If you would like to read my full Laos travel blog click on this link and start at "Our Introduction to Luang Prabang"
Pak Ou consists of two sacred caves in a limestone cliff on the west bank of the Mekong, 25 km upriver from Luang Prabang and opposite the mouth of the Nam Ou tributary. By the time it reaches here, the Mekong has completed about two-thirds of its 4,500km journey from its source 5,200m up in Tibet to its delta south of Saigon, and has already passed through China, Burma and Thailand. It still has most of Laos to cover, as well as Cambodia and Vietnam. Purportedly discovered in the 16th century by King Setthathirat, the Pak Ou caves were probably associated with animistic practices long before the advent of Buddhism. Today they contain several thousand Buddha images some of which are said to be more than 300 years old.