Day 8 Mekong Kayaking and Pac Ou Caves

Day 8 Luang Probang Mekong Kayaking and Pac Ou Caves 8/05/10

Today Kieran, Adrian, Ben and I are heading off to Kayak down the Mekong and see some religious Caves. After getting the Kayaks (Big surf ski’s), we launch onto the Mekong with our guide Joy.
The river is still low due to the lack of rains and the rapids are very small but the sun is out in force and it’s nice just slowly paddling downstream.

We see guys casting for fish and some water buffalo, plus kids swimming. It feels surreal to kayaking down the Mekong a bit of a buzz actually. The scenery is all teak forest and bamboo with rocks etc interspersed across the river. We pas a huge karsts like cliff face as we go, with 100 of butterflies on the muddy river bank.

After about 10 km we stop for lunch, fried rice at this family hut, there are some elephants that head down to the river for a swim. We chill out and then feed the elephants. The Mekong has really opened up here with loads more boulders and the view is great.

After lunch and getting attacked by the chicken and it’s chicks we cross over to the caves. The LP people have been depositing Buddha statues there for 400 years and there are over 4000 Buddha’s spread over the upper and lower caves. The upper cave goes’ back about 60 meters and you need a torch, where as the lower cave is more like a cut out in the cliff face, but still impressive with all of the different statues etc.

After leaving the caves we kayak for another 6km’s down to a village that makes Lao whisky out of fermenting rice and they have snakes, gecko’s and scorpions in bottles the contents of which are for medicinal purposes, I buy a bottle to share with the other later that night as there is supposed to be a big Drum & Bass party at a secret location on the river.

Later that night I head to the night markets to buy a new shirt and shorts. I get the whole lot for under $10, what a bargain! After eating I meet the others and we head out to find that the party has been cancelled due to the police so we go to the hive bar and the eventually to a local disco that has a mixture of Thai, English and Lao tunes, it’s pretty weird but we all get really drunk and I eventually head to bed at about 2am.