I wasn't really sure where to visit on my way south through Laos but thanks to lonely planet and some advice from Jon I decided to visit a large cave at Kong Lo. LP made it sound really difficult to get to but actually there was a direct bus so all was well with the world. I got a bus straight there and met 2 English guys James and Lawry on the way. When we got there we decided we would do a homestay instead of opting for one of the guesthouses. The homestay was very cool - there were a lot of children floating about and it was a real functioning Laotian family home. However, there were 8 of us staying there and other than with the children there wasn't a lot of interaction with the family (we didn't eat with them or help with the cooking or cleaning). It was a really pleasant evening though, the people who were staying at the homestay were all really cool. We went for a bit of a walk around the village. The mountain scenery was fantastic and we walked around some of the massive tobacco plantations that line the road in the town. We returned to the homestay for dinner and chatted until we got the feeling (at about 9 o'clock) that the family wanted us to go to bed so we did.

The next day we got up early - there wasn't a lot of choice there were a lot of noisy children in the house. After breakfast we headed for the cave. Tham Kong Lo is a massive cave - a river runs 7.5km through the mountain. So we hopped into little relatively unstable boats and headed up stream in the cave. Obviously because it's a big cave it's very dark, we did have torches but even still at times it was hard to see anything. After a little while we hopped out of our boats and wandered around looking at the magnificent stalactites and stalagmites. These were lit up so it was possible to appreciate their magnitude and beauty - they really were stunning! The kind of thing that really captures your imagination. We then continued up the river - periodically stopping because the water was too shallow or there was a little step/rapid so we'd have to hop out and push/drag the boat. We continued through the cave for about an hour - it just seemed to go on forever, it was definitely an amazing sight. At the end we then emerged from the cave and were greeted by more stunning mountain scenery! After a break and a drink we got back in the boat and motored back through the cave giving a second opportunity to marvel at it's vastness. Again, we had to hop out occasionally and it was on one of these stops that disaster struck - I lost a flip flop, it came off and drifted away into the darkness before I could see where it went. I'd only had them 3 days. Anyway we got back and walked (I kind of hobbled in my one flip flop) back to the homestay, picked up our bags and tried to make our way south!

There were 6 of us from the homestay trying to get to Pakse to make our way to 4000 islands, we met 2 Canadian girls (Christina and Lauren) who had been on our bus the previous day and they were getting a tuktuk to take them southwards to get a bus so we joined them! The tuktuk journey was long, uncomfortable and probably overpriced but after about 4 hours we reached Tha Keak. We decided to get a night bus to Pakse so had a few hours to kill so went and had a really pleasant dinner in Tha Keak. Then borded our nightbus to Pakse.