After having completed our alternative Thakhek loop we had an extra day before we needed to return our rental Honda XR250 Baja. We decided to use the time to explore around Thakhek and after asking around, found out about the incredible Khoun Kong Leng, or Evening Gong Lake, near the tiny village of Ban Na Kheu. Getting there was an adventure: it involved riding on progressively worse- and worse condition roads until the track was barely a sandy path. We thought the road impassable without a beefy dirtbike, but were put to shame when we passed some locals tackling the road on a clapped-out old Honda scooter! After about an hour of riding we reached the village of Ban Na Kheu. We knew that not many foreigners came this far as the reaction from the local kids was a mixture of fascination and pure terror, instead of the usual smiling and waving - or maybe it was just the slight of me soaked in sweat that scared them!

The lake is spectacular – it is incredibly deep – it’s reputed to be over 70m – and the water was a crystal clear turquoise blue – you could see the roots of the tree going deep down into the water and big fish swimming in the depths.  Unfortunately swimming was forbidden. As we were about to leave, a group of young boys armed with spear guns arrived. Obviously they weren’t supposed to be fishing and they sat around nervously avoiding eye contact while they waited for us to leave.

After returning back to Thakhek, Andrew picked up a bad stomach bug, so instead of leaving Thakhek the following day as planned, we stayed for two nights more before catching the bus to Savannakhet.

Savannakhet is a sprawling town, spread out over a large area with little in the way of sights. We found it to be quite boring so only ended up staying there for one night. We did sign up to a one day ‘trek’ through the jungle, so booked the bus for the following evening. The trek was very easy and took us from a salt mine, where we did a tour, through the forest to a village and finally on to a wat (temple).

The highlight of the trek was the local guide, who was fantastic. He didn’t speak English, but was so enthusiastic that he came round and introduced himself to everyone. Throughout the trek he addressed us directly, telling us about life in the forest and enthusiastically explained how the local people utilize the plants. It was wonderfully engaging, even though we didn’t understand a word he was saying. Unfortunately much of what he said was lost in translation as our “English-speaking” translator who didn’t speak much English!