Thakhek Loop Pt. 1 — The road liss traveled

Onto the 4th largest city in Laos (90,000 people), the city of Thakhek. After getting dropped off in the town center, I walked into the first hotel I saw, $22 for a room with a balcony, perfect. $1 cheaper than booking online too, oh yeah. But there was no time to waste lounging in the room, it was getting late in the afternoon and I wanted some sunset photos among the karst formations nearby. I picked up a scooter rental down the street and I was outta town.

Now this is where we’re starting to get into that quintessential Laos scenery! A few minutes later you could see the karsts in the distance, those big green humps that look like they could be part of a Mario world. It’s basically guaranteed to be a lovely ride among the karsts. Although I did get kinda skunked finding a good sunset photo. Sometimes you can never find just the right spot, the right angle with the sun, a clear view, an interesting foreground, etc. Alas.

Couldn’t get a sunset shot. But still very nice

As for Thakhek, I liked it more than Pakse, it’s smaller, quainter, the downtown is right on the river, there’s a proper night market, with live music even! I met a British girl in the hotel lobby to eat with, who just finished the loop so she gave me the rundown on the highlights and good places to stop. There’s lots of caves to choose from, too many actually, and not all that much information online. I learned many of the caves are flooded out during rainy season, and that some aren’t even marked on google maps! What? In 2025?! Crazy.

So the next day I was off on the bike, cloudy in the morning like usual. The first part of the loop is some of the best scenery on the whole trip, driving through the karsts. Although there is a lot of truck traffic going to/from Vietnam, with a lot of big potholes, so the actual riding can be a bit unpleasant at times. The big trucks have no regard for bikes, you’d better get to the shoulder of the road! And then you go through a potholed section and pass them up, only for them to come roaring back on your ass again.

I stopped in two different caves, although one was flooded and you couldn’t get anywhere close to the mouth of it. The other was very commercialized, with garish colored lighting. You could take a boat up the river through it for a bit, which I was going to do, but they wanted double the posted price because I was one person. Oh fuck off. Of course I regretted this a few moments later. It’s an extra $7.50 lol. But I was in the mood to be on the open road, there would be many more caves.

The next hour was more pretty landscapes and small villages before turning north and getting off the road with all the trucks. From here the land flattened out a bit, the sun came out, the road was good, no traffic, just easy riding. It was hot though! I stopped at a small waterfall to cool off, which is a swimming hole in dry season, but the water level and current were too high in rainy season for swimming. Hmmph.

A few hours and brief stops later I was at Saibadee guesthouse, where almost everyone stays on this relatively desolate part of the loop. I’ve gotta give props to whoever built this place, I’m guessing they predicted the rise in popularity of the Thakhek loop pretty well, and then monopolized it in this section. It’s got single rooms, dorms, camping, a huge outdoor common area, bbq area, bag toss, volleyball etc. Every day they do a massive all you can eat BBQ that everybody goes to. So it’s a good spot to hang out and meet other people on the loop, and it’s guauranteed you will run into some of these people again further on the loop. It’s a very young crowd however, like most of southeast asia.

These weird lakes with dead trees are from the excess water from the big dam/hydro-electric project in the region

The next day was more caves, a scenic swimming hole to take a break in the early afternoon, and then finishing in the village of Kong Lor. The Kong Lor Cave is the main attraction on the loop, a massive cave with a river running through it for 7km. But first I’d take one day to explore the sights around Kong Lor. I stayed in a new resort along the river. They have gorgeous river view rooms for $80/night, but they also have these smalled raised bungalows connected by cute wooden walkways for only $15/night with an online deal. I’ll take one of those please, haha. The property was really well done, with a restaurant, lounge area, firepit, and river access with kayaks. Although this was not the place for socializing, being low season, and weekday, there was basically nobody there (just one French couple) as it’s not a backpackery type place. Whatever, I’ll take the whole place to myself!

The next day I scootered down the road for 10km to another cave. You pay $2, they give you a headlamp, and you’re on your own. In dry season you can apparently go over 20kms into this cave! That’s such a cool thing about Laos. A massive cave system, and it’s almost completely untouched, hardly any tourists, and you just go. Just don’t hurt yourself and expect any help! Although being wet season, I quickly learned you could not be exploring very far into this cave without swimming.

But you know what, why not go cave swimming? I ditched all my stuff and went off with just my swimsuit and headlamp. It’s not like it was all swimming, some parts were dry sand, sometimes it was knee deep water, and only some parts you actually had to paddle. This was quite exhilarating. Swimming solo into the deep darkness of a huge cave with only a torch gets your heart beating a bit! Although for most of the time I could see the small speck of light behind me from the mouth of the cave. Once I lost that and it was completely dark on all sides it got pretty creepy. Not like fun creepy, but scary creepy. And I’m not a total idiot, if something happened to my torch or it fell in the water it would be really bad, so I didn’t go too much further after I couldn’t see the entrance. But that was really fun! And it really is pretty wild that you can even do something like that as a random tourist. Laos is great.

That afternoon it was back to the resort to enjoy some overpriced smoothies overlooking the river and take their kayak out for a bit. There’s a natural spring that empties into the main river that you can paddle up to for a mile or two. Great. It made me wonder what other kayak spots are out there in Laos, undiscovered. Same with rock climbing spots. When I got back to the resort, it looked like I wouldn’t have it to myself tonight. Chinese tour group! Aghghh. The last thing you want to see if you’re hoping for chill vibes, peace and quiet – or any food left at the breakfast buffet. They were fine actually, I just made sure to time my dinner at a separate time from them.