Tat Lo March 9 -10

A Bit of Rural Lao

I finally got a bit of the Lao I was looking for. We arrived to Tat Lo via a local bus (two hour ride). As the bus leaves the station every seat is full, some multiple times and there are ten people on stools in the aisle. It was a great bus ride through the country side. We arrived at a guest house recommended to us and decide to splurge a little ($8.25 per night – double the cheap room) and get the nice room with a balcony overlooking the waterfall. The town is a small village on the Bolaven Plateau. There are several guest houses and a few lodges, but the town still retains its Lao identity and everyone goes about their normal daily life.

After we arrived, we head out for a walk to the waterfall, beautiful! A large waterfall cascading over volcanic rocks. The actual waterfall is quite wide, but the majority of the flow comes over one side into a big pool. A number of kids are fishing in the river just down from the pool. Their fishing consists of a mask and a homemade spear gun. At the waterfall, an older gentleman is fishing with a 30 foot bamboo pole. We watch for a bit and then hike further up the river to find a good swimming spot – success.

Later we wandered over to the Tad Lo Lodge. There were three elephants wandering about unattended. We walked up and pet them, fed them bananas and basically hung out for a little bit. It was wonderful. They are the sweetest animals ever. They love the physical contact and interaction. We enjoyed it so much, we decided to sign up for a ride the next day.

The only internet in town was quite expensive so Tim got a few days off school. The second day started with the elephant ride for an hour and a half. We climbed into the baskets on the elephants and were off at a very slow walk (we got passed by a bunch of local kids). The elephants prefer to take a few steps and then grab something to eat. The ride took us out past the second waterfall (even nicer than the lower falls) and to another small village. On the way back, Tim got to sit on the neck of his elephant like the mahouts (the driver essentially). He really enjoyed this part of the ride.

After the ride, we decided to beat the heat by hiking to the second waterfall. We spent more than three hours up here swimming and hanging out in the sun (oops, did get burned – forgot the malaria pills make us sensitive to the sun). During this entire time, we were the only ones there. Tim figured out a way he and I could swim behind the waterfall. Pretty cool in more ways than one. We were such exciting people that after several hours swimming in this waterfall, we headed back down to the Tad Lo lodge and the swimming hole in front of their place. Good place to jump off the rocks. You can only jump here after 3:00 pm. The river is controlled by a dam upstream that provides electricity to the area. They increase the flow every day starting at 3:00 to meet the evening demand for electricity. We are joined by bout 15 local kids that show up every day after school, strip down and swim for several hours.

I was sad to go the next morning. This is definitely a place I could have stayed a week and explored the surrounding areas. Many of the tourists here have rented a motorbike and are driving around the various towns on the Plateau.

~Jeff~

I wanted to add that we had the pleasure of being able to watch the elephants bathe in the river. Really quite amazing, these very large animals being taken under water their Mahout. The elephants seemed to enjoy their bath as we enjoyed watching.
~Karen~