Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Laos → Xe Bang Fai River Cave

Location: Eastern Khammouane Province, Laos

Time Required: 1 – 3 days

Red Tape/Notes: Access is via a very long, extremely rough dirt rough (~5 hours each way); high clearance 4×4 required. Dry season only (the road would not be passable in the wet season, but the cave wouldn’t be passable either)

What’s Nearby?: it’s not really “close” to much else, but you’ll have to start in Thakhek to get here, so these are “on the way”: Thakhek, Ban Nakhang Xang Trekking and Caves, Tham Nong Pa Seuam, Tham Pa Fa (Buddha Cave), Tham Pha Nya In, Green Climbers Home

Despite being one of the largest active river cave passages in the world, the Xe Bang Fai River Cave was still relatively unknown to the outside world until a 2008 National Geographic Survey brought it to the public’s attention. And while many people (particularly those interested in caves) have now heard of it, it still takes some effort to get to it. The Hin Nam No National Protected Area – which is contiguous with the Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam (home of the glorious Son Doong Cave) – has been undergoing improvements in infrastructure and access, but it will still take you roughly 5 hours on extremely rough roads to get there. You might get lucky and be traveling when the road has been recently graded, which would probably improve things somewhat, but for us it was a long series of jouncing, jostling, and slamming around that left our bones feeling numb and our stomachs feeling distinctly unimpressed. Because of this, we’d really recommend doing at least an overnight here. You won’t be able to see the entire cave if you do it as a day trip, anyway, so you may as well save your body the punishment of a same day return and take the time to fully explore and enjoy the cave. Allowing two or three days means you’ll be able to kayak the entire length of the cave (you’ll have to portage over the rapids on the way upstream) and explore some harder to reach portions. And boy is it a great cave! There are some really wonderful formations in side passages, and while not on quite the same scale as Son Doong, they’re still massive and other-worldly. The most commonly visited side passage, which leads to the balcony overlooking the main cavern, is chock full of fantastic stalactites and stalagmites and columns and everything a caver loves. Because it’s the most commonly visited section, a walkway has been added to allow easier access and work is in process to rope off nearly all of the interesting formations. This kind of thing diminishes my enjoyment of a cave, but if the authorities genuinely think this will help preserve the cave, then I guess it’s hard for me to take issue with it. There are at least no obnoxious lights (yet)…I sincerely hope they don’t light this place up like they’ve done at Kong Lor.

Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Laos → Xe Bang Fai River Cave