The Pac Ou Caves, Sacred Caves of Laos

One of the top things that I just had to see when traveling to Laos, were the Pak Ou Caves. I had seen an episode on Don’t Forget Your Passport years ealier, and I had wanted to go their ever since.

Approaching the Pac Ou Caves

It is a sight definitely worth seeing. Located just 25 km outside of Luang Prabang, you can hire a boat to take you there for the day or take a Songthaew which is what Dave and I did. The Pak Ou Caves are a sacred sight located on the Mekong River. It is loaded with thousands of Buddha statues and is still used as a place of worship. Every New Year people make a pilgrimage to the caves.

Over Four Thousand Buddha's

There are all sorts of different Buddha’s but the majority are the standing tall Luang Prabang Buddha statues. It is sensational. Approaching the caves from the opposite side of the river is a beautiful view. The white stairs can be seen leading into the dark whole cut into the side of the limestone cliff.

Buddha Images Everywhere

There are two levels to the caves Tham Ting the lower cave and Tham Pheung higher. Tham Phum is dark but it is filled with more statues. We were wishing we brought our flashlight.

Altar for Worship

We were lucky when we visited, it wasn’t very busy and we could take our time examining all of the thousand of statues.

The rest of our time was spent in Luang Prabang looking at the many temples. We rented bicycles and rode along the Mekong River.

Temple in Luang Prabang

Being a world heritage sight, Luang Prabang is littered with temples. Most Notably Haw Kham, the former Royal Palace. Each is beautiful and contain ornate tapestries, carvings and Buddha images. We thoroughly enjoyed looking at each temple at our own pace riding our bikes from place to place.

Inside one of the temples

There are coffee and pastry shops to stop for lunch, and we felt very civilized as we sipped our café latté while enjoying a croissant. We were lucky to stumble into a temple at a time when Monks were playing their drums with great vigor and we sat, listened and watched for several minutes.

Taking the step up, a beautiful walk

While in Luang Prabang, you must walk the steep hill to Phou Si. It has a spectacular panoramic view of the area and the sunset is certainly one of the most beautiful I had ever seen.

A beautiful sunset

We weren’t overly impressed with the night market it was over priced and very busy, but we bought something just the same and have enjoyed keeping it on our mantal. So after 4 years of paying a meager $20 for a great piece of art…Well, I guess we were being cheap when we said that the Night Market was expensive. Watch our video and get a real feel for what it is like in Luang Prabang and the Pac Ou Caves

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Cambodia; a Dark Past Remembered

Entering Cambodia by bus from Thailand, you will instantly feel the difference between the two countries. The smooth paved tarmac from Bangkok gives way to bumpy dirt roads with giant potholes. You suddenly feel as though you are in the Wild West of South East Asia.

Angkor Wat is definitely the star attraction of the country, but once we had our fill of temples, it was time to head to the country’s capitol Phnom Penh. Being let off at a bus station just out of town, was a little overwhelming with the amount of touts vying for our business. We finally settled on one to take us to Narin Guesthouse which ended up being OK, if a little bit out of the way.

After hanging out along the waterfront of the Mekong River and checking out the Royal Palace for a couple of days, it was time to hire a guide to take us to Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields; the most compelling and profoundly moving sight in Phnom Penh.

Mug Shots of Prisoners

Not for the faint of heart, Tuol Sleng is a former school building and a reminder of just how cruel the human race can be. It was here that The Khmer Rouge Regime, held prisoners and tortured them until they gave names of family and friends who in turn were arrested.

People were detained for ridiculous reasons such as being a scholar, a teacher, a student or for simply wearing glasses. Anyone who posed a threat to the Khmer Rouge was rounded up and killed. 2 Million people were murdered during Pol Pot’s reign and the Tuol Sleng museum documents this crime in great detail.

It is hard not to become emotional here as you look at the rows of mug shots. Prisoners had their pictures taken before being executed and terror and sorrow clearly shows on everyone’s face.

Paintings depict in great detail the types of torture that people went through and walking in the wing of the building that houses rows of tiny cells made out of brick is disturbing. I cannot imagine being held by chains in a room no bigger that a closet. They weren’t allowed to move or complain. It was absolutely brutal times.

A Cell

Many people were taken from Tuol Sleng to the Killing Fields, 15 km outside of Phnom Penh. It was here that the worst atrocities of the time occurred. Men, women and children were lined up and murdered here by the thousands. They were clubbed over the head to save bullets, babys were smashed against trees and they were tossed into mass graves.

A large monument stands in the centre of it all, honoring the people who gave their life.

It contains thousands of skulls of victims arranged by age, sex and nationality. We couldn’t bring ourselves to take a picture of this, it was overwhelmingly sad.

Monument Housing Skulls

The Killing Fields are situated on a beautiful sight. Farmland and forests surround the property and it is a gentle reminder when you hear children playing nearby, that life does go on.

On our way back to town I ask my guide if it bothers him to have tourists come to see places like Toul Slang and the Killing Fields and if he feels that it is disrespectful to look at such things. He tells me that he wants this story to be told so that it will never happen again.

It is a devastating place to visit, but as with everything in life, without the knowledge of history, we cannot learn from our past. As difficult as it is to see, it does an honor to the people to have their memory preserved and have their stories told. What is sad to me is that events like this go on even today. What causes people to hate so deeply and what can we do to stop this vicious circle of death and destruction?

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Slow Boat to Thailand

Long Tail boats at Ko Lipe

When travelling most people choose to hop a flight to their next destination.  This allows them to see more sights in a shorter amount of time and to squeeze more destinations into their itinerary. Sometimes, after too long on the popular tourist route, I prefer to slow down and to take my time.  To interact with the local people, to  see out of the way places and unspoiled countryside.

Taking the slow boat from Luang Prabang Laos to Chaing Kong Thailand is the perfect way to experience the Mekong river, to see the villagers that live along the river and to view the rolling landscape of Laos. We spent three days in the busy town of Luang Prabang.  Being a world heritage sight, it is a stop on many package tours causing inflated prices for accommodation, handcrafts and dining.  We searched for hours for a guesthouse that was reasonable and clean.  Many were fully booked, more were out of our price range and others were just not in good condition.

After several hours, we were finally in our room recovering from searching the town for a decent room and from our long bus ride through the scenic mountains where we passed hill tribes and villages and saw gorgeous mountain vista’s  which unfortunately are becoming the victims of deforestation.

We explored Luang Prabang’s many temples, rented bicycles to explore the city, shopped at it’s impressive but over priced night market and we walked up to Wat Chom Phet to see an fiery sunset between the valley of two dark mountains overlooking the Mekong River.

It is a pretty town with charming streets and outdoor cafes, but with all of the well dressed  tourists drinking lattes and eating pasta, I needed to see the country from a different perspective. We boarded our boat at 6:00 a, for Thailand.  The sun had not burned off the early morning mist yet and we left Luang Prabang in a cool fog.

It was a basic boat with only planks of painted green plywood serving as benches.  Luckily we had or travel pillows to cushion our seat and enjoyed a pleasant ride. We met our travelling companions for the next 2 days, a couple from Australia and two men from Holland, and two women from New york.  The rest of the people on board were locals returning to their villages. They kept their distance from us sitting on the floor at the bough of the boat, but they were friendly and smiled when our eyes met.

At first we enjoyed animated conversations discussing where we had been and where we were going, but eventually we all relaxed in to the peaceful ride. We passed a man walking his elephant on the river bank, herds of water buffalo’s drinking it’s cool water, women doing their laundry and boats of fisherman seeking their catch.

The busy river was teeming with life. We would see monks walking in their deep burgandy robes and naked children waved as we drove by.  Every once in a while, we would pull up to a village to let someone off and many people dressed in colourful clothing would be there to greet them. We would wave goodbye and be on our way.

We sailed for 8 hours that first day and then pulled up to the small village of Pakbeng where we stayed the night in basic, but clean accommodation.  Grateful to stretch our legs, we dined with our new friends and retired early.

The next day was a little harder.  We were put onto a smaller boats with even tinier seat that had two of their short legs cut off to balance on the side bar. It was this boat that we saw yesterday and said, “wouldn’t it be awful if we had to travel in that!”  We spent our time squatting in our seats or laying on the floor trying to relax feeling sorry for ourselves. It was going to be a long ride.

Soon a deck of cards surfaced and we were all playing a rousing game of Barbi Uno.  It brought life back into us all, and we were laughing and joking all over again. It was a mad dash to the border to make it by six o’clock.

Tuk Tuk fares had to be negotiated, we had to find our way off of the boat and go in the right direction yet try as we might, we missed the border by five minutes. We were all sure that it was a conspiracy to keep us in the country one more night. This second day of travel just had too many stops and the driver was taking his sweet time.

There was nothing that could be done though and we were stuck in a dead end border town with little to do but have our last Beer Lao while watching a melodramatic soap opera at the local eatery. We were out of Kip (the countries currency) and nobody would take the  U.S. dollar even though it is used as a second currency throughout the rest of the land.  We had to ask the nice Australian couple whom we had only met yesterday, to borrow money. We promised to pay them back as soon as we reached Thailand and everything worked out just time.  They were very generous and we actually ended up travelling with them for the next week.

First thing in the morning we were back in Thailand taking a Songthaow to the bus station and eating banana pancakes for breakfast. Our time on the slow boat had come to an end, but we had made new friends and had a memorable experience on this vanishing form of travel. Now back to civilization and a need to hurry to our next destination.  Time is ticking; and suddenly slowing down to feel the culture and rhythm of the land is unthinkable. We need to catch the next bus and move on to the next stop as soon as possible. Sights are waiting to be seen and places need to be ticked off the list.  The more stamps on the passport the better! How quickly we fall back into old habits.

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