Pak Ou Caves

The Pak Ou Caves are located on the Mekong River, two hours north of Luang Prabang by boat.

Pak Ou Caves

The entrance to the cave was flooded in the chocolate milk waters of the muddy Mekong River - it is the Rainy Season after all - but someone had constructed a rickety series of planks that visitors could carefully cross to reach the mossy stone steps leading to the Lower Cave.

entrance to the Lower Cave

The small limestone cavern is full of thousands upon thousands of old Buddha statues; some large, some small, many cracked and broken; amulets; tablets; and other holy artifacts. It's a sort of "retirement home" for old or broken Buddhas. After all, you can't just throw them away!

the Lower Cave

Unfortunately, though, there wasn't much information given about the cave or its role in Buddhist society in Luang Prabang. All I gathered is that the cave is a sort of sacred site in northern Laos, and it's used as a sanctuary for retired Buddha images.

thousands of statues

Still, it was very cool to look around. The cavern was shallow, but the entrance was very tall, allowing lots and lots of natural light in. In fact, the temple cat was really enjoying the bright, warm sunlight.

a lazy temple cat

At first, I thought that the 20,000 kip entrance fee (almost $3) was a little bit steep just to see this cave, as interesting as it was. But after exploring, I realized that there was another cave further up the cliffs.

inside the cave

Leaving the Lower Cave, we climbed a steep set of stairs through the warm, humid jungle to the Upper Cave, the slightly bigger cavern that serves as the temple. The steps were kind of steep, and I was sweating a lot by the time we reached the top! The weather hasn't been too hot, but the humidity in the jungle was stifling.

heading to the Upper Cave

The Upper Cave is dark; there are no lights or even candles inside. An old woman sat by the entrance renting out flashlights to visitors. You really needed one to be able to see anything at all.

the Upper Cave

entrance to the cave

This cave was once used by the kings of Laos, and is still used by monks, as a place of meditation and contemplation. It's very quiet, cool, damp, and dark. There were several old Buddha statues lining the walls here as well, though not nearly as many as in the Lower Cave below.

the Upper Cave

Using the flashlight to look around, we had to be very careful not to trip on the uneven floor. Sometimes, the light would reveal strange and spooky images painted on the walls of the cave, which relate to tales from Lao folklore.

painting on the wall

Moving deeper into the dark cave, we came to the temple area, where the monks sit in prayer and meditation. There were no monks there that day, however, just a bunch of curious tourists!

inside the dark cave

We had 40 minutes to explore the two caves, which was just about exactly the right amount of time. Soon, we were heading back down those steep, slippery stairs and back to the flooded docks on the river.

steep stone steps

Even though it took two hours to reach the caves from Luang Prabang, we would be heading back with the current, and it only took about an hour to reach the city again after leaving the caves.

ready to head back

The boat trip was actually really comfortable. Actually, the ride might have been my favorite part of the whole tour! As we cruised along the famous river, we passed villages and fisherman, and got to have a nice glimpse at the lives of local people who live along the Mekong.

back on the baot

heading back to Luang Prabang