Our schedule  today is renting motorcycles  up to the  north of Laos visiting  Pak Ou Caves (about 30km far from Luang Prabang) and up to the south to visit the Kuang Si Falls (far from  Pak Ou Caves about 60 km, from the city of Luang Prabang is 30km). It is also two places you can not miss when come to Luang Prabang. Through research and reading on WikiTravel are also a few more attractions such as Elephant Village and Tad Sae waterfall, but we decided to spend these sights for next  Laos trip.

In Luang Prabang, renting motorcycle is  more expensive than elsewhere. At low season as we go ( from June- September) is 100k Kip / day ( ~ 14$) without petro.  Go along the  Thammamikalath road, there are few of  motorbike rentals,  generally the quality is quite good.  The most wonderful thing while traveling in Southeast Asian countries is driving motorcycle, especially you traveling alone or in couple. Because  it's easy to rent a bike for between 4$ - 6$ (Luang Prabang is a special case cost to much expensive), regular gasoline also cheap . Flexiable, easy to control, more experinece, you can stop anywhere, anytime to enjoy your moment. Such a good ideal renting bike to discover landscape by yourself.

From Luang Prabang, there are two ways go to  Pak Ou Cave, one is highway and one is a dirt road along the Mekong River. And of course we choose the land road to see whole view of Mekong River.  Said the land line but also paved sections not so bad. You should park your bike and transfer to the boat go to the Cave. Parking fee (5K Kip) + boat fee (13k Kip x 2 ng), the total is 31k Kip ( ~4.5$). Now it is not the busy season, so less of tourist come here. We also had more time and quiet to visit the Cave.

It takes about   15 minutes on boat go to Cave. Seating on boat, watching the moutain, the river around is so wonderful.  The water of river is cool with dark brown of alluvia, dispeling  the heat of summer in Laos. The water flew so strong, it was not easy for driver can control the boat.

And finally we got to the other side, you need to buy tickets  20k Kip /person/ day (about ~2$)  to come inside the Pak Ou Caves. We are very lucky when join with other foreigner grop  to hear a local tour guide explained the history and meaning of the  Buddha statues here.

At Pak Ou Caves, Buddhist statues have 3 main shapes. The first is that the Buddha with hands to chest presents "Stop Arguing" (Stop Debate), stop the war, arguing. Because it will not solve anything, and instead, please calm  down and listen from both sides 2. The second is a statue pointing to the sky, that means  "Calling for rain", with agricultural country, the proportion of the rain is a very important for harvest.  The third statue with both hands below symbolizes "The  Witness",  Live in clean, healthy,  not greedy, everything you do will be witnessed. Surprising with  not only by the magnificent views of the mountains, but also a  huge cultural significance. So dont miss the Pak Ou Cave when you visit Luang Prabang.

To save our time, so after come back to land, we had short rest for fast lunch and go straight to Kuang Si waterfall- one of the most amazing waterfall in Laos. Kuang Si Waterfall is a very large are, you will get at least about 3 hours here.  The best time to visit the falls is definitely when the sun goes down. We decide treking to the top first and come back relax in swiming pool after.

Experience treking  the top of Kuang Si waterfall is very special. There are two road: one road at the right of Waterfal with the ladder to come up, and one road at the left with dirt land road- to come down. It takes about 30 minutes to get the top. And the view also amazing. It also the sunset time, woa, no words can describe exactly how great of this moment. The second road is harder because No structure, no guideline, easy to get lost  we just go by our feeling. We dont have flash, no map,   overcome the fear, go ahead and finally the goal appear.

End of day, we came back to Luang Prabang and enjoy our dinner.

It's such a long and tired on the road from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, Laos. The distance  is about 340 km away, takes us 8 - 10 hours on bus. The bus price  is 110k / person ( ~  15$). The Bus rided too slow because of dangerous mountain pass . After about 2 hours riding, the bus got trouble with the tires. The customers still waited and waited with hope that they should fix the bus. Because no much of peole come here, few of houses lived far from our location. We  worry that the bad situation can be happen, we had to overnight here. Lucky, we prepared some fast foods ( snacks, cookies...) for our dinner and shared them to others. After more 6 hours with the help of local people and customers, the bus is alright and we continued on the road to Vientiane. Now it was 6:00 pm, we had the chance to see the sunset in the mountain.

The bus  stopped for dinner, the expected time to Vienna is around 5:00 am the next day. So we sleep one night on the bus. At the bus station in Vienna, there are many tuk tuk was waiting to transport you to the center.  Depend on how many people go together,  If you joined with a group from 5-10 people on tuk tuk, the price is cheper- about 20k Kip.  This really is not a bad experience, instead we welcome the dawn on the road.

We walked over 1 km to find hostels, 5:00 am, the capital of Laos still sinking in deep sleep. Walk around for a while we chose Funny Monkey Hostel to stay, cheap and very clean rooms, but shared toilet and bathroom.  The price is 100k Kip / night without breakfast, had aircon. Check in at 6:00 am, check out at 12: 00 noon. 

We rent Motorcycle with  60k Kip (~ 9$ ) for 24 hours.  So if you rent at 3:00 pm, it counted to 3:00 pm tomorrow .  Almost the hostel, guesthouse in Vietiane had this service. You should rent at your hostel, they can give you some discount and good bike. We discovered over some famous place of Vientiane  as Vat Sisaket Vientiane, Ho Phara Keo, Presidental Palace, ...

Evening in Vientiane is quite busy, after dinne,  we decided walk to night market. Before leaving, the owner of our hostel  told us that be carefully when walk along the riverside. This place is every complicated, many local people sell ilegal items.
The second day,  we got up early to go to visit the Buddha Park. This place is a lot of Buddha statues  in Laos, far about 26 km  from Vientiane (1h running motor). Entrance fees for 2 people is 15k Kip  (~ 2 $).  What impressed me in Buddha Park is the story behind each of Buddha.  There is an entire gallery and explain the meaning of each statue. An impressive architecture here is the giant pumpkin, with 3 floors inside symbolizing Hell, Earth, Heaven level. Visitors can go inside through demon mouth gate with 3 meter height  to climb stairs from Hell to Heaven. At the top, you can see the Viewpoint of Buddha park.

In the afternoon,  we came back  to Vientiane, visit Patuxay. It were built between 1957 and 1968. The architecture  is the same as the Arc de Triomphe  was built in Paris, the capital of  France. However, there  still had unique features in Laos, especially as Kinnara (half-bird and half- human creatures, dancers in Theravada Buddhism and Hinduism.

The distance from Luang Namtha Province to Luang Prabang travel is about 310 km, more than 7 hours on  bus, the bus price  for 2 people  is 220k Kip (~ 30$). We arrived at Luang Prabang's bus station nearly 6:00 pm. There were  many tuktuk around  to catch you  into the center to find accommodations. But we decided to walk to find gest house by our self follor our mobile map ( maps.me).   Asked no less than 10 guesthouses, nearly 4 km walk, but still can not find available room with our budget. One of hostel owner said to me that tomorrow they had big boad racing festival in Luang Prabang. So, also Laotians from other provinces came here to participate in the competition.  Walking more than 20 minutes,  we also found a guesthouse  with reasonable price.  The hostel  is hidden under a small alley, rather murky and  located opposite the temple WAT Manorom, centre of Luang Prabang. The room had  2 prices: one is 80k Kip but impossible to stay here, no window, at the end of conner. So, we choose the rest one ( 100k Kip), still no window but outside and had aircorn. We go out for dinner, eat local foods and hurry comeback to guesthouse for relaxing.

Tommorrow, we waked up early to walk to Nam Khan river ( where organised the boat racing) joying the festival. It's very crowed, many shops, many street foods in 2 side of the road. At the festival, we found out  an angle to capture the racing teams easyl. It really surprised us is that so many kind of plastic bullet guns were sold here and  lot of children with 2 or 3 guns in their hand. Becaused of crowed, and hot weather, stuffy air, we came out the festival, walk to some of temples.

Nam Khan River is a tributary of the Mekong River (river flowing through Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos), moving along the Nam Khan River you can observe a lot of temples such as Wat Xieng Thong in Laos, Wat Pak Khan . If you visit at noon as we surely will not lose money sightseeing tickets. The temple architecture here is different  with other Southeast Asian countries. You can easily recognize it. Not lavish, magnificent but  quiet  and ancient.

Discovering the temples until 3: 00pm, we walked to Phou Si moutain- the highest one in Luang Prabang can see the sunset and whole view of Nam Khan river. The entrance fee is 20k Kip, following the stone steps, we went to the top. Such a beautiful and fresh viewpoint. We stayed and waited to catch the sunset on the river moment. 

About 5:00 pm, many shops prepare to open for night market. Easy for you can find some foods to eat or souvernirs here. It will be more great drinking Lao beers to finish long day :)