Tad Thong Waterfall by bicycle: the unofficial route (Luang Prabang)

Warning

I wasn’t sure whether I should share this journey, as part of it (the trek to the waterfall through dense jungle) is quite dangerous and is a potential disturbance to the local population.

Anyway the cycling is well worth the effort by itself. I wouldn’t recommend to try to reach the waterfall as the it’s not really worth the risks.

Getting ready

Find a bike

At the time of writing, it’s impossible to get bargain bicycle rentals in Luang Prabang. City bikes are 20000 LAK / day, mountain bikes 50000 LAK / day. This journey requires a mountain bike (steep slopes). I was cheap and took a city bike (no gears!), I regretted my choice.

Safety

Hat, sunscreen, small first-aid kit, good supply of water are a must. A few shops on the way, so you can refill.

Route

This route is inspired by Hobo Maps. Make sure you have offline maps available before you start.
Be careful, Google Maps (at the time of writing) isn’t up to date with the roads in this area. Indeed a dam has been built and Google Maps doesn’t seem to have been updated since. The route it suggests to go to the village is now blocked by the power plant (I tried!), you have to take the other one on the left. Hobo Maps and Apple Maps are up to date.

Below is the route I took (but please use Hobo Maps rather than this map to guide yourself!):

There are many shops on the way, don’t hesitate to buy plenty of stuff there as they don’t see tourists very often.

Access to Tad Thing Waterfall from the west

Hobo Maps suggests there are paths to the waterfall area (little dots between the last village and the waterfall). You can also kind of guess it on the satellite view. The waterfalls are hidden in the jungle between the village and the official access road.

I didn’t find those trails by myself, and didn’t want to explore too as it would require me to walk around houses searching for them I felt like I was trespassing.

As I was heading back, a villager speaking no word of English managed convince me to follow him to the waterfall.

If this happens to you, make sure you agree on a price for taking you there, otherwise he’ll stop in the middle of the jungle alking for unreasonable amounts of money. Uncomfortable situation.

The villager took me on a trekking look through the jungle for about 45 minutes. It looked like a trail at times, but soon it was just a hike through dense jungle. Parts of it were extremely dangerous: muddy, slippery, very steep. We had to go under a fence at some point. On the way back, we climbed up ON the waterfall: extremely dangerous, I don’t think you can avoid breaking bone if you happen to slip on your way up.

We didn’t see the ticket office (obviously the guy didn’t take me there, as I can only guess what we did wasn’t entirely legal).

Before we got back to the village, the guy asked me for money (the only English word he knew) and showed me a 100000 LAK note. I gave him half of that and he didn’t insist long. 50000 is still probably more than what he would have made by working a whole day doing any other job they can do there.

All in all it’s an exciting experience, but I would advise against it, as I don’t believe there’s a positive impact on the village’s economy. If more tourists keep coming in search for the waterfall, it might push them to leave their farming jobs and try to scam tourists instead. Also, physical harm is a possibility — things can go bad very quickly in the jungle. Whatever happens, never go alone.

Here are a few pics from the trek and the waterfalls (OK, not much to see, but the jungle is dense and beautiful):

Sights on the way

• The huge Phosi Market (just outside of the city centre) where you can buy anything much cheaper than in town — much recommended stop on the way back;
• Small villages and curious kids, a few rice rice terraces, farms, mountains, a dam.

See for yourself below: