PAK OU CAVE

Pak Ou Cave from the Mekong River

We decided to look for a ride up the Mekong to see the Pak Ou Cave. These caves have a history dating back thousands of years.  They are packed with over 4000 Buddha icons.  The statues are believed to have been left by the local people for hundreds of years.
We ultimately agreed to go with the chubby lay guy after he chased us 3 blocks away. We jumped on a wooden boat which was quite large and had some nice seats.  The captain was young but seemed to know his way around. We headed upstream only to stop shortly after and tie in with a couple other boats at shore.  The driver directed us on a smaller and older boat.  We jumped on and left again.  You guessed it. We once again stopped a few hundred meters down the road and did the same thing.  Old beat up boat this time with small wooden chairs (reminded me of kindergarten chairs). The driver said "papa" and left up the hill leaving us on the boat.  About 5 mins after an older man jumped in the boat and we took off.  I guess papa was our captain for the day.

When life was good before the boat change

The ride up the Mekong River was a 2 hour trip there and 1 hour back due to current.  We stopped at BAN XANG HAI Village on the way.  Famous for their wine/whiskey production and they making of Lao wine earthern jars.  I bought a small bottle of the whiskey.  Our captain was sitting and drinking with his pals while we walked around.  The Whiskey is 50% proof!   When we returned to the boat, Papa had a 1.5L water bottle 3/4 full with Whiskey.

Whiskey making process & Papa in the white shirt!

Bear paws

Once at the cave, we walked around sightseeing and could see our captain drinking heavily with the locals. They were doing shots but tried to be discreet.  Quite funny actually. After a quick tour we made our way back to the boat and eventually so did the captain.  He was a little tipsy and singing.