Lod Cave (or locally known as Tham Lod) is a mysteriously beautiful cave between Pai and Mae Hong Son that I highly recommend you to see it with your own eyes. It’s a surreal place with aesthetic limestone stalactite and stalagmite formations, ancient coffins and an underground freshwater stream which runs through the middle of the cave for about 200-300 meters. The cave is also home to large numbers of bats and swifts.
Don’t Miss: Northern Thailand – Discovering The Treasures In This Underrated Region
Getting There
As with all roads near Pai, the drive to the cave was crazy! There are tons of sharp curves, hills on steep inclines and declines and blind corners to navigate. If you are not comfortable driving yourself to Lod Cave, there are many tour operators in town to provide this day-trip.
Entrance Fee
It is mandatory to visit the caves with a guide. The tour will take around 1.5-hours to explore 3 caves with bamboo rafting. The cost of this tour is 450 Baht for a group of maximum 3 people so it is best to find someone to share the cost with. This attraction is an eco-tourism project and all proceeds from tour services go straight back into the local community who have helped to make the caves safely accessible.
What to Expect
These caves do not have any lights installed like other tourist destinations, so the safest way is to keep up with your guide who is holding on to a lantern. The cave experience was amazing as the guide spoke enough English to communicate the basics and pointed out the cool figures created overtime throughout the cave.
Lod Cave consists of three connecting yet different “characteristics” caves :
- Column Cave: Full of huge stalactites, stalagmites and pillars. Be prepared for lots of steps.
- Doll Cave: All kinds of “sculptures” from animals to Buddha statues pointed out by the guide. You need to use your imagination for this.
- Coffin Cave: Thousands of years old coffins believed to have buried the dead by Lawa people.
Lastly, if you want to keep a track of all my photos and travels, remember to follow @wanderrsaurus on Instagram!
Wanna explore some caves? Pin this post to read later!
