Our Trip

Hello! We are so glad that you are interested in our adventures on the Thakhek Loop! This post is a bit long winded, but we didn’t want to leave anything out that may be useful to the next person doing the trip 😅. If you are more the TL;DR type, feel free to jump to the bottom for links to more succinct info on different aspects of planning for the Loop. We hope your trip is as fun as ours was!

Getting to Thakhek

From Luang Prebang to Vientiane

Our journey on the Thakhek Loop starts in Luang Prabang. As we were planning our next steps in our six-week trip through South-East Asia, we happened to get into a conversation with another couple at our hostel. Pro tip, get into conversations with fellow travelers, you never know what you’ll learn 😊. Turns out, we had a lot in common with this couple; we both lived in Europe, both were in SEA for roughly the same amount of time, and were both travelling from Thailand->Laos->Cambodia. We asked them what their next plans were, and they told us about some place in Laos called Thakhek, and that they were going to rent mopeds and do some loop there. We had never heard about this activity (hence this website 😅), and did some research that evening. Turns out it looked awesome, so we decided to change our plans for the rest of the trip to fit it in!

The next day, we took our scooter to the LP train station to get train tickets to Vientiane. You can check our article here on getting to Thakhek for more information on the train. All of the tickets for the regular trains were sold out, but fortunately for some reason there was an extra morning train which still had tickets. Turns out our friends had tickets on the same train after the ticketing agency messed up their tickets TWICE. This worked out in our favor, as the ensuing journey turned out to be much less stressful with 4 minds working on it rather than two 😅.

The next morning, the 4 of us took a tuk-tuk arranged by our hostel to the train station. This station was unlike any we had ever seen before, more like an airport than a train station. They had stringent security measures, even taking Una’s fork/knife/spoon camping tool due to the knife 😕. The train ride itself was comfortable, uneventful and on-time.

The “VIP” Bus that was not

Unfortunately, the train arrived in Vientiane at 13:37, and the last VIP bus to Thakhek left (in theory) from the bus station at 13:00. We decided anyway to go to the bus station, working under the experience that buses in SEA leave when they are full, not when they are scheduled to. One extremely expensive, 15 minute tuk-tuk ride later, we rush into the bus station. Looking like the lost tourists we were, the bus drivers ask us where we are going, point out a bus labeled in Laotian that I later translated to Pakse (south of Thakhek), and directed us to the ticket counter. The employee there assured us that the bus in question was in fact the VIP bus that was supposed to leave at 13:00. Hooray! We get tickets and hop on.

TL;DR, it was not the VIP bus 😂. It was in fact a local bus, which in Laos, double as lorries, post buses, and night clubs at night. We were the only 4 travelers on the very packed bus, which made us grateful for our new friends to give us company so we wouldn’t spend the entire trip overthinking the life choices that led us to our current situation. They say pictures are worth a thousand words, so I’ll let the pictures describe the bus we rode on for the next 8 hours. The ride was an experience, to put it mildly. When the driver wasn’t dangerously overtaking every bike, car and dog on the road, he was honking enthusiastically at all the other buses in greeting. The bus stopped about every 15 minutes to pick up or drop off deliveries. We were glad that we kept all of our bags in the main cabin, especially after reading Novo Monde’s experience of having their backpack confused for a bag of rice on the same ride. Bathroom breaks consisted of pulling off on the side of the road and anyone needing to go, man or woman, hopping off and tromping off into the woods to do their business. The icing on the cake was when we stopped about 15 minutes from our destination so the guys making the deliveries could have a smoke and chat with some girls they knew working at a shop there. We finally made it to Thakhek around 1am, with a 7 hour trip taking around 11 hours, all things said and done. Of course, there was only one tuk-tuk there at that hour, so after another expensive ride, we finally made it to our hostel in Thakhek. All things considered, we were just glad to have made it 😅.

Setting off

Where to stay in Thakhek

We stayed the night at the Bamboo Hostel, which we highly recommend. For more information about accommodation on the Loop, check out our post (coming soon!). The owner of the hostel, Mr. Noy ,was sleeping on the couch waiting for us to arrive, bless his heart. We felt very bad, but were also very appreciative.

Getting wheels in Thakhek

After a restful night’s sleep, we set out to get our mopeds. We had previously contacted the Wang Wang moped/motorcycle rental company to confirm they had a moped available for us. We prefer only renting one moped so we can take turns driving. Since Mr. Noy allows guests to leave extra bags at the hostel while they are on the Loop, we only had two small backpacks, one which could fit in between the legs of the driver. Finally, after a warning about a police tourist trap on the main road, we met up with our friends who rented from Mixay, and we were off on our adventure!

Because we were short on time during our trip, we decided to do the loop in two nights rather than the usual three. Mr. Noy assured us it could be done, but would be rushed. Our friends planned to take the usual three nights. After some amount talking with different people, we also decided to do the boomerang version of the loop, which involves driving counter-clockwise until the Kong Lor Caves, then returning by the same route. This avoids the highway which we were told (and experienced during the bus ride) was very rough and potentially quite dangerous. After having done the Loop this way, we would make some changes to our itinerary if we did it again. For a break down on possible itineraries and what we would have done differently, check out our article (coming soon!) about what you can see given the amount of time you have.

Day One: Southern-Eastern Leg

Our first day involved driving from Thakhek to the town of Lak Sao at the northeast “corner” of the loop. This was a predicted 3 hour drive by Google Maps, a prediction Mr. Noy to be very optimistic. The accuracy of this prediction is strongly dependent on several factors, including the power of your vehicle and your confidence on a moped. Keep in mind also that if you go during high season, e.g. November, it is already getting dark around 17:30, and you do not want to be on the road at dark. This, coupled with the large number of turn offs to see along the way, makes the first day very packed if you want to do the Loop in two nights.

Notable Locations

Along the lower part of the Loop are a number of caves, rivers, and culturally interesting sites worth stopping off at. On the south side of the Loop, the notable places are:

1. Xieng Liap Cave – A huge cave easily accessible from the road. 10k entry fee, also has a high ropes course and zipline on the premises which costs extra. Many people’s favorite first-day cave.
2. Phaya In Cave – Short detour down a dirt path to a small cave with shrine inside and lake at the bottom. A blind beggar sits outside asking for 5k kip, but otherwise free. When we were there construction workers were renovating the entrance steps, so its possible that it won’t be free forever.
3. Thafalang – River area with seating on floating docks, food, swimming, and kayaks. Very beautiful with large fish. We couldn’t figure out how to order food, but nice for a lunch stop if you can😅. Worth a stop off for a picture at least.
4. Nam Theun Visitors Center – Museum and visit of the Nam Theun hydroelectric plant. Past the dam you will see the very visible impact of the dam on the surrounding landscape, so visiting the museum could be interesting if you would like to know more about the history of the area.
5. Song Sa Waterfall – This is more of an anti-point, as we were warned off this point by Mr. Noy, who said that the parking is unguarded and a guest had their moped stolen here last year. This, coupled with the poor reviews on Google Maps, led us to skipping this stop. We go into a lot more detail on the various attractions you can find along the Loop here .

As we said before, there are a ton of sites to see along the southern portion of the Loop, and by the time we split up with our friends, who were staying further south that night. it was already mid-afternoon, and we had a long way to go to get to Lak Sao. Remember how we said to not drive at dusk? Well, we can confirm quite concretely that it is not a good idea 😅. About 15 minutes outside of Lak Sao, the road was great until it suddenly was not, and we took a spill on a patch of gravel conveniently located on a curve in the road. Very fortunately, there was no serious injury, but we were pretty shook and Una’s knee was quite cut up. We were close to our destination, so after assessing the damage, we went slowly to our guesthouse.

Day Two: Northern Leg to Kong Lor Caves

Meesouk Guesthouse and the Dragon Cave

That night we stayed at the Meesouk Guesthouse, which is less of a guesthouse and more of a resort. Una was quite concerned about her knee after the wreck, and I had already been messaging with the owner of the guesthouse to confirm that there was room available, so I asked him if there was a doctor in Lak Sao who spoke English. Turns out there isn’t 😅 (welcome to Laos) but he sent out one of his employees to the pharmacy to buy oral antibiotics and iodine for the cut (also turns out you can buy any drug over the counter in Laos.) The next morning we had breakfast with him, and he introduced himself as Mr. Singphet. He operates two guesthouses, one in Lak Sao and another in Na Hin where we stayed the next night, is parttime owner and operator of The Rock (more on that later), and has a big hand in operating the Kong Lor Caves. He was truly a man of many hats.

After getting our medication, some food in our belly, and the address of Mr. Singphet’s guesthouse in Na Him, we set off on the second day of our trip. The objective today was to make it all the way to the Kong Lor caves, which is considered to be the highlight of the Thakhek loop, and for good reason. You can read more about the caves here , but we would be remiss to not also mention the Dragon Cave, an absolute must-see along the way, and contender for best cave on the Loop.

Road Conditions

The road conditions on the second day were, in a word, varied. Conditions range from perfectly fine, to huge potholes, to winding, to extremely steep. In September of 2023 there were unprecedented landslides between Lak Sao and Na Him, so nearly a kilometer of the road was under half a meter of dirt, giving us a “fun” off-road experience (hopefully this will be cleared by the time you’re reading this 😅.) Especially between Na Him and Kong Lor, the road can be extremely tricky, as it will lure you into a false sense of security with its relative smoothness, and then throw a sneaky pothole disguised in the shade of a tree. We managed to stay on our bike this day, but met two groups who had falls on this stretch of road. Don’t take it lightly!

Arriving to Kong Lor Caves

We arrived to Kong Lor around Noy in the afternoon, leading again to us wishing we had opted for 3 nights on the Loop. In order to make it back to Na Him with enough daylight to spare, we had to rush through the caves and had no time to see the other side. Even so, they were absolutely breathtaking, very well maintained (thanks Mr. Singphet) and made the whole drive worth it, fall and all. You can read more about them here .

As a short aside, some more adventurous people opt to take their mopeds through the Kong Lor cave on a boat and continue the drive on the other side. , but in short, if you decide to do this, be ready for a terrifying 30 minute boat ride and 70km of completely dirt road on the other side. Most travel blogs advise against it, but both Mr. Noy and Mr. Singphet were like “Eh, go for it if you want!” I’ll leave the decision up to you 😉.

We got back to Na Him with little sunlight to spare and just in time to eat dinner with Singphet, who had just arrived himself and was glad to see we made it in one piece this time. The food was delicious, and the Ha Him guesthouse was one of the homier and more comfortable places we stayed at in Laos.

Day Three: The Rock and the Long Return

On our last day on the Loop, we backtracked a bit to hit The Rock viewpoint. This is another must see location on the Loop, featuring incredible views of the karst mountains and jungles of the northern Loop, zipline courses of varying lengths depending on how much time you have, and if you’re lucky, the Laotian Langurs who can only be seen here. You can read more about the Rock over here. The shortest zipline tour is 2 hours, which is what we took since we had a long way to go today to get back to Thakhek, but again, we wished we could have stayed longer!

After the Rock, it was time to return to Thakhek. As we had heard bad things about the highway connecting Kong Lor to Thakhek, we decided to retrace our route along the Loop. In hindsight, this is another decision we would make differently, as, between the landslides and the quite steep route going back, we aren’t convinced that returning the same way is much safer, and it definitely takes a lot longer. We had planned to stop at another few caves on the way back, but we were again short on daylight. Fortunately, after Kong Lor and Dragon Cave we didn’t feel like we missed much 😅.

Arriving safely back in Thakhek, we had two lasts tasks; returning the moped and successfully getting on the bus for our onward journey to 4000 Islands. We were worried that Wang Wang would charge us for the extra scratches on the moped after our fall, but they were very chill about it, only charging us 100k kip, or ~4 dollars, which we were happy to pay. Finally, we returned to Bamboo Hostel, who generously let us use their shower to clean up, and waited for our bus.

Onward Travel

Getting a bus out of Thakhek is the last trick you have to know about completing the Loop, and it is non-trivial! If you check out Wang Wang’s reviews on Google Maps, you will find several 1-star reviews from people complaining about being sold bus tickets, only to get to the station and find the bus full! This is because many hostels and scooter companies in fact bring their clients to the side of the road and flag down the bus BEFORE it arrives at the bus station to make sure their guests get a seat (or bed) on the bus. How is this possible? I have no idea. But fortunately for us, Mr. Noy is one of those owners who works to get his guests a spot, so around 7pm his wife drove us to the north of town, where we waited for the bus (in fact, she had the driver on speed dial 😅). A short while later, we comfortably occupied a bunk on the bus, ready to head on to 4000 Islands!

And that’s that! The Thakhek Loop was an incredible experience, by far our favorite part of our 6 week trip in Southeast Asia. Between the people we met, sites we saw, and experiences we had, we would recommend it to any intrepid explorer heading to Laos. We hope that this testimony and the other articles on this site help you plan your own trip to the Loop 😊. Happy exploring!

Useful Links

For more detailed information on the Loop, check out the following links:
Accommodation around the Loop (coming soon!)
Getting to Thakhek and finding transport for the Loop
Things to see

We would also be remiss to not mention other blogs with useful information on the Loop:
The excellent Novo Monde blog, detailing Fabienne and Benoit’s travels throughout South East Asia
Nomadic Matt, with many travel tips for the explorer on a budget \