Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
village of Pha Thao at the base of a cliff. The cave (10,000K) is hard to spot, so ask locals to point you in the
right direction
A descent into
Tham Pha Thao
is the most satisfying caving trip you can make from Vang
Vieng. Stretching for more than 2km, the tunnel-like cave is pitch-black and filled with huge
and presumably ancient stalactites and stalagmites. It also contains a
swimminghole
, formed
in an underground river that winds through the cave. The cave is best visited near the end of
the rainy season, when the water level is perfect for a swim in the subterranean pool 800m
into the cave. In the height of the dry season, it's possible to go beyond this point and ex-
plore the full length of the cave. If you explore the cave during the rainy season, you'll be
up to your chest in water at times - so travel light and don't bring along anything that you
don't want to get wet. A waterproof torch and camera are a good idea. Tour groups often pull
through this cave during the morning, so you may want to go in the afternoon.
The cave is located in the cliff face behind
Pha Thao
, a smallish village where you'll find
a few simple restaurants serving drinks and Hmong food. The Hmong living here fled the
northern mountains of Laos during the post-revolutionary turmoil of the late 1970s and early
1980s and wound up in a Thai refugee camp, where they lived until being repatriated in the
mid-1990s. Essentially, they are some of the Hmong who were denied visas to the US and
other Western nations and were forced to go “home”.
