Tadlo - a hidden gem in the south of Laos (Other locations...)

Member Name: sun-is-shining

Product:	Other locations...
Date:	27/05/09 (6 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: unspoiled nature, elephant riding, cheap food and cheap rooms

Disadvantages: buy stuff like mosquito repellent and sun block before you go there.

We arrived in Pakse at 6.30 and caught the first bus with destination Salavan. Just ask a TukTuk driver to bring you to the right bus station - they show you where the bus leaves. The bus to Salavan is a local bus (no aircon and fully packed). Tell the bus driver in advance that you want to get out at Tadlo - he'll tell you which stop it is. The price was 25000kip - by the time of travelling (2008) 2 Pound.

After 1 1/2 hours on a bumpy, dusty road we reached Tadlo. It doesn't look really exciting at the beginning but as soon as we tuck the only TukTuk in the whole town and reached the waterfall where all the Guesthouses are we fell in love with it. You can find rooms with bathroom inside (cold water) for only 40000 a night. Make sure that you have a Mosquito net over your bed!

We had 4 great days there that passes far to quickly. Here's a list with our highlights:


1. See the waterfalls and swim in them. The water is not too cold and the current not strong; perfect for a little wake-up swim in the morning

2. The local village and the coffee field.
If the Bolaven Plateau is too expensive or too commercial for you go to the local coffee field next to a village 2 km from the small waterfall. We had a great walk following the river stream up till we reached a small village. The village itself was so beautiful, still houses surrounding a clearing in the middle, little, cute kids running around, shouting 'Sabadee' all the time and older people smoking coffee leaves.

It's easy too find: at the entrance of the village go left again till you see a little stream - cross it and you are in the middle of a wonderful coffee field. It's more than beautiful and definitely better than all the commercial stuff you see on package tours.


3.See the elephants bathing.
A great place to see the sunset and elephants bathing at the same time is at the river just above the first waterfall. Before the bridge go up your left till you reach a restaurant (ca. 200m) Go to the river and enjoy the great view. The elephants come back from their last ride around 5 pm and go directly to river to bath.

4. Ride an elephant!
This is of course the must do in Tadlo. The Tadlo-Lounge organises rides for 85000kip per person. The two elephants are lovely old ladies, 60 and 65 years old and they are always hungry - so better bring some bananas with you :-)
I have to admit, I was a bit nervous at the beginning, it's a lot higher than it looks from the ground but it was great fun! We really, really enjoyed it and you could see that the elephants were well looked after.
The ride took about one hour, we crossed the river, went trough the village (the kids there love the elephants) and home through dense jungle.
This was really the highlight of our stay in Tadlo!

Summary: A wonderful place and definitely a highlight of Laos