Stray Laos: Tad Lo Waterfall
Head south to get to the spectacular waterfall of Tad Lo in the heart of the Bolaven Plateau. The waterfalls here make this location a must-see. You have the opportunity to take a swim, explore the small village and also ride elephants and watch them bathe in the waterfall. This place still has the old school dirt road charm of Laos about it.
Once again, we had a long drive today - the southern part of Laos is pretty long so each day after we left the capital region seemed like a very long one. At least the roads are fairly good in this area so we are covering a lot of ground every day. The most exciting part of the drive was stopping at a gas station that sold Australian Tim Tums cookies. Charlie talked them up so much that I went ahead and bought two packages and they were alright - I can see how they would go well with coffee. We also did pass by the newly opened Friendship Bridge over Mekong between Laos and Thailand. Curiously, it was opened at 11am on 11 of November, 2011.
With that much excitement going on, I was able to catch up on the few podcasts I still have not listened to, but otherwise, we were all looking forward to getting there. On arrival, we dropped off our bags, put the swimmers on, and headed out to the waterfalls. The closest one to the village was Tad Hang and it had a decent amount of water flowing through it, so it looked pretty nice, especially from our guest house. Next, we hiked up to Tad Lo falls that give the village its name. It was quite a bit higher than Tad Hang and had a nice pool of water in front of it for us to dip in. As it was already getting dark and Charlie did not want to lose anyone else in the jungle again (although, Karen came close), we headed back in town to get some food and rest.
