Kong Lor cave

The trip to the Kong Lor cave took us to one of the most scenic and breathtaking places that we have experienced in our SEA trip.
It was getting late, around 6pm (and dark!) and we were still driving on the dusty road in our fully loaded songtew (small local bus). The ride took us into what seemed like a very wide plain surrounded by mountains and with only a dirt strip of orange road going through it, a scenic ride indeed with the already familiar smiling child faces shouting "Sabaidee" or "Bye-bye" (both are supposed to mean Welcome :) somewhere at the end of the road the mountains rose again and hid the cave we were heading to.
It was all very nice but the further we went into the plain, the farther we went from 'civilisation' and we were getting more and more sceptical about the promised homestay for 5$. When we finally arrived one thought had firmly established itself in our minds: "We are stuck", whatever this place was we had no means of getting out of it or getting anywhere else. It was very quickly, very clear that we had a very minimal way of understanding each other with the sweet elderly man that came to greet us. And then he showed us onto the terrace of the place and a beautiful picture revealed in front of us. What turned out to be the restaurant was overlooking the Hinboun river and a scene of serene harmony between nature and man; the sun had already set and the dark was quickly folding in, the cliffs were rising high, the river was flowing quietly, like they had for millions of years; and below the villagers were fishing with fish nets around the little patches of land that had been turned into small vegetable gardens and would become river again when the rainy season came, like they had for thousands of years. We were in awe and our little 5$ hut was worth every cent of it, not to mention the green plant in the little vase. This place was great, it was like we were in the land that time forgot in a four star hotel!
The morning was as scenic and beautiful as the evening and the toast, orange jam and tea that we had for breakfast were the beginning of a great day. We declined the kind offer of the old man to take us to the cave for 33$!!! and instead decided to walk 3 km to the cave entrance and get a ride there. Although it was relatively early, around 9 am the sun was already burning as we walked towards the nearest village. Again, the insight into this poor and yet peaceful and content life was confusing, the people lived in wooden houses with very little of anything that could be called furniture but had the inevitable TV set and satellite dish, the kids were running around half or totally naked but they were there and were many, the mothers were either laying around or doing some house work but none of them was angry or stressed or depressed.
We walked further on and were finally greeted by the Boat Committee, this is where all the man we did not see in the village were, sitting around a guy with a big book who took your money and made us write our names and country in his big book, than another one took a picture with his very first-generation digital camera: it all felt a bit odd "That's the last they will see of us" we thought. Then our boat driver came and we went down to the lake and boarded the piece of wood they call a boat around here, not very stable and we had a 7+ km ride in the dark and wet cave ahead of us ...
The trip was amazing! The cave was huge, up to 90 meters wide and 100 meters high at places and about 7,5 km long, the only way in and out was on the river, we had to get on and off the boat as the river got shallow, it was totally dark with the only light coming from our and our boat masters headlamps. At some point we stopped and one of our guides took us for short walk up to the stalactites and stalagmites that had formed high up over some rocks, the sand was soft it was damp and exciting. The whole trip lasted about an hour very quiet and very dark, when we came into the daylight again it all felt surreal! The trip was a real thrill, there was so little infrastructure in this cave that it might have been a very similar trip which discovered it in the first place and we were part of it :)