Born to be Wild: The Super Deluxe Mega- Montage!

You've been waiting for it, and here it is. We have painstakingly put together this unbelievably astounding montage, to the tune of Born to be Wild, by Steppenwolf, the winner of our latest competition.

So enjoy the latest creation. It's WILD!!!

Special Announcement! Motorbike Song Winner!

We have selected a winner for the best motorbike trip song to listen to!

Born To Be Wild!

However, we've changed the prize. Since Ricky's guitar has a big crack in it, we decided that an acoustic version of the song might not be so much of a prize as it would be a punishment. Instead, you get...wait for it... a super deluxe mega-MONTAGE! With the song playing! It's going to be amazing! And since tomorrow we're going to to a monkey-forest, we may get some good footage for the "wild" bit of the song!

Now, I know you're all anxious to see this epic piece of filmography, but you'll just have to wait. While you do, you can watch this:

360 Degrees: The Best Kind of View

Well, there's not a whole lot to report right now. We're a little tired today, after the outrageously exciting time we had last night watching the Expendables 2. Ricky liked the explosions; I liked the Chuck Norris joke told by Chuck Norris.

Now it's my turn: I'm off to pick up some ice-cream before we lay down to watch Gone with the Wind. Ricky's never seen it, and I haven't seen it in ages. He may hate it, but frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

I'll leave you now with some sweet sweet pictures Ricky took. The first one is  at the stupa on a hill in the center of Luang Prabang.

Click here to see it. It's a 360 view, so feel free to roam!

Here's the other one. We stopped on the road to get a pic of the surroundings. Once again, it's 360!

Enjoy!

Into the Light: Kong Lor Cave, Part II

If you’re just joining us and haven’t read part one of the fantastic caves of Kong Lor, go and do that now.

I’ll wait.

Ok, welcome back.

After the eagle soared above our heads, we continued a little further upriver until we got out at a small ‘jetty’. It was basically a mound of dirt we had to climb to get out of the boat and onto the shore.

A view from our canoe after leaving the cave.

As we walked up onto the shore there was a small shack where some of the locals and some other guides were waiting. We dropped off our life jackets and started towards the Natane village. We walked along a dirt road and saw that we were clearly in a massive bowl shaped valley, filled with rice paddies all around and with tall karst rocks surrounding them. If any of you have ever seen the movie “The land before time” you’ll have a rough idea of where we were!

The road into the village

The mountains surrounding us.

As we walked further we started to see some signs of life in the form of a few houses on stilts, dozens of chickens and ducks and children, all running around with limitless abandon. It was quite a sight! As we entered the town we realized that this was one of the most remote places we’d ever been.  We asked one of the locals if we could get some food somewhere and as it turned out he was a pleasant guy called Kane.

Unfortunately there was nothing to eat in this tiny tribal village (in hindsight I kinda feel like an idiot for asking) but Kane did lead us up a small ladder into an old woman’s house. The old lady was very pleasant and offered us a few beverages.

Next thing we knew we were sitting in this woman’s home with a sleeping baby swinging next to me in a basket, sipping a Beer Lao with this old lady, a Lao guy called Kane and little naked two year old running around us.

Talia and our hosts in Natane Village. Kane is the second from the right, and his hand is in front of the little boy.

We sat there for a while and had broken conversations in whatever English Kane could speak, while I tried to teach this two year old how to touch his nose with his tongue.

A typical house in the village.

Soon it was time to leave and catch our boat back through the cave. So we bid farewell to Kane, the old lady and the two year old, with his tongue firmly pushing towards his nose to the point where he was leaning his head back. We waded our way through the ducks and chickens, back down the dirt road and back onto the boat, satisfied with our visit to a Laotian tribe in a hidden valley behind a 7km underground abyss!

We got back onto the boat and headed back through this amazing cave, through more rapids (but downstream this time) getting splashed and dripped on until we came out the other side. 

As we passed through the cave bats flew past us and in the blckness we could roughly see some clusters of sleeping bats, hanging in the dark corners of the cave. As we left the mouth of the cave, waiting for our eyes to adjust to the light, we thought how very much like a dream the whole experience was as we tried to recall the exact shade of darkness it was in the cave, but it was already escaping us.

What a day, we thought, and we hopped back on the bikes and started back for home. Just as some thunder clapped in the distance.

Yep, you guessed it.

Somehow we had managed to leave ourselves stranded 50 odd kilometers away from shelter in a thunder storm. But this wasn’t just a bit of drizzle. The rain came down hard and heavy, and as we drove through it the raindrops hit us with less of a splash and more of a bruising feeling. It was like heaven declared war on earth and opened fire with billions of bb guns. At some points I got a drop of water in my eye, and DAMN did it sting. 

At one point we had enough and we pulled over under an unfinished stilted house on the side of the road, where we thought we could wait it out. Then the water started rising. We found some planks and put our kickstands and back wheels onto them so they wouldn’t get stuck. Meanwhile the water was rising up past our ankles!

We waited and waited for around an hour when the rain finally seemed like it had moved on and we continued down the road back to our hotel, but after a few minutes we had caught up with the rain again and despite trying to persevere for five minutes or so we couldn’t take it anymore and we pulled in to a small restaurant. Clothes soaked and dripping, with my face and neck sore from the raindrops, we stopped off and had ourselves another hot noodle soup along with some weird red meat on skewers (we didn’t ask what it was, and they didn’t answer).

Dried off and ready we headed back towards the village where our hotel was, passing herds of buffalo, chickens crossing the street (we didn’t ask why, and they didn’t answer) until we got home.

Our experience of the Kong Lor caves was amazing and we loved it. 

Into the Dark: Kong Lor Cave, Part I

Yesterday was our first day here in Khoun Kham village and we decided to set off for the main attraction, the Kong Lor caves.

We started the day with a quick noodle soup and after asking for some directions we set off. The cave was a 45 km drive away through some beautiful scenery. We zipped through flat rice paddies along dead straight roads, past wild buffalo, cows, chickens and loads of other wildlife crossing in front us.  The scene was quite beautiful. At the end of the paddy fields these massive karst mountains shot out of the ground. Locals were farming rice and tending to animals as we passed them in their conical straw hats.

After just under an hour we arrived at the entrance to the Kong Lor cave. We put our bikes on their kick stands, bought our tickets and met our tour guides, two locals from the Kong Lor village.

It doesn't look like much, but that is the mouth to the most surreal place on earth.

Now before I go on, let me tell you a few things about Kong Lor cave:

The cave is over 7 kilometers long, 30 meters wide and between 20 and 100 meters high. A few years ago the largest species of spider in the world was discovered there. The cave links Kong Lor and Natane villages, and this cave is the only way to get to Natane village, which lies in a hidden valley on the other side of the cave. Natane village only got electricity in 2011 and the tribe that lives there hasn't had much influence from the outside world.

Getting closer!

As our guides were showing us down to our boats, I noticed one of them had a severe scar on his face, as if a large animal had attacked him. I mean seriously, like his cheek was missing on one side and you could see his teeth sticking out. Talia was not happy at my ‘joker’ reference…

The guide with the huge scar on his face, heading to the canoe.

We crossed the river, entered the cave and got into another boat inside the cave, where it became dark almost immediately. The ceiling was low and wide. It felt like we were being swallowed by some giant beast. We put on our headlights (which didn't do much; it was like a candle in a huge cathedral or a stadium) and the guides raced our boat through the cave, through bats, rapid water and god knows what else.

We got out of the boat onto a sandy beach inside the cave and walked along behind the guide in the darkness. We could hear water rushing in the distance and oddly loud drips of water closer by. 

Ready for a ghost story?

We stopped a couple of times along our walk to look at the stalagmites, stalactites and columns along the way, some of which were unbelievable.

In the cave I decided to see the musical applications for these natural rock formations:

After a while we got back into the boat and continued on, speeding through the blackness. Eventually we saw some strong light as we rounded a corner and we realized that we were nearing the end. Just as we got the camera ready the boat started to hit some white water rapids, and I noticed the guide who was sitting behind me driving the boat had gotten out!

I looked around for the guides when I saw them at the front of the boat pulling us through the rapids. Once we had gotten through the rapids the guides got back in and drove us out of the mouth (or arse…) of the cave. The view was exceptional, with jungles, rapid water and towering mountains all around us.

Just then as we were puttering along the river the guide let out a yelp and pointed upwards, and I looked up, just in time  to see an eagle with its wings fully spread gliding right over our heads and land on a tree branch to our left. As I sat there in this little canoe I thought to myself “how could this get any better?!”

But it did! See you in part 2!