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After knowing so many Vietnamese restaurants named after this river, it was nice to finally get to cruise down the Mekong to the Pak Ou Caves. Though not the longest river in the world (it's only 12th), it does travel though much of South East Asia - there are boats/ferries that can take you from Lao to Thailand in a few agonisingly boring days.Anyway, a couple of uneventful (ie boring) hours up the Mekong on our sheltered boat, we were at the Pak Ou Caves. Actually two caves, the first and smaller one near the river is Tham Ting, where hundreds or thousands (depending on who you ask - or perhaps your viewing angle) of buddas can be found perched up in the cave. Because it is smaller, after you immediately ascend the steps you are immediately among the buddas. And I mean among, because you get the feeling it's all around you due to their close proximity. Plus, I like this cave because you get a great view of the Mekong from the cave.I wasn't so enthusiastic about the next cave though. Tham Phum is located only a few hundred metres away and up some stairs. Not the most pleasant thing to do in the Lao humidity. Anyway, at the top of the stairs you are greeted by a gated entrance that looks like it came out of Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom. Actually, it's not that bad; the cave is deeper (and thus cooler) with some budda paintings on the wall and has a few buddas too, though much less than at Tham Ting.
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Ali Majdfar | 09-Mar-2006 07:11 | |