About Dau Dang Waterfall (Thác Đầu Đẳng)
The Dau Dang Waterfall (Thác Đầu Đẳng; could have Tay meaning concerning “silk”) was a gushing waterfall on the Nang River (Sông Năng) that is one of the main attractions on a day tour in and around Ba Be Lake.
It’s a segmented cascade where the main tier maybe plunged a modest 10m or so tall, but its overall cumulative height could be significantly more if you include the rest of its long rushing sections.
In fact, I’d argue that pictures really don’t do this waterfall justice (as the photo above attests), because it does run longer than the height of any one of its gushing drops.
Despite pictures being unable to convey the scale of the Dau Dang Waterfall, it was powerful enough that even its Dry Season flow (like when we saw it in mid-April 2025) churned and made a lot of noise.
I must admit that even though we used Dau Dang Waterfall as our reason to visit Ba Be Lake, it alone would not be a compelling enough reason to go out of the way for it.
However, when we visited Ba Be National Park (of which the lake was the centerpiece), we realized that we benefitted from the lake’s scenery and attractions along with the slower pace.
We found this to be refreshing because it contrasted mightily with most of the rest of the places we wound up visiting in Vietnam, which were a lot busier and more hectic.
Experiencing Dau Dang Waterfall
The physical exertion to experience the Thac Dau Dang Waterfall was a comfortable 15- to 30-minute walk in each direction (it really depends on your pace and how many stops you make along the way).
It started from a small village or farm with a restaurant that most tour visitors would have lunch at.
The path then continued downstream along the banks of the Nang River initially going by someone’s farm (cultivating livestock while growing local veggies and fruits) before continuing onto the forest.
The mostly concrete path was well-established and maintained, and it ultimately got to a spur in the trail where there was the first lookout of the Dau Dang Waterfall as well as an impromptu refreshment stand.
From this first lookout, we were able to get a top down contextual look at the extent of the Thac Dau Dang as it loudly rushed beneath us from left to right while high mountains and cliffs were around us.
The spur trail then went down a series of steps as it eventually made its way down to the second lookout, which was a viewing deck with a frontal look at the waterfall’s main drop along with more minor tiers.
In addition to being our turnaround point, this was also the spot to take people shots while getting more satisfying shots of the waterfall itself.
The continuation of the main concrete path another 500m or so would ultimately get down to the headwaters of the Nang River side of the Na Hang Reservoir (which is also fed by the Lo River further to the north).
To my knowledge, the best (perhaps only) way for most visitors to access the Dau Dang Waterfall would be through through an all-day Ba Be Lake Boat Tour like what I’m describing here.
It seemed possible to tailor private tours for specific attractions in a more targeted tour (if you’re really constrained on time), but I’d argue such rushed visits would really sell Ba Be National Park short.
What A Ba Be Lake Day Tour Entails
In addition to the churning Dau Dang Waterfall, a typical day excursion would also include the Puong Cave (really a hybrid long natural bridge and cave), the An Ma Temple (a Buddhist site on an islet), and the scenery of Ba Be Lake itself.
If we had even more time and energy, there were a couple other possible stops or excursions in a day tour like a lake kayak and/or swim as well as some higher elevation natural spring pond.
By the way, Ba Be Lake (or Hồ Ba Bể) was the largest natural freshwater lake in Vietnam with a rather unique ecosystem, and it was the main reason for the formation of Ba Be National Park.
So the place itself was truly back-to-nature where the ethnic minorities (primarily Tay) still live off the land and do part-time tourism (as we noticed foreign tourists in this remote part of the country).
Anyways, our particular private tour costed us $190 USD or $95 USD per person (a typical larger group tour would have costed each of us I think about $75 USD).
Our tour itinerary was the following…
- a 45-minute boat ride across Ba Be Lake
- a 45-minute boat ride upstream on the Nang River to the Puong Cave
- about 15-minute visit within the Puong Cave
- a 1-hour boat ride downstream on the Nang River to the village near Dau Dang Waterfall
- about 30-45 minutes lunch
- a little over an hour to hike and experience Dau Dang Waterfall
- about 1-hour boat ride to the An Ma Temple
- about 15 minutes at the An Ma Temple
- about 20-30 more minutes on Ba Be Lake as we returned to its southern shores
Ultimately, we spent about 6 hours on our tour, but the typical group ones would get another 2.5 hours more of a head start than what we were able to do.
Authorities
The Dau Dang Waterfall resides in Ba Be National Park within the Nam Mẫu commune in Ba Be District of the Bac Kan Province, Vietnam. It may be administered by the Ba Be District Government. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Ba Be National Park website.
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