Thursday, November 02, 2006
Pak Ou Caves and Tat Kuang Si Waterfall
October 22nd
Today we hired a van and driver and visited some areas outside of Luang Prabang. Hiring a van and driver is pretty reasonable in SE Asia. The vans are very nice and large and the cost of the van, driver and fuel is roughly what you would pay in the States for just a rental car. First we headed north to visit Pak Ou Caves with a few village stops along the way. We stopped at three villages, each of which was inhabited by a different ethnic group of people and each with a somewhat specialized economy. We quickly learned that if you visit a village, you are
going to buy something. That is just the way it is. You do not have to buy a lot, but not supporting the locals is very disrespectful. The buildings in these villages are similar in architecture to one another with traditional style houses, and they have many of the same businesses you would
find in one of our small towns. We even happened upon the local pharmacy (here at right); an early version of Spat's Rexall perhaps?
The first was a paper-making village where the major craft was, of course, paper. Most of the paper was made from mulberry bark and then augmented with some other organic product (e.g., flowers, elephant dung). The different papers were actually quite nice. We purchased several paper items along with some textiles and spalted wood products.
The second village we stopped at is one of the major ones where they make Lao Lao - a fermented rice
whiskey. After two sample shots, one of the weak type and one of the strong, we purchased a few small bottles. They were not the best spirits I have had, but not the worst either. At the village we saw how they make Lao Lao in large 55 gal drums, a process probably not that different from many parts of the Appalachians, with the chief ingredient being rice instead of corn. So yes, this is the Lao moonshine village. Is homeschooling great or what?
At the moonshine village, we took a small boat across the Mekong River to visit the Pak Ou Caves. These caves are considered sacred by the locals and for centuries they have been bringing Buddha images here, so there are literally hundreds of Buddhas packed into the caves. Many of the images have been damaged in attacks on villages or temples from outside invaders.
The caves are hollows in a large limestone rock forma
tion on the west bank of the Mekong, and the setting is truly beautiful and peaceful. There is one large shrine near the water line (seen here at left with the white wall and stairway and at right from the interior), and a second deeper, smaller cave about 300 steps higher up the mountain. There were only a few tourists here including a group of monks. It seemed to be their first trip to the caves and they were very excited.
After visiting the caves we went back across the river and had lunch at this small river restaurant. Its speciality was fresh fish right out of the Mekong, so we had fish. The food was good but, again, Laotian food - or the Laotian food we had - was not as spicy as Thai food. Sitting next to us was the group of monks we had met at the caves. They were having a great time and after a while asked if they could take our picture. We laughed and said of course. We really are in the minority most places we go and really stick out, but in a good way. It is giving the kids a good perspective and reminding us what it means to be different. Afterwards, we took their picture.
After lunch we stopped briefly at the third village which was made up of a group of mountain people. These people had been relocated to this site which is lower in elevation and more accessible to schools and other government facilities. It made me wonder how well the relocation was going because, of the three villages we visited, this was definitely the poorest. We did meet a couple of young girls in the village who kept following us around. What was amazing was that even though they were too young for school, they spoke some English. We spent a short time in the village and then headed to our final stop, Tat Kuang Si Waterfalls.
TAT KUANG SI
by Nick
This waterfall is about 32 km south of Luang Prabang. At the waterfall there is a big parking lot full of food stalls, including a good roti maker (banana+chocolate is good). To get to the waterfall you have to walk up a little hill. Just before you reach the waterfall, there is a large enclosure with a rescued tiger in captivity. When we got to the top, there was a big deck for viewing the falls (at left), but we had to walk back down a little to get to the swimming area.
The water was a clear whitish-green, like jade, and was very beautiful. Dad and I went swimming there for a while. The water was a bit chilly, but it felt great because we were sweaty from running around all da
y in the humid jungle. The pools were pretty deep in places. There were lots of people wading and swimming too. We swam in pools on three levels of the falls and then had to head back down to meet our driver and head home. On our way back down we stopped and saw some moon bears that they had there. They were rescued from people who killed their mothers and took them as cubs to try to sell to zoos. They looked like sun bears and looked very smiley. We got to the bottom of TAT KUANG SI, went back to the car, and rode back to our hotel after having a great day touring around.
Today we hired a van and driver and visited some areas outside of Luang Prabang. Hiring a van and driver is pretty reasonable in SE Asia. The vans are very nice and large and the cost of the van, driver and fuel is roughly what you would pay in the States for just a rental car. First we headed north to visit Pak Ou Caves with a few village stops along the way. We stopped at three villages, each of which was inhabited by a different ethnic group of people and each with a somewhat specialized economy. We quickly learned that if you visit a village, you are
going to buy something. That is just the way it is. You do not have to buy a lot, but not supporting the locals is very disrespectful. The buildings in these villages are similar in architecture to one another with traditional style houses, and they have many of the same businesses you would
find in one of our small towns. We even happened upon the local pharmacy (here at right); an early version of Spat's Rexall perhaps?
The first was a paper-making village where the major craft was, of course, paper. Most of the paper was made from mulberry bark and then augmented with some other organic product (e.g., flowers, elephant dung). The different papers were actually quite nice. We purchased several paper items along with some textiles and spalted wood products. The second village we stopped at is one of the major ones where they make Lao Lao - a fermented rice
whiskey. After two sample shots, one of the weak type and one of the strong, we purchased a few small bottles. They were not the best spirits I have had, but not the worst either. At the village we saw how they make Lao Lao in large 55 gal drums, a process probably not that different from many parts of the Appalachians, with the chief ingredient being rice instead of corn. So yes, this is the Lao moonshine village. Is homeschooling great or what?
At the moonshine village, we took a small boat across the Mekong River to visit the Pak Ou Caves. These caves are considered sacred by the locals and for centuries they have been bringing Buddha images here, so there are literally hundreds of Buddhas packed into the caves. Many of the images have been damaged in attacks on villages or temples from outside invaders. The caves are hollows in a large limestone rock forma
tion on the west bank of the Mekong, and the setting is truly beautiful and peaceful. There is one large shrine near the water line (seen here at left with the white wall and stairway and at right from the interior), and a second deeper, smaller cave about 300 steps higher up the mountain. There were only a few tourists here including a group of monks. It seemed to be their first trip to the caves and they were very excited.
After visiting the caves we went back across the river and had lunch at this small river restaurant. Its speciality was fresh fish right out of the Mekong, so we had fish. The food was good but, again, Laotian food - or the Laotian food we had - was not as spicy as Thai food. Sitting next to us was the group of monks we had met at the caves. They were having a great time and after a while asked if they could take our picture. We laughed and said of course. We really are in the minority most places we go and really stick out, but in a good way. It is giving the kids a good perspective and reminding us what it means to be different. Afterwards, we took their picture.
After lunch we stopped briefly at the third village which was made up of a group of mountain people. These people had been relocated to this site which is lower in elevation and more accessible to schools and other government facilities. It made me wonder how well the relocation was going because, of the three villages we visited, this was definitely the poorest. We did meet a couple of young girls in the village who kept following us around. What was amazing was that even though they were too young for school, they spoke some English. We spent a short time in the village and then headed to our final stop, Tat Kuang Si Waterfalls.TAT KUANG SI
by Nick
This waterfall is about 32 km south of Luang Prabang. At the waterfall there is a big parking lot full of food stalls, including a good roti maker (banana+chocolate is good). To get to the waterfall you have to walk up a little hill. Just before you reach the waterfall, there is a large enclosure with a rescued tiger in captivity. When we got to the top, there was a big deck for viewing the falls (at left), but we had to walk back down a little to get to the swimming area.The water was a clear whitish-green, like jade, and was very beautiful. Dad and I went swimming there for a while. The water was a bit chilly, but it felt great because we were sweaty from running around all da
y in the humid jungle. The pools were pretty deep in places. There were lots of people wading and swimming too. We swam in pools on three levels of the falls and then had to head back down to meet our driver and head home. On our way back down we stopped and saw some moon bears that they had there. They were rescued from people who killed their mothers and took them as cubs to try to sell to zoos. They looked like sun bears and looked very smiley. We got to the bottom of TAT KUANG SI, went back to the car, and rode back to our hotel after having a great day touring around.# posted by Joe Spatafora @ 8:35 AM 
