Laos - Thakhek Loop

We wake up and as every morning on the island we make our way to the sunrise set to buy the Samosa. OMG those Samosa are so addictive. 4000 for a coconut one 5000 for the chicken (less than 2 EUR). Next to this place a travel agency .. Oh cool let’s ask to go to Thakhek, at first we maybe wanted to stop at Parske but I heard that it was not that nice, so Thakhek it is. We arrive to Thakhek at night and check in at the travel lodge.

Again a great bus.

DAY 1 OF THE LOOP

On the morning we rent the scooter at the place next to it. It’s 80 000 for an automatic and 100 000 a day for a normal scooter. A bit more expensive than the other place but it’s next to the travel lodge and they offer to keep our bags for free.

At this time we met Geoffrey and Justine a French couple and decided to take the road together. First stop the petrol and then finding some sunglasses for Alena.

Few stop are on the road for the first day. The first cave is not that amazing, the second one neither but the road is amazing. The last stop is a nice waterfall (10 000 to enter park the scooter).

Being on this scooter bring me back this amazing feeling of freedom, the landscape is just amazing, the road perfect, the kids very smily. The best of this day was maybe the restaurant where we stop and I don’t remember the name.

Arriving at the end of the first loop we decided to watch the sunset, and what a sunset. I love it a lot. At night, we stop at the Sabadee guest house, we got a 3 bedrooms for 80 000 (after all the Travel lodge was 100 000). Their is not many option to stop the 1st night and we heard about a BBQ for 50 000 at the Sabadee guest house. Few beers and discussion later, the BBQ arrives, it looks good, taste less good. At 10 pm it’s time to make our way yo bed, we have a long road tomorrow.

DAY 2 OF THE LOOP

We start the loop very early our goal was to get to Lak Soa for eating, there we stop randomly on the right side of the road before following the Kong lor signs. The lunch was amazing, one of the best Pho we ate so far. Some Laos people offer us Vodka that we refused, we have to drive.

The next stop was the cool springs, we saw pictures but it was nothing compares to when we arrive there, this place is magic, the water is so welcome for 2 hours bathing and taking videos.

We still have 2 hours before reaching the cave city, we take the road around 1 pm. It’s a straight road but with a lot of holes, we drive carefully and finally check in in Easy boy hostel for 50 000 2 single bed and a rat on the roof.

For dinner we heard that Kounme was one of the only option but also the worst one. A lot of google comments for food poisoning so we continue our way. 1, 2 restaurant later they don’t serve food they all send us back to the same place. After 30 minutes walking on the only main road we finally stop at the main guesthouse where we found all the people we cross on the road, back to the hostel we got lost and stop a guy of the village on a motorbike that bring us home. Long night girls discussion, no wifi and a rat on the roof, the perfect night where we notice that we only have few days left to finish Laos before heading to Vietnam. So we decided to finish the road in 3 days instead of 4 planned.

DAY 3 OF THE LOOP

This day was a long day but not as difficult as they were telling us, first we visited the cave in the city, it’s giant and dark and nice at the same time. At the end of the cave you get out and there the magic happen the vegetation and the water look perfect. We stop at a village for a small walk

where we found the saddest and most beautiful monkey.

Back to the cave, it’s time to hit the road. The way look amazing, some people that planned to do it in 3 days join us for the ride, it’s safer, we all follow each other until they got tired, we continue the way for 30 minutes and reached Thakhek at 6 pm. The time to get a shower and take a Tuk Tuk to the main bus station. An overnight bus is waiting for us to get to Vientiene where we can book an other one to go to Viang Veng our destination for the next days.