Gnommalat

I'm only taking what I truly need to ride these next 7 days so left behind is the laptop and in total about 15 lb.

Buddha and Xiengliab caves first. The lorries, as travelers tend to call the trucking convoys, rip by while honking. I find a side road, dirt and quiet for a while.

By 2pm time for a café and some reconnaissance on the wifi. Missing the blue dot is mostly time consuming in order to geo reference. Without signs you'll miss things. But I'm coming back this way for a second shot.

There is an outfit that does two day tours in the forest, I'm planning on staying on the loop until I go straight to Vientiane from Thakhek.

The last grotto of the day is a find. There is only a small sign, a thin path, and a hole in the wall that rises over 300 feet overhead. I duck and enter, turn on my head lamp. It's just a passage to another hole and so it goes as I enter deeper and deeper into mother Earth.

The kids are cooling off in the irrigation canal.Read more