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Here and there is the occasional temple, most memorably the tiny Wat Paa Huak, which has orange walls covered with stunning murals depictingexotica such as white tigers. Looking down on the other temples is Wat Chom Si, which perches on a rocky outcrop next to the main street. Outside it, women sell birds in tiny pink-dyed bamboo birdcages; release a bird and your wish will come true. A couple of hours upriver are two more unusual temples, hidden in caves carved out of the cliffs by the Mekong millennia ago. In each are hundreds of gilded Buddhas of all different sizes, left by worshippers. Some are intricate, immaculately carved, big and grand. Others arelopsided, as small as a chess piece, or a thimble, and squiffy-eyed, as if they have availed themselves of too much of the local rice whisky. The higher of the two caves, a steep climb up 200 steps, is dark and at first seems empty. But with a torch, suddenly the Buddhas transmogrify en masse, a magical entity dazzling out of the darkness. 这里随处可见寺庙，最令人印象深刻的是那座小小的帕华可寺，那里橙色的墙上有各色慑人的壁画，描绘着白虎这类珍禽异兽。接着来看另一所寺庙宗西寺，它坐落在主街旁那片石崖上。庙门外有妇女售卖装在粉红色小竹笼里的小鸟，放生一只小鸟你的愿望就会实现。沿着河流乘船逆行两个小时，就可以来到另外两座非同一般的寺庙，它们建在湄公河边岩壁上凿出的岩洞里，已经有千年历史了。每座寺庙里都有几百尊不同尺寸的镀金佛像，这些都是香客捐塑的。有些佛像雕刻精美，尺寸巨大。有些则倾斜着，像一枚棋子或顶针那样细小，醉眼朦胧的，仿佛它们喝了太多 本地米酒。到较高的那个岩洞去要爬上200级陡峭的台阶，洞里光线很暗，初看像是空空如也。但是用电筒一照，佛像突然齐齐显现了，在黑暗中神奇地发出耀眼的光芒。 | 
