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Tad Leuk Waterfall
by Bob Stewart
Skanska, the Swedish no-nonsense road-building company, is making it easier and easier to drive to any number of yet-to-be-discovered tourist sites in Vientiane province. On the twisting as it is isolated Nam Leuk River, Tad Leuk Waterfall, just under two hours by road east of Vientiane, is one such place.
I myself learned about Tad Leuk by accident when I spotted a bright green sign with white letters announcing (in English no less) its presence and pointing the way with a white arrow. I was en route to Paksane at the time and the sign appeared on my immediate left after crossing the first of two bridges (this one above Houay Nam Hi) on the western outskirts of Thabok. (The sign, incidentally, is precisely on the bend at the eastern end of the bridge and also announces the beginning of the dirt road to Ban Pak Leuk.)
That was in late February. Needing to return to Skanska's spanking new headquarters in Paksane in early July, I rented a 4-wheel drive Soviet jeep from Lao Survey & Exploration Services in Vientiane in preparation for visiting Tad Leuk Waterfall on my way back. I was glad I did. The trek through the undulating sea-of-a-forest to the waterfall (actually there are no less than seven more within 4 or 5 kilometers of Tad Leuk) west of Thabok really requires a rugged vehicle. This July the rains had already begun in earnest and the course was extremely slippery. But in the dry season a regular vehicle might suffice.
On Skanska's superbly rebuilt road there were moments, particularly when the trees whooshed by, when I imagined myself being on the New Jersey Turnpike. Although this road building project extends all the way to distant Pakkading in Bolikhamsai province, the Vientiane-Thabok stretch now takes no more than an hour. But the offshoot through the forest on a one-lane road takes a good 45 minutes. It is not an all-weather road but more like a Pathet Lao obstacle course: the ruts can be several feet deep and the grades steep. In other words, even as a passenger, be prepared for anything on the second leg of the journey. (In fact I had hired a local driver at Lao Survey just to be on the safe side.)
The horizontal and vertical zigzag course from Thabok to the waterfall is well marked: obviously Thabok residents frequent the site on foot as well as by bicycle or motorbike. The track eventually becomes surrounded (read engulfed) by impenetrable bamboo on all sides as well as overhead (bye, bye sky). And by the time you can hear the enlivening sound of water cascading pell-mell, at a snails pace you are driving in a peephole of a tunnel through a giant panda's favorite food.
As the late afternoon photos show, Tad Leuk Waterfall (not yet in any Lonely Planet guidebook) is almost as big as the famous Kong Phapheng Falls in Champasak province. Moreover, although my driver and I were standing next to one another, the day we were there it was impossible to hold a conversation due to the deafening roar of water dropping straight down for many meters. Speaking volumes about its isolation, other than the lone attendant at Tad Leuk who collected a few hundred kip apiece as the admission fee, there was absolutely no one else present at this incredible site.
Today Tad Leuk remains as extraordinarily pristine as the day the Lao spirits got together in revelry and made it. So go now before it becomes developed and commercialized. Take your own food, liquid refreshment, TP, and plan to spend a remarkable several hours there. The banks of the Nam Leuk leading to and from Tad Leuk are altogether camouflaged by jungle and make it virtually impossible to do much hiking around the site. But perhaps this adds to Tad Leuk's charm and enchantment: one can sit in encircling cool shade for hours--tons of water screaming and hollering and making splendid white mist as they go galloping by--and dream. Any dream!