Thakhek Part 2

Main street of the city. There wasn't much going on.

Town center. Not much going on here either.

"What a shit hole (Thakhak) but do "the loop" only reason to come to this God forsaken town." I guess it's a good thing I decided to do the loop. 

"The Loop." 360 mile loop starting at the south west intersection near Thakhek, then counter-clockwise starting at Route 12. The loop is dotted with many caves to explore. The great thing about being on a motorcycle is having complete freedom to choose when and where to stop. 

This is the typical view for most of the ride. Took this just after leaving Thakhek.

I stopped for a snack. The days were rather hot and I stopped often for drinks at little road side shops like this.

This was the first cave I stopped at. I explored and enjoyed it but ended up skipping all the other caves until the last cave of the trip which is the biggest. Why? Because I had the freedom to do so. 

These goats guarded the path that I had to walk along to get back to my motorcylce. The goat to the left kept staring at me so it took some time before I was able to walk back.  

Action shot of my motorcycle. 

The roads at time were questionable. Also, cows roamed freely. From what I gathered after talking to a local, theft isn't an issue and at the end of the day the farmers go out to collect their livestock. 

My home for a night. 

Inside.

One of the interesting characters I met along my travels. 

 

Probably the second most challenging day of my travels. I got a flat in the middle of nowhere. I was almost a two hour ride from my hostel from the night before. I had made it a habit of purchasing SIM cards in each country and I managed to make a phone call to the hostel from the night before requesting help and then my phone died. I sat for almost five hours and saw almost nobody. Finally a truck came by and all the guys happily hopped out and put my bike on the back of the truck. Five minutes later the guy from the hostel showed up and we transferred the bike to his truck. Turns out a three inch long nail had embedded itself in my tire ... in the middle of nowhere...

First meal after not eating all day. 

I had two choices once I had my bike fixed. First was to go back the way I came along paved and populated roads or venture again through the jungle and dirt roads. After some debate in my head, I decided to man up and continue on. After several tense hours of riding and hitting some large potholes, I made it to paved roads again.

UXO stands for un-exploded ordinance. I saw this sign way too much. 

29KM away from the big cave. 

Some local children stopped to pose for a picture. 

Finally I've made it to the water of the largest cave. It is almost 17km long of complete darkness. 

Emerging from the other side. 

  

The area surrounding the cave was so beautiful I stopped and stayed for two days to relax. 

Local houses. 

 

Among other things, my motorcycle lacked a working odometer, gas gauge, one turn blinker, and one rear view  mirror. My bike came to a halt halfway between the highway and the cave. Almost right away some locals stopped to help, while laughing a bit at me, and got me to the next gas station. Feeling bad about not repaying the kindness of the previous locals, I bought all the guys in the truck drinks since it was a rather hot day. 

After almost 5 full days on a motorcycle I was burnt out. I spent the next few days doing almost nothing. 

I used this opportunity to do some cleaning. Went through my money belt and realized I had currencies from five different countries!