It is our last full day in Luang Prabang before we head off to our next stop in Vang Vieng, and the last thing we have on our list to do here is go to see the Pak Ou Cave.

Before that story though, I have to give full credit to Mrs. Columbus for mustering herself at the crack of dawn this morning to go out and see the giving of the alms.  This gets a lot of reviews in the travel books, and the tourists get up early in the morning to see the monks make their way through the streets receiving their donations from the local worshipers.  It starts at around 6am, so I decided that a little extra sleep and then catching up on some work is in order, so for the full lowdown you will have to read about Mrs. Columbus’ experience.

After Mrs. Columbus’ triumphant return we are on to the next part of the day. Pak Ou cave is actually 2 separate caves eroded into the same limestone outcropping along the Mekong River about 2 hours up river from here by boat, or about an hour by tuk-tuk. Many people see the caves on the way here from Thailand if they take the slow boat down the Mekong, but since we flew here we needed to go from town.  I had seen some pictures of the caves before and thought it looked impressive as it rises basically straight up out of the riverbank, so wanted to see it before we left in case it is a long time before we ever make it out this way again.

We have been trying to decide for a couple of days now if we should go by boat or by car – they each have their own pros and cons and in the end we decide to go by car because it is a bit faster, and also we can stop along the way anywhere we want to if there is something worth seeing.  Of course the scenery along the way is spectacular!

I’d have to agree with Mrs. Columbus’ assessment that the caves were a bit of a let down compared to what we had visualized.  They were impressive in their own right and I suppose if you were encountering them on your way down river on the slow boat it would be a welcome distraction, but we have seen a few caves in Thailand and some of them set the bar pretty high.

I was glad we went, the short trip across the river was nice, and I can see why it gets mentioned in the guide books, but there are attractions we have done here that are rewarding enough to do them again, and this is probably not one of them.

On the way back to the city we stop at a couple of villages to do some shopping of course!  The first village they refer to as the ‘Whisky Village’ where people can stop to get some of the local spirits – Laos whisky (lao-laos), and red or white rice wine.  Given that it is a couple of dollars per bottle, I doubt that hand crafting for smoothness is part of their mantra, and I would guess that their criteria for aging is rated in days not years, we decide to give it a pass – well that and the snakes and scorpions in the various bottles is not an upsell feature to us!

Next we stop at a village where they make local crafts – weaving and paper goods in particular. We have seen a lot of silk and cloth weaving in our travels, but not a lot of paper making, so this is something new for us to see.  One of the shops we stop at is hand making sheets of paper with bamboo leaves embedded in the fibers.  The finished sheet has a rough artsy sort of texture and the leaves seem to be magically suspended in the middle of the sheets.  It is interesting to watch the ladies making the paper right from raw materials, in this case tree bark, boiled to break down the fibres and then hammered in an oversized mortar and pestle, dissolved into water and then finally strained onto screens to be placed into the sun to dry.  I’m sure if I were an artist this would be great material to paint or draw on!

Our last stop of the day takes us to the grave of Herni Mouhot.  Henri Mouhot was a French naturalist and explorer in the early 1800s that was perhaps over credited with re-discovering Angkor Wat – of course the Khmer people had not really misplaced it – but Mouhot stumbled upon the temples while exploring, and his writings of them when sent back to England and France was perhaps the launching point for the colonization of Indochina that followed.  On a subsequent expedition up the Mekong River Mouhot got as far as what is now Luang Prabang, and succumbed to Malaria in a tiny village about 20 miles from the city.  In a strange twist of irony Mouhot’s grave was consumed by the jungle and ‘lost’ until it was re-discovered in 1990 and there is now a permanent monument there to mark the spot.

As travelers/explorers ourselves it is a little inspiring to see the memorial and to think that we are treading some of the same ground.  The site is very tranquil, and I am glad we added this stop to the day’s journey.

Our last night here and we need to pack up, tomorrow we are taking a bus to Vang Vieng and I suspect it may be a big day.  The trip is only 275km but apparently takes 5 or 6 hours on the bus because of the winding nature of the road – hopefully I will not have to sit next to any livestock…. 😉

So far we have not found much that is compelling in the way of traditional Laos food.  I suspect that our view may be a bit clouded by our love of Thai food and that some of the dishes that we give the Thais credit for may have come from or are influenced by Laos food.  Either way, excluding the things that we would have considered Thai food, nothing here has really encouraged me to go and seek out a Laos food restaurant back home.

On the other hand we have found some things that we would have not expected to find here that have been worth talking about.  First is the Indian food – I guess that they must get a fair number of travelers from India throughout SE Asis, as we have seen Indian restaurants I think in every place we have been, but we usually have something else in mind, so have not ever stopped at one.  This time a place was recommended to us so we gave it a try and are sure happy we did, tasty enough in fact that we went back a 2nd night.

The other thing that was a complete surprise to us was the sandwiches!?! In reading up on traveling to Asia I had heard people refer to having sandwiches particularly in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, but really, who goes to SE Asia to have a sandwich?  I turns out that one thing to give the French full credit for when they were colonizing this area is teaching the people how to make good bread.  The street vendors here all sell made to order sandwiches (sort of like the Laos Subway I guess) that are made on these delicious fresh made baguettes.  I can honestly say that it is one of the better sammiches I have had – BBQ chicken and mayo with a veggies and a little sweet chili sauce – nom nom nom!!!

Today we decided to cross one more thing of Mrs. Columbus’ list – riding bicycles around the city.  On the surface this would seem like a fairly straight forward activity as we have seen lots of people doing it over the last few days, and it seems like every guesthouse, tour shop, and restaurant has bikes for rent.  As it turns out renting a bike that is likely worth about $50US is more complicated than renting a car where we are from!

We wander up the street from our hotel to select a place to rent the bikes from and after looking at a few we pick one that has bikes available, and at reasonable price (20,000 kip – about $2.50 for the day). Then it gets tricky – they will not rent the bikes out without us leaving our passport for security.  I have a lot of things that I would be prepared to hand over in a jam or for some sort of security, in fact I could just leave a deposit equal to it’s value, but we are pretty protective of our passports because losing one would be a major headache in terms of getting home, so that’s a no-go for us.

At any rate, we walk away and decide to try another shop hoping that they will have some different rules, but again are denied without leaving our passport.  Finally, we circle back to the first shop and cajole them into accepting our driver’s license as a deposit, but of course that is back at the hotel so after a quick walk back for that we are finally able to get our bikes for the afternoon after about an hour of fussing around.

Most of the bikes around here are pretty much the same, sort of like what we might call a cruiser back home now that they are cool, or when I was a kid we called them old people bikes 🙂  A key difference though is that here they are not very adjustable, and I find myself riding around on a bike that was perhaps sized for someone who was 12.  We decide to just make the best of it as I doubt they are returning our money, and off we ride, me getting much more acquainted with my knees because in the crouched position they are now much closer to my head.

Thankfully there are two things working in our favor: 1) the skies are a bit overcast so the hot sun is not blazing down on our backs (even though it is still 35C out, it is nice to not have the direct sun), and 2) most of the town is quite flat so the riding on a bike with only one gear is made a little easier without having to go up a bunch of hills.  As I soon discover that the brakes on my bike were possibly world war 2 surplus I am even more thankful for the 2nd point because I only need to rely on them a couple of times during the day.

After a few hours on the bikes my body starts to remind me that I am not a teenager anymore, and that if I don’t call it a day soon there will be serious repercussions in the morning, so we head back to the place we rented them from and then spend the rest of the afternoon walking around some of the streets and lanes of the old city.  After a bite to eat we stop in for a massage – because we can – and then back to our room for the night.

Next time – yes there will likely be a next time – we will look for bikes in a little better condition, and properly sized!  I think there is a lot you could explore in a place like this if you had the right equipment.