Its my birfday. The group of us wake up early in the shared room of the guest house, hop on a TukTuk to the bus station, and purchase a ticket on the most crowded bus Ive ever been on. A 45 year old Laos man sits on my lap while i sit on a plastic porch chair in the isle for the three hour journey. At our stop, we climb over the passengers by walking on the bus seats, and fall out of the bus.
We then hire a pickup truck filled with locals for another two hour trip to take us over the moutains. Halfway up the road, villagers pin these little plastic flowers ornaments to our shirts and we continue on. The truck drops us off at this little village with a Laos farmers market in the center. Bowls of blood, corn, rice, bowls of blood, fruit, chickens, more bowls of blood ....whats up with all these bowls of blood? We hop on another pickup filled with Laos women laughing hysterically at me for some reason, and we travel the last leg of our bumpy dusty journey -
On the drive we drive, the pass through these tiny little mountain farming villages filled with the cutest little kids Ive ever seen. Each of the bamboo huts on stilts we pass, an adorable dirty little little kid popping out the window, waving and yelling "Sa-Wa-dee! Sa-Wa-dee!" We scream the same back to her laughing and smiling. The teenage village boy blow kisses at the blond girl with us. A little further up, we see a little 6 year old girl with a machete as tall as her waving but Im too slow with the camera. Damn, so close. Then as we pass the school, a group of little smiling kids in the school yard chase after our truck behind us waving and screaming "Sa-Wa-dee! Sa-Wa-dee! Sa-Wa-dee! " ....just going crazy! We wave back surprised to get such a warm welcome in such a remote place - felt so good.
We stop in a village near the river, pay the truck fee, and walk right through a tobacco field until we arrive at an amazing guest house called Sala Konglor at the base of a cliff and river shaded by huge trees. At night the group of us sit around a camp fire drinking wine and joking till about 2 in the morning. We fall asleep.
In the morning, we wake up and eat breakfast cooked by a crazy backwoods ladyboy in the guesthouse kitchen and at about noon, we walk out of the village and across the dry farmland valley for about an hour until we reach the rivers edge near the entrance to Konglor cave. We negotiate a price for the boats.
As we follow our guide, he leads us to the entrance of the gigantic river cave with little wooden boats at the edge. Konglor cave. A three mile river cave that flows all the way through the center of a masive mountain is listed in the "1000 natural wonders to see before you die"
Nervous, we climb into the tiny little two person boats and take off into the darkness with only the boat guides headlamp leading the way. As our eyes adjust, I realize that we are the only people in this massive cave about a football fields width and a cave ceiling that switches from about two stories high-to places that look as though it can fit the Staue of liberty. - Straight lord of the rings. A few times, the boat runs aground, and we climb out, and walk in cold clear water in the blackness until it gets deep again. Then halfway through the mountain, they take us to a little slope with a trail that leads up to a crazy natural room of Stalactites, stalagmites. and pillar columns untouched, undeveloped, and more impressive than anything Ive ever seen in caves at home. Hope back in the boat and continue on navigating around boulders and little waterfalls. Finally we reach the end of the cave, and the boat guide takes us to a hut at the edge of the riverbank, and we drink beerlaos with our guides.
Super high on life, we head way back to the village we started at the previous day. the Pickup dropps us off at a guest house with an empty disco tek where we have a few beers and relax in the laserlights. Later in the night, 6 beers later and sick of the techno beat, we walk back to our rooms and notice pickups with stacks of mattresses twelve high. We scale the mattresses and lie down on the cushiest bed ever under the stars. That was the end of one of the most amazing days of my life.
Happy Birthday Me.
In the morning I woke up, ate breakfast, and hopped on a tuk tuk to go see the eighth wonder of the world - Ankor Wat. Absolutly breathtaking. Photos of this place dont do it a bit of justice. We spent the whole day crawling around the 6th century ruins; inhabited by huge familys of bats, and slowly loosing the battle of existance to the will of the jungle, I felt a sense of awe in the shadows of the ancient towers of Anchor Wat.
