Tham Sang triangle

I came to Vangvieng to see caves and that's what I set out to do my firs full day there. I met an American, Mike, while having breakfast at Kangaroo and invited him along. We rented mountain bikes and were on our way. Our first stop was a nearby cave called Tham Jang. Oddly enough though, it closed for lunch from 11.30 to 1pm, and we arrived at 11.30. I will have to come back. We then proceeded to pedal 13km out of town on the road to Luang Prabang. It was hot and sunny. The road was smooth but had gradual up and downs that had Mike and I sweating buckets. We arrived at the Tham Sang triangle and parked our bikes. We could visit 4 nearby caves on foot.
The first cave, elephant cave, was small but had some buddha statues in it. Further away down a path through dried up brown rice paddies were Thom Loub and Thom Hoi. We went into Tham Loub first. It was a nice enough cave with some interesting and sparkling formations but we didn't spend too long in it. According to the guidebook, 3km into Tham Hoi next door was a underground lake. At first Mike and I weren't planning to go that far but as we started exploring the cave we though, let's go for it. The cave was large at times and other time we had to crouch down and walk through water. The cave presented multiple options sometimes and we choose the route that seemed most likely. A river at some point had run through the cave and we followed what we thought was its course. However, before we made our first choice of which route to take, we noticed bright orange spray paint on the walls marking the way. So whenever we had a choice to make, we always looked for the orange mark to solidify the correct choice. We always went the right way, though there was only a few times were we had to choose. The floor of the cave altered between flat and easy walking to shallow and slippery pits very hard negotiate to smooth river rocks, also not so easy to walk on. I had to be very conscious of every step I made. Mike's footwear was crap and he was slipping a lot more than I was.
The cave was a steady temperature of around 26C but the humidity must have been about 98%. Our bodies were covered in moisture and I was sweating a lot. Our amateur spelunking was true adventure. We walked 45 minutes into the cave. I don't think many people do this without a guide and I wouldn't have gone this far alone. We thought we should be reaching the lake soon but didn't see anything like it. We came to a large chamber that once had its floor covered with water and we thought that this might be the lake since water levels were low all around this area. After this the way became very tight and not as certain so we decided to turn around. I was proud of us for even coming this far. The way back was easier as we recognized the route we had come in on.

From Tham Hoi we walked to the water cave about 15 minutes away. This cave was a lot of fun. It had a river running out of it and the 'cave keeper's' who took your entrance money (most cave's cost $1.20 to enter unless there are very close, you only pay for one) had tubes at the entrance. Mike stayed outside to watch our stuff and I went in first. I sat back on the tube and paddled myself to the very low entrance of the cave. Once inside the cave there were ropes that I could pull myself along on. Since I was going against the substantial current, I would have been dead tired trying to paddle my way further in. I took the ropes to their end at a small rocky 'beach'. I got out here and put my tube on the dry land and walked further in on foot. I crossed the river a shallow parts until I came to a section of the cave where it was just a wide river. Going any further from here would be very difficult so I took the ropes back and let Mike go for his turn.
After this cave it was supposed to be a simple hike back to elephant cave, (Tham Sang) thus completing the Tham Sang triangle. Mike and I took a wrong turn or didn't take a turn and we were just casually walking shooting the shit and after a while realized we were going the wrong way. I thought we were going the right way because we were following the karst mountain were I thought elephant cave was but it turned out elephant cave was in a smaller karst formation not part of the central spine. We finally found our way back and began the 13km pedal back to town. We arrived just at 6pm. It was a great day of adventure and exercise.
I cleaned up in my room and then met Mike at Kangaroo for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening here.