Cave of one thousand Buddhas

Second last day in Laos, and we're off to see some caves. Pak Ou caves infact. Theres 2 sets, Tham Theung (upper) and Tham Ting (lower). The lower you can see as you're ferrying across the river to get to them. They reckon they got found around the 16th century and have been used ever since. There are buddha statues everywhere, lining every flat surface and even tucked into the rocks higher up, all around the cave. Theres gazillions of them, its awesome. Once we've had our fill there we hike upto the upper caves. I say hike as there are around 8000 steps to get us up there. Well not quite, but there are lots, it 35+ degrees, no wind, sticky jungle time off the steps. It's rough. But worth it.

Theres a big set of gates up the top and the lady gives me a torch to use when I go in. OOOOOO, cavey. This ones a lot deeper than the first cave, but not quite so many statues. Being in the dark and taking a photo with a flash that lights up the whole cave is cool, but I couldn't help think there was going to be boogey men scurrying away when the flash filled the room. Caves aye, ain't nothin but a thang.

So we get back over the river and go sit at a bar for a drink, and Mash wants to buy some ciggies. The bar doesn't sell them, so the lady who runs it yells out across the village...someone yells back...then she yells out again...and 5 minutes later a kid is running down the hill with a pack of cigarettes. If they dont have the thing you want they go out and get it here. It kinda makes me feel bad, cos back at the place we are staying, me and Claire ask for 2 cokes, so the guy tries being sneaky and goes out to get them, from a store, then hands them off to another girl at the front door of the building so he doesn't have to walk past us with them, then sneakily gets them from the back door which we weren't meant to notice. Eagle eyes. Woops. But thank you very much Phoosey.

On the way back from the caves, our tuk-tuk man takes us through 'Whiskey town' where they sell some famous Laos whiskey. We tried it at the market the night before, they have all these bottles of their whiskey with friggin snakes and scorpions inside the bottle. Cray-zay. They're very giving with the tasters, probs trying to get you drunk enough to buy some hahaha. Anyway, in Whiskey town we buy a bottle to share that night and head off again. That evening I go back to the market and get a sweet bag, not the mental priced one but one I first wanted. I'll definitely have to come back to this place/market, I would like to own everything in it and there's just not enough room in my pack for anything more. This place is my favourite so far, it's so awesome and relaxed and nothing really seems urgent. My kinda place.

The last day we are flying out at 4.30ish. About 12pm we have nothing to do so we have a couple beers. Then a couple more. Then we get to the airport and have 20 mins to spare so we go get a beer at the food place across the parking lot. Then Mash hears my name over the loud speaker, about 4 times, then the others names too. Woops. Run run run, then onto the plane, and the safety briefing lasts 2 seconds, over the intercom, and as soon as everyone is seated we are off. No pissing round here! Your butt hits the seat and we're taking off. Okie dokey then. Tuna rolls, cake, pepsi, and free beer lao. Yuss.