Day 7: Caves, Whiskey Village and Slow Boats

We wake up and pack up our stuff, and leave it all at Apsara while we head out for a day on the water. We're board a slow boat cruise to see the Pak Ou caves, with a stop on the way to see the whiskey village.

So we get onto a long boat with an Australian family (consisting of an expat living in Laos with wife and 4 kids), a gregarious Japanese business professor and his top pupil from Vietnam, and a nice pair from London who are about 50 or so and we assume are brother/sister. Then we hit the Mekong. 

First stop, Whiskey village:  This was supposedly the town where Lao Lao whiskey is made, and when we got off the boat we immediately had some samples in our faces (as well as some red and white rice wine). In the picture, at left is the sampling table, and in the foreground are the local children "communicating" with the Australian girl. It was pretty cute and they went back-and-forth making faces for a while. 
We go up a few steps and Nicole haggles for some cozy and beautiful "hippie pants" as Travis calls them. Then we see some beautiful temples, some monks learning monkhood or something,

some dogs playing around (there are playful dogs everywhere in SE Asia) and some more shopping.  We scampered back to the boat and were on our way to stop #2, but apparently the fact that we took 22 minutes (instead of the 20 recommended) meant that Mr. Japanese professor was going to make wise-cracks about tardiness for the rest of the day. 

The caves:  After a bit more time on the river and a BeerLao, we arrive at the caves. We have 30 minutes to check out these two caves full of Buddha statues. This time we set an alarm on our phone to be sure we are not tardy.

The Buddhas have been there for a while, and the caves are maintained by the townspeople in the fishing village right across the Mekong. Most people just visited cave #1 which was 3 flights of stairs-or-so up the hill, and visible from the water. Travis was the only one from our boat who hiked up to the second cave...which turned out to be his workout for the day. The hike was straight upstairs for a while, but the payoff was pretty good. A dark cave requiring a "torch" (you Americans may call it a flashlight) and a few hundred Buddha statues just chillin in the dark. It was really great. Then began the hike back to the boat. Nicole was the first one back at the boat, but the Japanese guy continued with wise cracks...

Back to town:  The boat ride back was uneventful, but scenic and relaxing. They also served us a traditional Laos lunch which included a sampler plate of fish Mok (which we called fish milkshake), egg wrapped around minced pork, and grilled chicken in a banana leaf.  Followed by several courses of soup, rice, stir fried veggies, and meat. We returned to town at 2:30 and had a 7:30 flight, so we just walked around a bit. We had a banana/Nutella crepe from a street vendor, and watched the guy after us order some green paste (danpan custard) on his crepe.
He didn't know what it was, but said it tasted good. We were captured eating by a film crew, so keep your eyes out for us on Vietnamese TV. We proceeded to hit the night market once more and Travis found a painting he liked. Nicole found some pants that would later turn out to be a little (a lot) oversized.  

We ventured on to a Tracole mini-pub crawl (Aussie Bar, Hive, Utopia- where the bartender couldnt figure out how to make any of the drinks in their menu) and quick stop at JoMa for a chocolate croissant per lonely planet (umm, a little disappointing). Then, we used the rest of our cash to buy a couple of drinks at Apsara and chat up the staff. The morning reception guy drove us to the airport along with his adorable 4 1/2 year-old daughter, Pha (means "sky" in Lao). The drive was really entertaining (we learned a lot about Lao weddings and marriages) and he really was a kind man. 

JW Marriott Hanoi: 

Nicole's points got us a free stay at possibly the nicest hotel we'd ever seen, and we were of course in a fancy suite. Every-where we went, we were shadowed by someone waiting to attend to our every need. We were thoroughly impressed with the pool and exercise facilities on the top floor overlooking the city.

Time for bed in our cozy palace.