To the caves

 15

We left the station with the intention of returning to the station. As we saw, there are caves etc. about 15 kilometers away. We walked on wide roads. In some places, the scooter even overturned. That scooter was good. Also, the roads were wide, so there was no big fear. Like in almost every city in Laos, we could see multi-axle long and wide cargo trucks. We got them on this trip too. So, giving way to those vehicles, we left for the caves. On the way, we found a view point, a small stream. We could also see the mountains. We stopped there and took about 5 minutes to take pictures.

Stopover
On the way, we stopped at a small shop to get something to drink. My friend bought a Sumersby apple. My good friend, who was completely free from alcohol, bought some water. I bought a Lao beer dark. There is no difference in the taste of the beer. The quality of the beer is not that bad because Lao beer is cheap.

Caves
To go to these caves, you need to pay for a headlamp that you can put on your head. Without it, you can't see anything in the world inside the cave. The first cave we went to was not that difficult to enter, it was like a regular rail tunnel. There was a lot of space inside. This is not a cave at all, but a thick tunnel. Even when the lights were turned off, it was pitch black. At least there was no fireman. When we turned off all the lights, we went out to test the darkness. After a while, the white people in the distance also turned off their lights. The darkness that came was ultra-dark. A thick darkness with no light.

A guide had said that there was no end to this huge rock formation we were talking about. The guide had brought two white men. He had walked a little further with them. Although the inside of these tunnels was large, the path to go through was not flat. You had to climb and crawl over the rocks and climb over uneven rocks. In some places, there were Buddha statues inside the caves. We also worshipped them with sincere hearts.

The second cave
These caves are really fantastic. We have to pay another twenty thousand kip for this second cave and buy a set of lights. I think that's the ticket. But if you go into these caves alone and disappear inside, no one seems to know. They don't even ask for any information before you go.

The second cave is more difficult than the first one. You have to climb up and dig a hole to enter it. The stairs to go up and down were made of iron and wood. So when we went down, we saw different types of rocks and structures that had been formed by water over time. It was even more chaotic than the first one. You have to jump and crawl over slippery rocks. It was raining when we went, so water was dripping on the rocks everywhere.

There is no way to take photos of the beautiful natural rock formations inside these dark caves. Even though we took a torch and put on the light and took pictures with difficulty, the photos don't fully capture the fun there.

The book mentions that these rock caves were used by the Vietnamese to hide during the Vietnam War. I didn't realize until I went inside that there was so much space in these caves. These caves can really hold tens of thousands of people without any problem.