7.5km of cave to be precise....
The cave was carved out through the karst by the river - so the best (& only!) way to see it is by long tail boat.
However these were considerably smaller boats than I've been in before - no fancy chairs, life jackets provided and only 2 inches of clearance above the water, needless to say we got wet!
The cave was pretty spectacular - in places the ceiling soars to 100m high and when we stopped to look at the rock formations the stalagmites and stalactites were impressive (especially because of the lighting - everything else was pitch black!). We also saw bats hanging from the ceiling.
When we had done our successful pass through the cave - which involved climbing a rapid, some weren't so successful at that! - we paused at the village the otherside and grabbed some refreshments. Shortly it was back on the boat and back to the rapids - whilst we made those we did get grounded on gravel banks inside the cave a few times - luckily for us the boat guys got out and pushed!
That evening we enjoyed a movie marathon when we should have been out in the village enjoying the opening celebrations for the end of Buddhist lent. Those that did go took part in the ceremony and blessing and then the traditional dancing etc. However for most of us overindulging in the Lao Lao the night before meant a lack of motivation to get out and join in!
On the way to the border town of Thakek we stopped at a secret location surrounded by rock formations for lunch - unsurprisingly it's well known by the climbing community.
On arrival in Thakek we were met by hordes of crowds - the boat festival was on to celebrate the end of Buddhist lent - the ceremonies to bless the boats had been the night before.
We managed to see a few boat races from the edge of the packed street we were staying on - prime location for all the activities, centred between about 7 soundstages, no point trying to sleep so we had to join the party!
To start off we saw paper lanterns being lit & flying majestically away into the night sky. Also offerings of flowers were being made and candles in them lit before they were floated down the river. Large floats of lights in the shape of ships came down the river - firing out fireworks periodically.
It was all a bit manic with hand launched fireworks whizzing above the crowd - paper lanterns either failing to rise or going up in flames.But after a few beers you didn't really mind that - so off we went to one of the loud sound stages to dance like falangs amidst the young Lao people!
The people were very welcoming for the whole of the festival - although we stood out so obviously and we got a lot of stares for wearing shorts or singlet tops. A few women stopped to stare at us and attempted to ask questions - but there was a bit of a language barrier. We managed to communicate that we liked the falang music, but we also knew Laos style dancing - that got a laugh out of them!
Some of the older women and kids would also come up to us and grab and rub our arms - I'm not 100% sure why - think they were checking to see if our whiteness came off! They were more confused with those of our group with deep tans!
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