Pak Ou caves

Pak Ou caves are in the middle, at the bottom of the cliff

The Pak Ou caves are part of limestone cliffs on the side of the Mekong.  We approached by boat, from Pak Ou village on the other side of the river.  They are very small, flat bottomed and wobbly boats which are used for the crossings!

There are two caves; filled with many, many Buddha statues of different sizes, antiquity and material.  Apparently there are much fewer now than there were before the dastardly Thais discovered the caves and looted the gold and silver statues.  There are still an awful lot of statues remaining - and the number is growing, as people bring additional statues here on religious holidays.

The first cave is a large niche in the limestone, fairly open, and has lots of statues of great variety.

The second cave is up a long, winding staircase lined with women and children selling snacks (puffed rice cakes, fruit, water).  This cave is much larger, and dark inside, with camera flashes and torches lighting up groups of Buddha statues every so often.

Coming back down from the cave most of the children had given up trying to sell their snacks and were eating them instead.

This statue looks like the Malcolm Turnbull-Buddha.  We visited the Pak Ou caves on the day of the non-challenge to Tony Abbott's leadership; apparently being in the image of a Buddha statue isn't a very good omen!