(L, D)
Departing from your hotel, we take a 3 hours drive on an unpaved road through a landscape of limestone mountains. We stop for lunch at the boat landing of Pak Thung.
After lunch, we get on a local motorboat for the 2 hours trip past forested karsts around the Xe Bang Fai River. We arrive in the village of Ban Tham Namlort at around 5:00 pm and settle into the village lodge (home-stay style). Take a walk to explore the village!
Approximately: 3 hours transfer / 2 hours long-tail boat / 2 hours walk
(B, L, D)
After breakfast at 9:00 am, we paddle in inflatable kayaks steadily upstream for 500 meters through 2-3 small rapids to the Tum Lot Cave. We paddle into the cave to a 100 meters tall waterfall inside the cave. There is time to explore the cave and see the numerous stalactites and stalagmites. We then paddle through the cave for 5 km to the other side, have there a picnic lunch and return the same way. At the mouth of the cave we camp on the sandy river bank.
Approximately: 7 hours kayaking
(B, L)
Rise early, have a nice breakfast, and break camp... we are ready to paddle the kayaks 500 meters to where a tractor will be waiting for the 1 hour trip to the starting point of today's trek. This is a 3 hours jaunt through an easy old growth forest with abundant birdlife to a very large waterfall in the Hin Namno National Protected Area. Picnic lunch is served at the waterfall. We then walk back to the trail head where the pick-up is waiting to take us back to Thakhek.
Approximately: 3 hours transfer / 15 minutes kayaking / 30 minutes tractor /3 hours trekking
Note: The trip is doable in the dry season from October to May