Kong Lor Cave, Laos
February 14-17, 2014
The tiny village of Kong Lo was a little off the beaten track and takes a little effort and patience to get here so we enjoyed much less tourism and more of local village life. People and children are still very happy to greet you and its about as authentic to rurual living as you can get. It has a beautiful setting amongst the mountains with green fields of rice or tabacco (depending on the time of year)...For us, it was fields of tobacco since its the dry season. Our main purpose was to visit The Kong Lor Cave which is a 8km river filled cave that you hire a wooden boat to float through and experience its wonders.
Our Accommodation - Phonsouke Guesthouse
We found an amazing place to stay called Phounsouk Guesthouse (unfortunately, there is no link to provide). Run by a local family, it was only built a few years ago and is quite charming. The family tried so hard to please and were so sweet. There are a few guesthouses now available in the village or people can also choose a a "homestay" with a local family where you share meals and daily living with them.
Arriving in Kong Lo Village
In SE Asia, there's always 10 different ways of getting to the same destination..Our trip started with a 6:00am ride on a back of truck called a "Songthaew" up through the mountains and we absolutely froze with no proper warm clothing.
Four hours later, we finally arrived....perhaps, with a better story than if it had gone smoothly!
Photo's of Kong Lo Village
This is a tiny rural village where people grow crops of rice during the wet season and tobacco during the dry season. Life is simple here with extremely limited services and amenities. It was an authentic experience and we really enjoyed our time here interacting with the locals as best we could with two words of Lao knowledge:
"Sabaidee" (hello) and "Khop Jai" (thank you)!
Kong Lor Cave
To visit you walk about 2km from Kong Lo village to the mouth of the cave where boatmen with wooden boats will take you through the cave and back again for a fixed price. The cave lies within a national protected area so its maintained quite well. Inside the cave are stalagmite formations which you have to chance to explore. The boat tours are not yet "tourism ready" meaning they speak little or no English so there isn't any information or guiding but its still a fun trip worth doing. We met up with a nice woman from Italy and was able to share the boat cost. At the other side of the cave was a tranquil little village where we were able to buy a beer and enjoy the surroundings. Kong Lor Cave,