A first?

Access to Tadtong waterfalls near Luang Prabang, Lao is quite unique in Southeast Asia. Located behind a water bottling company, it has a huge car park next to a pond. There is also just the singular canteen. From here the canteen a concrete path actually goes into the hills upstream. Along the way are a number of smaller falls. On some stretches the concrete has given way (this December 2007) but still the whole path is estimated to be 3 km long, eventually returning to the bigger fall near the canteen. Besides the unappetizing pond there is not much opportunity for a swim. It’s more a splashing around kind of place, mostly visited by locals, it not being part of Luang Prabang’s tourist trail.

Getting here is not too difficult; the turnoff is directly south before the bottling plant itself, roughly 10 km in the direction of Vientiane. From the main road it is just 1 km at the most. Lodging is available in Luang Prabang, the canteen might not always be open.