Nam Lod Cave is one of Thailand’s most impressive and easily accessible caves, partly for its size, partly for its attractive limestone stalactite formations and partly for an unusual coffin cave hidden within the main cave.

           Nam Lod Cave is a cave system with a length of 1.666 meters. Geologic formations sprouting from the floor and ceiling, and forming flowstone columns where stalactites and stalagmites grew together. Nam Lod Cave is a natural limestone cave system, its main feature is the freshwater stream which runs through the middle of the cave for about 200-300 meters. Inside its walls are covered with massive formations and columns over 20 meters high. The cave is also home to large numbers of bats and swifts.

           The inner walls of the cave are covered with giant formations and columns (some more than 20 meters high) but there are many steps to climb up to get a really good view of the stalagmites & stalactites. When progressing further deeper into the cave, there is no light whatsoever, in order to explore the caverns, you must have a good guide with a decent burning torch which makes the exploration of the cave an even more mysterious atmosphere.

           The entrance to Tham Lod is relatively easy to reach and the river then passes through 600 meters of cave systems, housing 3 main caverns. We saw some birds, but the main exodus is from the far end of the cave, which is another 10 minutes walking and we did not tackle that as it was going dark and we were unsure of direction.

          The most amazing thing about this experience is that you enter one side of the mountain cave by bamboo rafts and eventually you emerge out of the cave system on the other side of the mountain! along the way, you depart on the land to climb the steep amazing terraces to view incredible caverns of fantastic rock formations.

          Nam Lod Cave have three different stops where we exited the rafts to climb up into the cave chambers via rickety wooden staircases and explore the wealth of stalactites and stalagmites inside. Also filling the caves were thousands of bats and swifts a type of small bird and teakwood coffins thought to have been carved by the Lawa tribespeople over 1,400 years ago.

           The highlight though was getting on small bamboo raft inside the Tham Lod cave and gliding slowly over the water through the cave with only the light from the lamp guiding the way, and with the sound of hundreds of bats above. Eventually you slowly emerge through a stunning cave opening out into the jungle.

Pang Mapha Viewpoint

Pang Mapha Viewpoint is a scenic lookout and there are shops to buy.

Distance 24.1 km.