Hanging in Tha Kheh
The next morning in Tha Khek was hot and got progressively hotter as we pounded the pavement of this extremely spaced out town. First stop was the bank where we exchanged excess dough and took a cash advance for the rest of our needs. There are black plastic bags that you can take to lug your cash out of the bank in - and believe me, everyone needs to make use of them as monies issues are seldom in denominations higher than 1US$ in value.
We then head out in search of a certain tour office on our map and internet. We found neither. The tour office did not exist yet and, it seems, neither does internet here. We did receive a very warm welcome at the tourist office and gathered lots of info. We wanted to find a peaceful way of going to visit the famous Konglor cave, a long tunnel cave that you can boat through for 7.5 km and come out the other side. We eventually decided that we would not have time to fit this in alongside all our other plans (the trip would take 3 days of travel) and opted rather to join some other travellers for a day of cave exploring in the surrounding area.
This turned out to be a great idea as the 6 of us explored 5 different caves and stopped for a dip in a picturesque swimming hole where we saw some stunning butterflies. One cave was particularly impressive as it was natural, big and beautiful. Another cave, called the Buddha cave, was also very impressive. It has a tiny entrance high up in the cliff where some local discovered a whole collection of Buddha statues hidden as he looked for bats for supper one fateful eve. The Buddha statues, probably hidden here from raiding invaders, are estimated to be about 400 to 600 years old.
We also stopped for lunch at the market situated very near the Buddha cave. We ate barbecued fish while our one Japanese travel companion ate roast rat (we also sampled an incredibly small morsel). A great day all in all! We headed back to our hotel for more chocolate pancakes, ginger tea and Lao beer.
Other than that, there is one traffic light in town. The road is wide enough to land a small plane and the traffic, crossing here, is almost non-existent. The locals obey that light nevertheless - we were amazed.
Culture shock: Banks supply customers with large plastic bags, like at check out counters, to carry the loads of money as the most common denomination is about the equivalent of US$1. People obey road rules!
We then head out in search of a certain tour office on our map and internet. We found neither. The tour office did not exist yet and, it seems, neither does internet here. We did receive a very warm welcome at the tourist office and gathered lots of info. We wanted to find a peaceful way of going to visit the famous Konglor cave, a long tunnel cave that you can boat through for 7.5 km and come out the other side. We eventually decided that we would not have time to fit this in alongside all our other plans (the trip would take 3 days of travel) and opted rather to join some other travellers for a day of cave exploring in the surrounding area.
This turned out to be a great idea as the 6 of us explored 5 different caves and stopped for a dip in a picturesque swimming hole where we saw some stunning butterflies. One cave was particularly impressive as it was natural, big and beautiful. Another cave, called the Buddha cave, was also very impressive. It has a tiny entrance high up in the cliff where some local discovered a whole collection of Buddha statues hidden as he looked for bats for supper one fateful eve. The Buddha statues, probably hidden here from raiding invaders, are estimated to be about 400 to 600 years old.
We also stopped for lunch at the market situated very near the Buddha cave. We ate barbecued fish while our one Japanese travel companion ate roast rat (we also sampled an incredibly small morsel). A great day all in all! We headed back to our hotel for more chocolate pancakes, ginger tea and Lao beer.
Other than that, there is one traffic light in town. The road is wide enough to land a small plane and the traffic, crossing here, is almost non-existent. The locals obey that light nevertheless - we were amazed.
Culture shock: Banks supply customers with large plastic bags, like at check out counters, to carry the loads of money as the most common denomination is about the equivalent of US$1. People obey road rules!
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