the road, the front of the tuk-tuk completely smashed in, from what looked like a head on collision. Unfortunately, the children could clearly see the body from the car, an image that I suspect will stay with us all for some time to come. A couple of km up the road was a small local hospital, thinly manned, but we called in to make sure they were aware. They had already sent two men out to the scene. A very dark end to a now very dark night, but unfortunately I suspect, a scene that happens all too often on the roads at night in Laos.
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