Has it really been 7 days? We’re down to the home stretch for our Laos Service Trip, and what an amazing trip it’s been. Now being back from the village, the trip has settled into a much more relaxed pace.

Compared to the other days in the village, we had a bit of a later start for the students. After breakfast at the guesthouse, we walked to the shore of the Mekong River where we boarded a boat that would take us up to the Pak Ou Caves. It was a magnificent day for a boat ride, with a pleasant breeze and stunning mountainous visa views. The students certainly didn’t mind unwinding during the hour long boat ride where they could take in the views, chat with one another, or simply nap a bit.

Before long, the vertical stone face of the Pak Ou Caves loomed ahead, and we moored the boat and brought the group into the caves to examine the many hundreds of different Buddha statues in a great variety of sizes. There was a second cave just behind the main cave and it as well was loaded with a multitude of Buddhist statues but was built deeper into the cliff-side which meant we had wander into a deeper and darker cave.

On the boat ride back to our start point in Luang Prabang, the students had a light snack, but many of them supplemented their lunches with snacks they purchased on the boat. After arriving back at the morning dock, we walked through the town to examine the Unexploded Ordinance Museum, where the students found out that Laos was the world’s most bombed country per capita the impact these explosives can still have on residents in the remote Laotian countryside. We then stopped by for a very short excursion through the Buddhist temple across the street from our guesthouse.

After a bit of an afternoon rest, the group headed out to one final dinner at an authentic Laotian cuisine restaurant where the students sampled many delicious local dishes. After dinner, there was one last trip to the night market for one last go-around at savoury snacks or intriguing gifts. Filled up on food and souvenirs, the group is now back for their final sleep in Laos.

Tomorrow we jet out just after 12pm local time and are due to arrive in Macau around 10:30pm. I’ll make a blog post once we’ve landed in Hong Kong and additional ones if there are any major deviations in our arrival times to any of the ports of transit. The students and teachers have experienced unique memories to last them a lifetime but are very much looking forward to returning home and sleeping in our own beds for the first time in over a week. See you tomorrow at the Macau Ferry Terminal!