Tat Ton Waterfall

Tat Ton is not tall - a few metres - but it is wide, spilling across a broad flat shelf of laterite in a curtain that in full flow stretches perhaps fifty metres, with shallow water above and pools below. That shape makes it a bathing waterfall rather than a scenic one: Chaiyaphum families come with food, take the shade along the bank and sit in the water, and at weekends and holidays it is busy. The national park around it covers dry dipterocarp forest, which is a genuinely different habitat from the wet forest of the south - open, with grass beneath widely spaced trees, dropping its leaves in the dry season - and there are other falls, viewpoints and camping. Everything depends on the season. From July into November the shelf runs full; by March and April the fall reduces to threads over dry laterite and the bathing pools are shallow puddles.

What you actually see

• The wide shelf - a broad low curtain across flat laterite.
• The bathing pools - shallow water above and below the fall.
• The dry dipterocarp forest - open woodland, leafless in the dry months.
• The weekend crowd - Chaiyaphum families with food along the bank.

When to go

July to November for water; by the hot season the fall is largely dry. Weekdays are far quieter than Thai weekends and holidays.

Honest expectations

Low rather than dramatic - the appeal is bathing, not height. Nearly dry from March to May. Busy at weekends. Laterite is slippery underfoot. Foreign entry fees are higher than Thai.

Nearby

Chaiyaphum town is south; Mo Hin Khao and Phu Laen Kha are north-west.