Indiana Goddard

It was like something in the movies: hunched over, walking through a pitch black cave with just the flickering light from your head torch. Awesome stalactites and stalagmites lining the walls and not a soul in sight. And then, as you navigate the treacherous drops, you see an eye glinting in the darkness. Jumping, you bang your head as you realise it's just a gold Buddha perching on a rock. You don't get anything like that in safety-conscious England! Apart from the buddhas, it was as if we were the first people in the cave. You could travel for 2 days into the mountain apparently, but we didn't fancy putting that to the test.

The other cave had to be entered through a 1 foot high gap. The only catch being it had a river flowing out of it. For the princely sum of 10,000 kip (one dollar) we hired a big inner tube and floated into the cave, hauling ourselves along a rope that had been kindly placed along the way.

Not having lights, safety ropes and easy walking routes made it so much more impressive.