The village of Tat Lo is set up around three large falls and is growing as a touristic area, although when we arrived it was quiet and not yet over developed. As such, the people in the village are very friendly and open to tourists. Niki and I splurged a little on a bungalow literally on the doorstep of Tat Hung. On the first day we unsuccessfully try to find Tat Lo, gave up and instead go for a swim in our back garden waterfall. The next day I wake up early, found the mystery waterfall and unexpectedly elephants on the way, lost my shoe and had an adventurous climb to get it back. Niki had her own early morning adventure and met the most fascinating guy called Havé, whom we spend the rest of our stay with. Havé is a young, energetic, Catalonian man with a heart full of love and a personal mission to spread it throughout the world ("One love"). He had been living in Tat Lo for 3 months with a friend who owns a guesthouse in the village.

At the top of Tat Lo, Havé sits aviators on, bearing his tattoos and meditates on the interconnectedness of people and the universe. I love this guy! We quickly befriend two beautiful little Lao girls swimming in a pool at the top of the waterfall and spend the rest of the day playing with them. Many more kids join us and are captivated in drawing with a pen and paper and taking photos of each other. The kids we have met in Laos are so amazing, real little Tarzan's and so at ease in this environment that we struggle through. Few of the older, local kids were jumping into the heavy flowing 25m waterfall which is dammed up river so the water level fluctuates and incredibly climbing back up the cliff under the waterfall with their bare hands on slippery rocks (Laos-style safety). A young, American bravado follows suit, he jumps three times and on the last jump comes up with blood all over his face - a loose rock smashed a gash across his nose - nevertheless he was totally blasé about the whole thing. Niki and I are both too besotted with the kids to get our feet wet. We go for dinner with Havé in the evening and are joined by the restaurant owner for rounds of delicious Lao Lao. I love these types of conversations… we don't need to talk the same language to understand each other.