On the subject of caves.....in the news these days......has anyone been to Erawan Cave in Loei (about 100km from Udon) recently?
It's been 10 or so years since I last went. 600+ steps to the top, then a large opening in the mountain with a large statue of Buddha overlooking the landscape. You can walk through the cave to the opening on the other side of the mountain......toward the middle of the cave is a large cavern with a small opening at the top to the sky. On one of my most memorable visits to the cave, we were there right around noon. Water droplets were falling from the opening to the large stalagmites on the cavern floor. The sun must have been in exactly the right spot.....the droplets looked like diamonds as they fell the 30 or so feet down.

On another memorable visit there with my visiting brother and his wife.....we got to the top of the mountain and there was a monk sitting next to the large statue, blessing a young man and his ?girlfriend?. I asked if he'd bless my brother and his wife....and he agreed. I asked him if he came from the temple at the base of the mountain, and he said, 'yes', but that he slept 'here'. "Here?" I asked....."Where's here?" He then took my me with my brother and his wife into a small door at the back of the statue. His room was probably less than 4 feet wide and 6 feet long.

Erawan Cave......a nice place to visit in another 2 or 3 weeks when the rice fields are freshly planted.

last year we stopped by when returning from Chiang Khan on the Mekong. Did those 600 stairs and got to the top only to find the lights down in the cave were not on and it was far too dark to go to far in.. I've been there a number of times and would say, never ever go immediately after a Thai holiday since the place usually get trashed after thousands of people walk through and it takes the temple a few days to clean it up.