Welsh Davids Travel Blog: 6 August - The Mekong River, Pak Ou Caves and Village (Laos)

Off by eight in the morning for a boat trip on the Mekong River to see the Near Pak Ou Caves of which the lower cave is called Tham Ting with the upper cave being called Tham Theung. The caves are about 25 km from Luang Prabang. It takes about two hours to reach the caves as the boat has to travel against the river flow but then only one hour to return to the city. There are hundreds of very small and mostly damaged wooden Buddha figures in the caves and they take many different positions, including meditation, teaching, peace, rain, and reclining (nirvana).

The lower cave entrance

Buddhas

Buddhas

Buddhas

Buddhas

Buddhas

View through cave opening

A Naga view of the river

Going upriver the boatman kept the boat near the bank, only crossing the river once as we neared the caves. I assume that this was done because the currents were weaker nearer the banks as on the return the boat was kept in the middle of the river where the current was stronger and that is why the return journey was much quicker than the outward journey. The river was obviously flowing very fast in places and yet in others there were circular patches of what looked like calm water until in some a log could be seen corkscrewing around like mad with the action something like a whirlpool. The boatman obviously knew the river well as he generally kept a steady speed then went fast through particular areas he knew would be a problem. There were people fishing on the river; making boats; dragging logs up the banks to the sawmills that had been floated down the river from somewhere; small ferries for motorbikes and tuk-tuks with the river being busy all the time. I estimated that the river was 500 metres wide where we travelled.

River boats

A boating petrol station

An offering to the river god

A boat garage which actually floats on bamboo poles

Showing the river bank and the height of the water above what it was today, something about another 3 metres.

Bicycle and tuk-tuk ferry

House on the side of the river

The expanse of the river

Building workboats

On the way to the caves we stopped in what I have called the craft village as there was a lot of weaving done with almost every house having one or two looms in evidence. All the weaving was done by women and is a way for them to earn money I assume. The weaving was all scarves, cotton, silk and wool with a good range of colours to be seen. They also made what was called whiskey but I was told by someone who tried it that it was foul. There were also large jars containing parts of different animals, insects (bugs) and reptiles which had been steeped in some sort of spirits and the resulting liquid could be bought and drunk. There were snake, bear paws, bugs (like cockroaches or such like) and lizard that could be readily identified in the glass jars!

The village had quite a well kept and had a pretty Buddhist temple.