Saturday, May 16, 2009

10-11 May – Tham Lot and Cave Lodge, Thailand

The caves at Tham Lot are very beautiful. There are at least 200 caves in the area, and several of them have been discovered and mapped by John Spies who is running the Cave Lodge since many years. Nina bought his book and really liked it. Check out http://www.cavelodge.com/ for more info.

We visited the Tham Lot caves and floated down the underground river while the bats and swifts tried to drop their loads on our heads. The kids were superbly brave, climbing into very challenging caves and enduring the darkness with bats all around us.
In the last cave we saw the remains of some teak coffins which are at least 1500 years old. Amazing that wood can last so long in this humidity.
We drove even deeper into the mountains, equipped with special maps from Cave Lodge. These tracks and roads were among the steepest we have ever seen. We often had to engage low gear. Sometimes the diff lock was needed.
We visited villages with people from the Lahu and Shan tribes. In the Lahu village Ban Eko we gave pencils to all the school children. They seemed to appreciate that very much. The poverty in these mountain villages is extreme.

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