We were woken up by a loud beeping noise coming from the coach parked outside the rooms as well as a scurry of people dragging their backpacks but thank god we didn't plan to head to the cave early so fell back asleep once the god awful bus pulled out. It was around 9:30 when we awoke and had a shower, we walked over to the restaurant to have some breakfast where we saw Julius sitting alone, diving into his plate of eggs and bacon. Literally everyone who came with us on the coach decided to get to the cave early except from the young'uns. Dan and I ordered breakfast (there was only one available which included eggs, bacon and toast served with very sweet butter, almost as if they added granulated sugar to it, and toast). We were shortly joined by "Bob" and then Sam and Abbey. The weather was nice and warm today, which seemed strange considering how freezing cold and windy last night was! By this time another two people joined us; Walter (a pharmaceutical and real estate don from China, supposedly) and his french travel buddy Elodie.

After we all finished our breakfast we began to walk together down the dirt road to the entrance of the resort where the cave is. We had decided over breakfast that to save some money we would go with three people per boat so bob and Julius would be with either me and dan or Sam and Abbey. We had to pay around 4,000kip to enter the resort of the cave which isn't surprising really. We continued to walk down until we saw a group of old local men sitting on boats and next to them was the ticket office. Once we paid we were handed life jackets and gestured to walk down the steps to the stream. We passed a beautiful blue lagoon just before the mouth of the cave which looked so refreshing and i was regretting not bringing a bikini with me. We walked inside on the pebbles and into a small long boat. Julius sat in the front behind the boatsman, then me, then Dan and behind Dan was another boatsman controlling the engine. The boat kept on rocking from side to side when we got on which was scary for me, even though the water was so shallow in this spot.

We began our journey in the boats, as we travelled away from the mouth of the cave there was very little daylight until the only light e had were the small head lamps on our heads or the very small reflective signs posted around the cave wall to warn of rapids or sharp turns. We shortly parked up near an illuminated passage of beautiful limestone formations, as we all got off the boat i honestly felt like a clanger and had to restrain myself from mimicking the sounds! The formations were so unusual as some of them acted like limestone pillars holding the natural foundations of the cave. There were some lighting around this part as well which made it easier to take photos.

We all proceeded back onto the boat and off again through the very dark and wet surroundings of Kong Lo Cave. The water was very shallow in some places so you could feel the pebbles on the floor scraping against the bottom of the boat and we would occasionally have to get out of the boat on a small strip of dry pebbles for the boatsman to lift the boat out of shallow waters. As we were continuing the journey we could begin to see daylight and we were approaching the exit of the cave which lead straight into the deep blue/green river, we continued up here and got out to make a stop.

Once we all clambered out of the boat we walked up the stairs where there were different stalls to buy drinks and snacks. As we approached one of them, we noticed three small children, anywhere between the ages of 3-7 who was sitting by a small stream of water playing with syringes and needles by collecting the water into the syringe and pushing it out into a water bottle. At first i thought it was just the syringe they were playing with until Elodie came back after taking some close ups of them, and they were indeed playing with needles; something that would never happen in Britain! We all stopped off for a big beer lao and i finished mine before the others which makes a change. The trees around the shops were decorated with fancy cut out coke and fanta cans which looked pretty once it struck the sunlight. We were soon gestured back on the boat by the boatsmen and our journey back commenced.

Going back seemed a lot quicker and more fun as we were travelling with the current and even went through some baby rapids. It was so dark in the cave i wished i'd brought a more powerful torch of my own but most of the inside looked the same and the ceiling was so high at times there was no chance the light from the headlamp would reach so far. We parked up the boats and all got out and began to walk back. I had forgotten about the blue lagoon by the entrance and although no one had brought a swimming costume with them, we all began undressing ourselves till we were in our underwear and jumped in. When i say jumped, i was the last person to get in as i wanted to ease myself into the water slowly. The water was so blue and clean. Some of the boys were jumping off the boulders into the water which was fun to watch. After swimming for around 10 minutes, we got out and got dressed. My knickers were soaked so i didn't put my shorts on, just wore my long top until i was more dry. We ended up getting lunch in a restaurant just near the resort entrance so we all sat down to eat. I ordered a typical lao dish called chicken laarp; minced chicken cooked with mint served with rice, it was yummy but could have done with some more sauce.

When we got back it was only around 16:00, the sun was still out so me and bob rolled a joint then sat out front with the others people watching Lao life around us. Sam had caught hold of some juggling balls and so began playing with the small children trying to teach then how to juggle. Another bus of people arrived and it must have looked so uninviting but we were all sat in a perfect semi circle just watching them all as they got off the bus and handed room keys. There were 2 men who were handed the key to the room we were sitting outside and they ended up changing, maybe he thought we would be loud later in the evening. A french family also came off the coach, a middle aged mother and father who were both very cool and beautiful looking, along with two girls, one being a teenager and the other maybe three years old; she was so cute. The parents left her to play with the chickens and socialise with the lao kids as they took the luggage upstairs, nothing bad could really happen out here and i wish i would be like that family when i'm older, to have kids who are so well travelled and cultural! It was so picturesque watching the sun set behind the mountains while Sam was bobbing about with the kids juggling and the sweet little french girl carrying the kitten around, everything just seemed good. It's a good life.

We then went into the restuarant for dinner again although i don't remember what i got, i know for sure me and dan got pancakes because thats what always happens. At our table was the group who went to the caves earlier on in the day while the newbies were on the other table. At first there was a swedish cave like man who we met who the others called "European" (meaning gay), although i couldn't tell, he was blonde and a bit timid but friendly nonetheless. After dinner and a few chin wags we decided to hit the sack as we had to be awake pronto for the 07:00am bus to Pakse.