After hiring a motorbike — we'd arrived in Tha Khaek by bus after an eleven-hour ordeal — we hit the road before 9am, heading first for a cluster of caves in the surrounding area.
The Buddha Cave — which isn't worth the detour — was only a few kilometres from Tha Khaek. Entry cost 2,000 kip per person, plus another 2,000 kip to park the bike. It was barely a tiny cave with a handful of small Buddha figurines that you weren't even allowed to photograph.
Reminder: 1 euro equals 10,400 kip, so 2,000 kip is less than 20 euro cents.
Pa Fa Cave was far more interesting — no entry fee and significantly bigger, with several entrances leading to a still pool of water inside.
At the foot of the Buddha Cave
After skipping several other caves marked on the map — more of the same, we figured — we carried on to Tha Falang, a lovely spot overlooking the river and its surroundings.
Views at Tha Falang
After those obligatory stops, I steered us onto the back roads with just a couple of fuel stops (each time we pulled into a petrol station we'd put in 1 or 2 litres at 10,000 kip a litre) and one lunch break for the classic noodle soup.
Our lunch: noodle soup with mystery meat and sticky rice
The first 100 kilometres had been comfortable enough, if a bit dull — the road was decent and almost completely straight. But after the turning towards the Vietnam border, the surface turned to sand and gravel.
And then, a few kilometres further on, that surface became a track riddled with potholes, boulders, holes, and stretches of sand so deep they looked like a beach. Riding became a genuine ordeal — what might have been fun with one person on a trail bike was complete madness with two people, a massive backpack, and the cheapest Chinese motorbike on the market.
Even so, I managed to get us both to Tha Long in one piece — a village near the Nomtheun River — while enjoying the landscapes around us.
On the way to Tha Long
Another stunning panorama on the Loop
We pulled into the Sabaidee guesthouse — a decent enough place for 50,000 kip. The food was a touch pricier than we'd like (30,000 kip for a full breakfast), but I'll admit it was pretty good.
When we arrived we were so exhausted we didn't even bother using the free Wi-Fi to check our emails, and we barely managed more than 30 minutes of conversation with the friendly owner. We didn't even last long by the fire.
We were absolutely shattered — so after dinner, we went straight to bed to recover for day two.
Other posts about the Loop you might find useful:
