Finding the Buddha in a cave in northern Laos

Andy Hill

Inside of a cave in Vang Vieng, Laos, I found a glimmer of enlightenment amidst the hysterical terror of being in a cave..

We were hunting around trying to find every cave that we could in the amount of time we had the bike. 

Cruising through rice paddies and farms, around karsts and over rivers, we passed a wooden sign with the words “Blue Lagoon Cave” painted on it, and motored on in the direction of the arrow. Trying to divine the meaning of each crude sign that would follow, we eventually got to a clearing with a small refreshment stand. An old man was playing cards with a young boy. 

“Sabai dee,” we said and asked him about the cave. He pointed over in the direction of the base of a karst and said “Ok.” 

We followed along the path, putting on our headlamps. Foukzy said “have you ever been in a cave?”

“No. Have you?”

“A couple times, in France. But they were lit inside, and we had a guide. This is very different.” 

“Yeah. I’m shitting myself.”

He laughed and we started in. 

It was fairly straightforward for about ten meters until the light slowly faded out, our headlamps growing brighter in the darkness. We arrived at a large piece of rock that almost blocked the way we were walking. We could barely see that there was a half meter of sloping, wet mud to navigate around it. You had to bear-hug the stone in order to not fall into an large opening in the ground beside it.

“Oh, fuck me,” I muttered, thinking of heading back. 

“That’s a tricky one.” 

Foukzy picked up a small stone and tossed it into the hole which was big enough around for several people to fall in at once. At once cliche and terrifying, we didn’t hear the stone hit anything after he tossed it in. I picked up another one and did the same. Still no sound. 

“Well look; you can put your arms around it like this, and grab these spots, and keep as close to the stone as you can, and the ground is still level enough to get around without slipping. Watch.” 

He began to do exactly as he had explained, and made it over to the other side. I did the same, a chill going through the back of my legs as I glanced down at the blackness. If one fell in, it would be a very long time,  if ever, before getting out. 

“No problem!” Foukzy smiled and laughed. I was thinking about being mangled hundreds of feet down at the bottom. 

We continued on, covered in clay and mud as we shimmied over and under the guts of the mountain. It was often a smaller space than we could stand in, and required constant vigilance against slipping, and being on the lookout for more gaping holes to fall in. Luckily there was really only one direction in which to proceed, which alleviated my concerns of getting lost. 

I’d never heard that kind of silence before. Foukzy suggested we make plenty of noise so that snakes and other creatures would know well enough ahead of our approach to not be startled by us. 

After a little while the walls around us spread out and the ceiling lifted to about ten meters, making the first large chamber we’d come across. 

“Oh, wow Ian, look...” 

Standing before us was a large statue of the Buddha, maybe five meters in height, smiling serenely down on the pitch blackness that surrounded him. 

“How did they do that?” 

“Amazing. They must have carved it in here.”

We stood and rested in front of it for a few minutes. I needed a drink.

“Let’s go a little further.” 

We continued out of the chamber with the statue and the space encroached around us again. It became a long, straight passageway, and the walls were covered in crystals. In spite of how diabolical the cave seemed to me, it was one of the most astoundingly beautiful things I’d ever seen. We stood and looked at the walls as they shimmered and seemed to move with our headlamps.

All of the sudden, immediately above and beside us, close enough to be on our skin, there was a howling, buzzing noise like a bullroarer. 

“BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ”

“Oh my GOD!” I ducked and covered my head, and could see Foukzy in the strobing light of my headlamp trying cover his head. 

“OUT! FINISHED!” 

We crept and crawled along as quickly as we could without falling and knocking a skull or shin against jagged rock. I was sure that we would be eaten alive. The noise became less threatening as we moved away from it and we stopped to catch our breaths after arriving back within the chamber containing the Buddha statue, gasping in the seeming safety it radiated. 

“What the hell was that?" I panted in a strained, terrified whisper.

“Ask the Buddha.”

We both began laughing hysterically under the muted gaze of the statue, and decided we’d explored enough of that cave, heading back the way we came. When the light began to peek through, I thought how emerging from a cave had to be one of the most redeeming things a human could experience. I stepped out into the sun, stretching my hands up to the sky.