Description
The Xe Bang Fai Safari
An incredible adventure to a stunning underground river running through a limestone cave, deep in a national park.
Main info
Private truck
Caving
Lao food
Trekking
Kayaking
Highlights
Kayak on an underground river running through an incredible cave system
Explore a remote national park, full of undiscovered secrets and endangered animals
A chance to spot a Soloa, the Asian unicorn
Sleep under the stars at our campsite on the banks of the Xe Bang Fai River
This trip takes us through the beautiful Hin Namno National Park. Spend a day travelling on a long tail boat up a river. a cave and another day hiking to a deafening waterfall. You will get to see the forest, the wildlife and the people who live in the forest!
What Will You Do
Day 1: National Park nature, river and village life
We depart from Thakhek and drive on an unpaved road through a stunning landscape of limestone mountains. We stop for lunch at a boat landing on the banks of the Xe Bang Fai River.
After lunch, we take a local motor boat for the trip up river, passing forested karsts in the national park. We arrive in a small village in the late afternoon and settle into the village lodge. Before dinner we will have an opportunity to explore the village and learn about what life is like in this remote part of the world.
Approximately: 4 hours transfer, 2 hours long tail boat
Day 2: Xe Bang Fai Cave paddle and camp
After an early breakfast, we paddle our inflatable kayaks upstream to the entrance to the Xe Bang Fai Cave. We paddle into the cave, taking our time to discover the incredible limestone features, formed over thousands of years. We paddle through the cave for 11 Km to the other side of the cave for a picnic lunch before we return the same way. We will make camp on the river bank at the mouth of the cave, for a night of stars and stories.
Approximately: 7 hours kayaking
Day 3: Nong Ping to Highlight of cave in Thakhek
We start the day after breakfast. We then drive back to Thakhek for visiting Tham Xiengleb cave, that we reach after walking for about 20 minutes from the main road. Then we return to the main road and continue for a few kilometers until We visit another cave before we stop for delicious pinic lunch at the so-called “French pier” (Tha Falang). It is in fact a river with a large pond where the French army used to set up camp in the 1950s
After lunch we will continue on visiting the famous Buddha Cave, which has been rediscovered only in April 2004. The cave contains 229 bronze Buddha that are said to be over 300 years old. . We take time for swimming before heading to Thakhek.
Approximately: 4 hours sightseeing, 4 hours transfer
What to expect:
Kayaking on this trip is reasonably challenging. We will need to paddle about 20 kilometers on the second day, most of which will be inside a dark cave. You will need to have a good level of fitness and previous experience kayaking. This tour is only available from November to June, when the water level ensures the best experience
Details
| Departure | Roughly at 8:30 am from Thakhek Green Discovery office/your hotel |
| Return | Roughly at 5:30 pm to Thakhek Green Discovery office/your hotel |
| Locations | Thakhek |
| What to bring | Hat, sunscreen, insect repellent, comfortable trekking clothes, good quality trekking shoes, refillable water bottle, swimming clothes (including a sarong for women), towel |
| What is included | English speaking guide, drinking water, food, transport, government taxes, all entrance fees |
Help us to become 100% single use plastic free company!
We try to avoid plastic as much as possible, that is why we encourage you to bring your own refillable bottle.
We have water refillable station at our office where you can fill up your bottle. If you don’t have one we sell the 0,75 L Green Discovery aluminium bottles at our sales office. At the moment we will still need to use plastic bottles in some of our tours but we hope to reduce it as much as possible. Together with The Green Discovery Sustainability Fund we are working on installing water filters in all the villages we are visiting and we hope in the future we will not need to use plastic bottles anymore.
Still not suit you?