Directly in front of me is a stupendous cliff over a thousand feet tall and the Nam Ou is at my feet. Meanwhile I'm enjoying a cup of expresso and a baguette on the terrace of an elegant bamboo guest house while pondering which of the many karst related options to pursue but I think it will be mountain biking to the east. Every morning is cold and cloudy followed by beautiful sunny weather in the afternoons with a high of about 75 to 80. The karst is unbelievble, gigntic cliffs pocked with caves everywhere you look with the beautiful Nam Ou cutting cutting a canyon over a thousand feet deep! Ann Harman and I are living like barbaric royalty for about $25/day and having a totally great time. Beer Lao is the world's best at $1 per quart and is my major expense. Delicious food costs about $3 and is served while you recline on comfortable beds like Roman gluttons. The CIA maps I am using don't even show a village where the tiny town of Nong Khiaw is today. Yesterday We walked a couple of miles along the river to a supposed "Pathet Lao" cave and paid the requisite 10,000 kip ($1.20) Despite the rusted assault rifles in the mud the whole thing was a fake, but what a bunch of fun! Caving is a major business here in Laos and the caves range from the ridiculous to the sublime. The guides are invariably cute 10 year old kids, often girls, and there is nothing you can do to escape them. Sometimes giggling hordes will follow you no matter how hard you try to drive them off. All well and good but if you try to step off the beaten path without a registered guide then the cops get involved and it could be costly, especially if they find that bag of weed. I have located a major cave on my topos for which there is no reference on the web or on the French Lao caves project, so I reluctantly contacted a registered tour company. They explained that the cave and environs thereabout are unknown so they cannot legally take me there, but they did suggest that I directly contact a man named Souk who works for the Commie government and whose job it is to scout out possible caves, treks and visitable villages to make sure they are safe as in no unexploded ordinance and no rebellious Hmong. Souk turned out to be a fine fellow who will happily take me anywhere I want to go for about $20 per day so the trip is a go. He knows about the cave and related a legend that five locals went in and only one came out. Apparently no falang (foreigners) have ever been there. The watershed that the cave drains is quite large and because of a complete lack of access the valley appears to be pristine on google earth. I don't give a damn about going far into a big nasty river cave. My goal is to find a way over the mountain to the upstream entrance and the pristine valley beyond. Tomorrow's trip is just to scout it out. A one hour boat ride in a little motorized canoe then a two or three hour walk through ruined jungle to the downstream entrance, all doable in one day. If the locals know a way to get over the mountain then Ann and I will return with Souk to mount a multi day expedition into the pristine valley. Wish us luck!
Sleaze
