After just now and then a little later...

Dear Reader,
Some time has passed since we last communed, and the more I leave it the harder it is to catch up with and retain memories... I'm almost regretting not bringing one of those disposable acer, toshiba, etc net books that has an actual keyboard and allows for easy photo uploading. That being said, PCs drive me up the wall and I might donate it along the way.
Okay, let's see...
Konglor cave. Imagine hiding in a 7km cave with a river flowing under it while the American air force bombed the shit out of the mountains above you, only leaving to tend your crops at nighttime (when bombers didn't run) for 9 years...! That's just what laotian people did in the mid 50s through mid 60s.
This cave is unlike anything I had ever seen... It is something out of a movie, but in fact, much better then a movie because you're actually there, seeing it. But first, getting there;
From Vientine a bus to town "A". From town "A", a longass tuktuk ride to a tiny little town, one km away from the cave. Staying here was fantastic, it really gave me a sense of small village life in Laos. The town is situated up against a long line of majestic karst mountains that seem to change colors as the day progresses. Fields of tobacco extend to the base of the mountains, and you can smell its pungent, sweet smell from the many drying houses in the crops. Time lapse of clouds would be nice but an even better time lapse will be described later on...
In this town people lounged about, worked the field,s children played and gawked at the foreigners and chickens clicked and scratched their way around town. Seems that about this time of year hens have bathed their clutch of eggs and the sound of peeling chicks is everywhere (even in southern Cambodia where I write this from).
There's always this frantic "where am I going to stay" thing that goes on when you travel unprepared, and in Laos especially, unprepared, just-show-up is really the only way you can do it. It's like hell for Germans ; ) the real attraction is the cave; the river exits the cave into a lovely, circular green pool, full of fish and flanked by bamboo shoots. A bamboo bridge extends across this and then you walk into the cave. When you think "cave" an image of dank, cold, musty and stale might come to mind. It's certainly what I expected of this place, but I shit you not, this cave is hot and humid; much warmer then the outside temperature, with a steady breeze moving through the whole thing. There are parts that bend and curve in the halogen light of your headlamp, structures that jut through odd angles out into space, holes that lead to who knows where and at one time belched out who knows what elemental solutions, and vast caverns that merge seamlessly into what appears as nothingness. There are sections that span 100m from riverbed to ceiling, and where the river splits and diverges into other cave systems, only to merge back together later on. Large rock formations seem to float like icebergs and when you look down, you can see, like an iceberg, how it extends down much deeper. And there's 7km of this! It really is amazing to see. At the end of the river, you open up into what can only be described as a scene from Indiana jones; jungles and misty mountains, a light, warm rain and trees and plant life from the banks that appear to be trying to grab passers by. We then came upon a tobacco loading area for farmers, and a few stands of the usual chips and sweet drink. After a few moments of wandering, and when the rain picked up a bit more we headed back through the cave to the other side. Apart from the sounds of my dismay at some of the scenery in the cave, the other travelers and I sat in silence. Upon arriving back to where we started, we walked back to the village, and said nothing. Seemed that an overwhelming aesthetic experience can be just as exhausting as an overwhelming workout.

More on Laos to come later (mainly cause typing on an iDevice takes it out of the old thumbs).

-e

Location:Kanda St,Sihanoukville,Cambodia