Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Laos → Tham Pa Fa (Buddha Cave)

Location: Western Khammouane Province, Laos

Time Required: 1 hour

Red Tape/Notes: Dry season only; walkways to the cave would be covered in water during the wet season. No photography allowed inside the cave.

What’s Nearby?: Thakhek, Ban Nakhang Xang Trekking and Caves, Tham Nong Pa Seuam, Tham Pha Nya In, Green Climbers Home, Xe Bang Fai River Cave (close-ish)

I’ll probably be struck down for saying this, but the best part about this cave to me was the pleasant walkway across a lake leading to the cave and the surrounding scenery. I guess there are a  number of reasons I felt rather “meh” about the cave. For one, I really prefer wild caves and I feel like the addition of any “improvements” detracts from a cave (this includes walkways, railings, and most definitely those awful neon/colored lights that are inexplicably pervasive in these types of settings). Of course, all of the previously mentioned “improvements” abound in this cave. Also, while it was certainly a lovely little cave before being “improved”, the formations aren’t particularly awe-inspiring when you’ve visited places like the neighboring Tham Nong Pa Seuam. The real reason we bothered with this cave is because we were already there (Tham Nong Pa Seaum is only a few minutes’ walk away) and I was interested in seeing the Buddha statues inside. I like historical artifacts, and the way this cave was discussed, it sounded like these statues were incredibly beautiful and that the cave was “full” of them. Full it was not. While admittedly there were quite a few, they certainly didn’t come close to filling the cave, and they were also generally rather small and you couldn’t examine them close up, because the area containing the statues is behind a barricade. Having visited Pindaya Cave in Myanmar, I know what a cave full of Buddha images looks like, and this ain’t it. But hey, if you’re here already, you may as well go, right? And on the plus side, I wasn’t overwhelmed with disappointment at not being allowed to photograph inside the cave (like I was at ATM cave in Belize), seeing as there wasn’t anything remarkable to photograph anyway.

Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Laos → Tham Pa Fa (Buddha Cave)