Loopers

Our scooter that we rented for our Loop ride, not quite like Steve Larsons motor bike.

When we were on Don Det we met an English couple who had done The Loop near Thakhek on a scooter. They said that it was the highlight of their trip in Laos, so Pete and I thought we would do it. It is a 4 day loop ride through some spectacular scenery. We had a great time. We rented our scooter from Mad Monkey rentals. It was a Honda 125, a great scooter, we had it up to just over 100kms. I had a turn riding it, of course I am not quite as confident as Pete but I enjoyed it. Parts of the road were spectacular for riding. Pete would have loved driving his Fraser through here. The Loop is quite popular amongst tourists. People going around the pool are called Loopers and we met a few during our trip. 

Yep ... this really was on our scooter us and Pooh Bear ... loopers!

We spent a lot of time under ground ... there are lots of caves on the Loop, this was the first one we stopped at. We met three other Loopers here from Finland, the UK and the States and we went through the cave together. We kept bumping into them from time to time.

Not far up the road from our first cave it started to bucket down with rain. We stopped of at this shelter and very soon some locals joined us. I guess it is a regular shelter stop for scooterists when it rains.  This was the first dump of real rain we have had since we left VT. 

We rode through a few of these trees in water. This area has been flooded for hydro power purposes. I thought they looked quite stark and beautiful. Pete was appalled at the loss of natural forest and at the way the local villages were forced out of their homes. 

This part of the road is new, the white line struggled to stay in the centre of the road. We thought it was really funny. I am not sure this photo really shows it clearly, our scooter side got narrower and narrower and the other side is quite wide. 

Holiday Home by the lake.

. This guy is from Nebraska I don't remember his name but he has been travelling non-stop for over four years. He has lived in NZ and Australia and is heading for London. His scooter got a puncture and he stopped at this village to get it fixed. The Laos people are very resourceful. There were quite a few breast feeding mothers in this village, looked like they had had their babies about the same time. I was intrigued by them and wondered whether they delivered in hospital or at home in their village. My hunch is they delivered at home. There was not a hospital anywhere near them and I did not see many cars.

Does this colour remind you of anything family?

Logging is supposed to be restricted in Laos. There is a lot of illegal logging and most of the logs end up in Vietnamese factories. They are making a fortune by making furniture out of very old hard wood taken from the rain forests. You can see where they have been felling, I guess much like NZ and the West Coast. This truck was parked on the side of the road. Note the length of the logs. They get across the boarder by bribing the soldiers and in many cases its the army itself that is doing the logging. 

We stopped to buy some gas. I have never seen a gas pump like this before. When the glass cylinder on top of the drum starts to get low you turn the handle and it pumps gas up from the drum into the cylinder. Not long before we stopped here for gas we accidentally rode over a snake trying to cross the road, gave us both a fright. 

This is a tobacco drying shed. We loved this valley, it is so green and lush, with tobacco plants and so quiet. A beautiful valley.

We stumbled upon Enjoy Boy Guesthouse?? I am guessing lucy will get a chuckle out of this.

There is lots of lime stone here in the rivers and the caves. Reminded us of Cave Stream. We have had many great adventures into that Cave.

Tobacco ... so green and lush. This valley felt quite affluent to us. 

Yes ... we actually went into this cave. It is 7kms long and takes and hour to get through to the other side. 

These are the boats that took us through. I did have a bit of a melt down at the start. All I could see was dark and I panicked ... a bit. Since the CTV collapse I get quite agitated when things are low over my head.  But Pete talked me through my anxiety after I had yelled at our guide to stop the boat. I am glad that I did not let my thoughts get the better of me.

This is taken inside the cave ... there are so many stalagtites and stalagmites in here. They are incredible and have obviously been growing for millions of years. I found the cave a real highlight. I have never been in a cave like this before, it really was spectacular! They have lighted walkways so that people can get out and walk around.

Coming out the other side. There is always light at the end of the tunnel. For many years no one used the cave. The people in the nearby village were too scared to go in. In the 1920s someone went through for the first time and since then it has become quite a thoroughfare.We do meet interesting people on the way, we met an Italian couple in the cave who are living in China because the economy in Italy is so bad.

On the other side of the cave is a village that was bombed badly by the US in the 1960s. During the Vietnam war the US dropped billions of dollars of bombs on Laos. Many of them remain in the ground unexploded. Every year local people and children are killed or maimed by them So far no real compensation or help to remove them has been given.  We saw these hanging cans at the place we stopped, I thought they were clever  and a great way of recycling Coke cans. Maybe something for the Matthews children to do for Christmas.

Rod & Tom would have had a lot of fun fishing here.  

Pete and I went for a swim in the river at the end of our boat trip through the cave. It was refreshing. We met a German couple here who are coming out to NZ towards the end of their trip, they are flying into ChCh. We have invited them to come visit and we can help them plan their trip round NZ. We have invited a lot of people to come and stay with us, hopefully they won't all turn up at the same time.  

This is the only grave site that we have seen since we have been in SE Asia. I had to take a photo. It took me a while to figure out what it was.  

There are lots of trees like this in the jungle ... their trunks look white and they stand out. I think they look spectacular.

Another cave ... we stopped of to visit this one on our way back to Thakhek. This cave is huge! More like a cathedral. Very Lord of the Rings.

Inside ... these stairways make it easy to walk around. I love the look of them. This is a very popular cave to visit by the locals it seemed.

We found this note on the door of a restaurant we ate at. The man that served us was very stressed the night we ate there. When we came back the next night this sign was on the door. 

Pete cakes himself in this every day. His protection against Malaria along with our daily dose of Malarone. He does not leave our room before he sprays himself. He says he is taking all precautions.

We carry this very large can of fly spray with us to every hotel we stay in, Pete has all avenues covered. He wants total protection. If we are not killing of mosquitoes I think we are killing ourselves slowly.