Thakhek has no list of sights you need to get through. There is one thing here, and that is the loop: roughly 450 kilometres on a scooter through central Laos in three or four days. That sounds simple enough, but so many caves, lagoons and viewpoints go past on the way that you cannot possibly stop at all of them. And you do not need to.
A few stops on that route are the reason travellers are still talking about it years later. Others are a sign by the road where everyone brakes for a minute, and that makes a fine quick stop if you have the time. Know which stops you definitely want before you set off, and you can save your mornings for the best ones.
So where do you really get off the bike on the Thakhek Loop, and where do you just ride on to the next stop?
How many days the loop takes and where to sleep before and after is all on our Thakhek page.
The ride itself, through the limestone peaks
This is on nobody’s list, because it is not a place. And yet it is what almost everyone brings up afterwards: long stretches of road with nothing but limestone peaks, rice fields and villages where kids wave at you. You do not stop, you just ride, and that is exactly the point.
A scooter costs about €8 a day and you leave your big bag at the rental shop for free. Take a semi-automatic: it pulls up the hills a lot better than a model with a belt drive. Almost everyone rides the loop in the same order, so you keep seeing the same faces the whole way round.
Set off early in the morning. Not because you have to, but because it gives you room to stop on a whim at a view you had not planned. Those are the stops that stay with you.
Our verdict: absolutely, this is the whole reason you are here
The Kong Lor cave
On a longtail boat you travel seven and a half kilometres through the inside of a mountain, in complete darkness. Just the light of your head torch, the echo of the engine off the rock walls and the odd stretch where the water is too shallow. On the far side you come out into a valley that used to be reachable only this way.
The cave is on day three of the four-day route, and Kong Lor village is right next to it, with homestays where you spend that night. No need to book, there is almost always room. Expect a simple room, cheap food and a table full of travellers who have had the same day as you.
Going in April or May? Then this is the coolest hour of your day: outside it climbs to around 36 degrees, inside the mountain it is beautifully fresh. In the rainy season the boat trip can be suspended when the water is high, so ask before you ride out.
Our verdict: a must, even if you shorten the loop
The drowned forest in the Nakai reservoir
When this area was flooded the trees were left standing, and you can still see it: bare trunks sticking up like posts out of a mirror-flat lake, with the mountains behind. It is the strangest landscape on the whole route and completely different from everything else you see that day.
You ride past it on day two, so there is no detour involved. Pull the scooter over and take your time: the lower the sun, the better it looks.
Do stay on the paths. There is still unexploded ordnance in the ground in this province, and no photo is worth that risk.
Our verdict: the best fifteen minutes of day two
Tha Falang
A green lagoon between limestone cliffs, where the water is still enough to mirror the rock face behind it. You can swim here, and it is one of the few places on the loop where you can just sit for an hour without feeling you are missing something.
Tha Falang is on the first stretch of the route, so you usually get there on your first day of riding. What you can buy on the way is limited to whatever is around that day, so bring your own water and something to eat. Between some villages there is two hours of riding without a single stall.
In the dry season the water sits lower and it looks less dramatic than in the photos you have seen. Go in knowing that, and it is still a lovely stop.
Our verdict: go for it, you ride right past
An evening in Kong Lor village
The cave is why you are here, but the evening afterwards is every bit as good. Kong Lor is a small village at the end of the valley, with homestays, a handful of places to eat and nothing else. Which is just enough.
A bed here costs around €5, a meal about €2 and a beer €1. Eat laap with sticky rice out of the basket and then go and sit outside. Everyone you meet at the table has done the same cave and is riding the same way tomorrow.
Bring enough cash from Thakhek. There are almost no ATMs on the loop, so do not count on finding one in Kong Lor.
Our verdict: one evening is just right
The Buddha Cave and the lagoons near Thakhek
Just outside town you have the Buddha Cave and a few natural swimming lagoons, good for half a day together. It is smaller and less spectacular than what is waiting on the loop, but if your scooter is already sorted, it is the best way to fill your first day.
Think of it as a test ride. You get used to the riding, you find out whether the scooter pulls properly and you know straight away whether you should have picked a different model. Much better than finding that out on day two in the hills.
Before you go, check your tyres, brakes and oil, and save the number of your rental shop. Do that again every morning, because for most of the route you will have no signal.
Our verdict: a nice one if you have that extra day
Dinner on the Mekong
Thakhek sits on the river with Thailand on the far bank, and in the evening the riverfront is the only place in town where anything happens. You eat fresh Mekong fish off the charcoal grill while the lights of Nakhon Phanom come on across the water.
A meal costs a euro or two and a beer €1, so you can spend a whole evening here for next to nothing. Order tam mak hoong with it, the papaya salad, and khao jee, the Lao baguette, which is also perfect to take with you the next morning.
Do this on your last evening, after the loop. It tastes better then than before, and you will have stories to tell.
Our verdict: the best way this town has to finish
Got time to spare in Thakhek?
The town itself
Thakhek is mostly your starting point: hostels, places to eat and scooter rental around a quiet centre on the Mekong. Sort your scooter, eat at sunset by the river with Thailand across the water and leave the next morning. Everything you came for is out on the loop.
The loop in the right season
November to March is dry and clear, and that is exactly what you want on this route. From June to October the landscape is at its greenest, but the roads are muddy and full of holes, and the boat trip through the Kong Lor cave can stop running at high water. Not much scooter experience? Then definitely pick the dry months.
Picking the right scooter
There is always a model that costs a few euros a day less, and it is almost always an automatic with a belt that struggles up the hills on the loop. Pay the few euros extra for a semi-automatic: you will feel the difference for four days, on every single hill. Wear a helmet, carry your own motorcycle licence plus a 1949-convention international driving permit, which is the one Laos recognises, and check that your travel insurance covers you riding on it.
Stopping wherever you can
There are plenty of places on the way where you will want to pull over, and the best of it is simply beside the road: karst peaks, the forest standing in the lake and villages where everyone waves. Do stay on the paths, though. Per head of population, Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the world, and there is still unexploded ordnance in the ground in this province. Never touch anything metal you see lying in a field.
Our top five in Thakhek
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- The ride itself, the long stretches of road between the limestone peaks
- The Kong Lor cave, seven and a half kilometres through the mountain
- The drowned forest in the Nakai reservoir, with the sun low
- Tha Falang, with an hour of swimming on your first day on the bike
- An evening in Kong Lor village, with laap and sticky rice
Still got time after that? Do the Buddha Cave and the swimming lagoons just outside Thakhek on the day you pick up your scooter. And keep your last evening free for grilled fish on the Mekong, with Thailand on the other side.
Where to sleep in Thakhek before and after the loop is on our Thakhek page.
So what do you really have to do in Thakhek?
Honestly? None of these stops is compulsory. The loop is not a route with fixed stops, it is a few days where you decide for yourself where to brake. The travellers who get the most out of it are almost always the ones who let go of their schedule halfway round.
If we had to pick just one thing: the cave. Travelling seven and a half kilometres through a mountain in total darkness is something you do nowhere else in Southeast Asia, and it is the only stop on this list we would call a real shame to miss.
Beyond that: ride slower than you planned. Leave early, plan less than you think you can manage and pull over at the first view that grabs you, even if there is no sign. In the end that is the bit of Laos you will still remember a year from now.
