Laos: Bolaven Plateau

Bolaven Plateau is about an hour west from Pakse and a steady climb to above 3500ft in elevation. It’s a awesome green jungle jam-packed with spectacular waterfalls. Tad Fane Waterfall is the highest waterfall on the plateau, dropping spectacularly over 100m/300ft (there is no access to the waterfall except by zip line near it). Tad Yuang Waterfall is most impressive with double streams dropping into a bowl and you can descend all the way to the bottom. Tad Tham Champy requires a bit of a jungle hike and descent over rather unstable wooden staircases to get to a waterfall dropping into a small lake over a grotto. You can actually walk behind the falls here on slippery rocks. Last but not least from the falls I visited was Tad E Tu Waterfall – very picturesque with thousands of butterflies, also a steep hike to get here. The entire Bolaven Plateau is also home to coffee and tea plantations.