WOW!! So Sandra and I had NO IDEA what we were getting ourselves into when we headed for the caves in Laos! (There was only a short mention of the Tham Lot Kong Lo cave in the Lonely Planet alone with a note that travellers have reported arranging homestays in the closest town...sounded adventuous so we went for it!) It took us another 2 days of local buses and sawgnthaew (the covered pick up trucks with two benches facing each other) as suddenly we left the flatness of the Mekong Delta and found ourselves winding up and down and all around in the mountains. Figured out that this part of Laos used to be under the ocean and is now composed of a typical karst landscape typified by craggy limestone peaks, caves, and underwater streams. Incredibly majestic scenery. The climate also changed quickly to become pleasantly cool and dry, and I felt like I could really BREATHE fresh air for the first time since leaving Bangkok!
We finally managed to get on a sawngthaew that would take us to the nearest "town" to the caves where we planned to arrange a tour guide and a homestay with local people. What we hadn't anticipated (don't ask me why) was that absolutely NO ONE spoke English on the bus or anywhere so we didn't even know how we were going to go about arranging a homestay! We bounced along the rural roads practicing our limited Lonely Planet vocabulary of Laos with the delightful locals on the truck, passing through the occasional village (and I mean village in a real "villagey" sense, felt like going back in time where kids are smiling and running around naked and people are busily farming and building thatched stilt homes with their hands!) Luckily (as would be the entire rest of the voyage) the driver appeared to figure out that we would have had no idea where we were going and so dropped us off at the front door of a local homestay! We went upstairs (into the stilt house) where grandma showed us our homestay area (a lovely corner of the house with big beds set up with mosquito nets, blankets and pillows!). The entire family (4 generations!) proceeded to gather round our "area", and sat staring and smiling at us while crouched in the typical Asian squatting stance. Sandra and I just looked at each other and were like "... well... we asked for adventure, didn't we! Again we started practicing our broken Laos vocab- by now I have NO qualms with looking like a complete idiot taking my travel book out and trying to phoenetically sound out any of the introductory sentences or words such as "toilet paper" and "diarrhea" that never fail to make people laugh and break the ice. It worked, even if Grandma thought she was housing a couple of white nutbags, at least we were all laughing. A man arrived at the home who is the community representative for the ecotourism initiative set up in the area for tourists coming to the caves, and gave us customer surveys to fill out the next day. We only had to pay 50 000 kip (~$5US) per day for accomodation and 3 meals a day, of which 95% goes to the family to cover the costs of housing us and %5 goes to a community development fund. It was really neat for me to see a real community ecotourism initiative in action afer learning SO much about them in Resource and Environmental management courses at school.
Sandra and I went for a walk towards the caves (about 1500m from the village) and serendipitously ran into a semi-english/semi-french speaking guide named Camin. He was a lovely man of about 50 and we got talking (the most interesting mix of languages I've ever used to communicate) and organized a tour of the caves for the next day (for the whopping sum of $2US). Feeling much better after arranging accomodation and a guide for our tour, we found our way back through the numerous pigs, chickens, dogs, stilt houses, and small waving children to our homestay for dinner.
Our family brought us a FEAST!! Noodle soup and veggie pork stirfy and literally a VAT each of Sticky rice! We sat on a straw mat outside our beds which was apparently also a part of our "area" as well given that the whole family sat around the mat again STARING at us while we ate!! I have never felt so much like a human zoo exhibit in my whole life, Sandra and I kept bursting out laughing because it was so awkward, but we could also talk about anything we wanted because no one could understand us anyways! After such an overwhelming and unpredictable day, we headed to bed- at 8pm.
Camin came to pick us up at 7am the next morning, though we were awake at 5am with the roosters and most of the rest of the town apparently! We tried to convey our desire to take a boat THROUGH the cave, then hike back OVER the mountain (which was mentioned as a possibility in one line of the Lonely Planet- we REALLY wanted to go for a big adventure) but we weren't quite sure if he quite understood... so packed for the hike all the same. The cave was FANTASTIC!! We took a motorize boat and stopped off at various locations to check out stalactictes and stalagmites, and at points the cave is 100m wide and almost as high!! Had a very majestic and cathedral like feel, and really made me wonder how many years it's taken for the slow drip of water to erode the limestone enough to create the cave. (Life lesson from the cave- slow and steady makes for a really beautiful race!) It took a whole hour on the motorized boat to get through the whole cave, and you feel blinded when you come out on the otherside from being in the dark for so long!
We managed to convey to Camin that we wanted to actually HIKE back over the mountain (he had done it before but was defnitely suprised that two little white girls would be so adventurous!) To make a VERY long story short, the trek was basically a 5 hour BUSHWHACK, although there was some semblance of a trail it appears that it's only taken about 5 times a year. It was one of those things where you're having fun and feeling adventurous for about the first 2 hours... and then wondering what the hell you were ever thinking getting yourself into this mess for the last 3. But it was definitely an experience and I wouldn't take it back for anything now that I survived it! It also feels like an amazing feat doing SOMETHING that so few of the other thousands of travellers on this SE Asia Backpacker loop have done.
I was so pooped upon returning from the hike and not really feeling up to being chased around by the kiddies in the village so I retired to my "corner" of the homestay and lay in my bed for until dinner in the human zoo. Afterwards, we entertained ourselves by giving treats to a big group of children (they were the most reserved and shy kids EVER when it came to receiving gifts- I had to look at them individually in the eye and hold out a treat to get them to come forward!!) We also had a blast playing with the camera with them- I've never seen a kid get so excited about seeing the picture of themselves after you take it, they practically mob you to get a view! After the treats and photos we were like the pied pipers walking around town with a trail of youngsters all evening... it was SO cute!
After only a day with my homestay family, I felt so close to them and so grateful for their authentic generosity, all I wanted to do was give something back. I know that sounds cheesy, but REALLY, I have never been filled with such a feeling of indebted gratitude in my life. I searched my belongings, but decided that a pack of gum or a pair of smelly underwear wouldn't really cut it, so I busted out my HOT PINK nailpolish and painted every girls nails in the house, from age 4 to 40. It was a blast....lots of laughter when I offered to paint grandpa's nails too. We passed out again around 9pm after our day of adventure.
The last memories I have of my homestay family is one that sums up the simple generosity and kind spirit of all the people I encountered in Kong Lo village: the young mother of the family packed us each a heaping portion of sticky rice in a plastic bag to take for our lunch on the road. As we piled into the truck and waved goodbye to all the villagers I saw the young woman running after the truck with two boiled eggs in her hand she had meant to add to our lunches. The truck keep driving away and we waved, but the image of her standing in the dust simply holding out the eggs is one that is imprinted in my mind and will bring me to tears forever.
Simply: GIVE
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