One of the religious symbols of the Louang Prabang, Pak Ou Caves, has a history dating back thousands of years. The caves hanged in a vertical limestone cliff at the join point of Mekong and the Nam Ou River are added up with thousands of Buddha images in various shapes and sizes. The images were believed to be left in by local people for hundreds of years.
There are two caves to visit, the lower cave called Tham Ting and the upper cave Tham Theung. The lower cave just above the water’s surface is more of a large grotto and is light enough to explore without an artificial light source. The upper cave is unlit and takes a 10-minute trek up some steep steps, but the effort is worthwhile. This cave is home to the majority of the Buddha statues and you will need to find your way in darkness to the thousands of hidden icons. A torch is necessary to fully explore the higher cave.
Both caves are shrines to Buddha and have been very popular pilgrim sites for locals, hence, it gets very busy during April when the Lao New Year takes place with locals washing and attending to the images.
Most visitors en-route to Pak Ou stop at the 'Lao Lao Village' Ban Xang Hay, a famous place for its wine production and for the making of Lao wine earthen jars; it is a great chance to try locally produced whisky and wine.
Situated upstream from the Mekong, at about 20 miles from Luang Prabang, the caves are accessible by either tuktuk or boat. You can find Luang Prabang's longboat office selling return boat tickets to Pak Ou (per person/boat 60,000/400,000K return) taking two hours upstream, half an hour back and allowing around an hour at the caves plus 20 minutes at Ban Xang Hay village. It is also possible to travel by tuk tuk for around 150,000K return but you still need to take a motor-canoe or a boat to across the river (20,000K return).
