About May Waterfall (Thác Mây)
The May Waterfall (Thác Mây) was a multi-step cascade over limestone featuring a reported 9-13 drops over natural travertine dams.
Many of these travertine dams could support pools that were deep enough to swim in (let alone wade in) making this one of the more popular “play” waterfalls in Northern Vietnam.
In keeping with the “play” theme, despite the waterfall being near Cuc Phuong National Park, its lower steps actually had a lot of restaurants and shops.
Sometimes referred to as the “cloud waterfall”, legend has it that 9 celestial fairies would bathe in these pools while making their journeys on earth.
However, upon a hasty order from the so-called Jade Emperor to bring them back to Heaven, the fairies left behind footprints that became the various steps of the waterfall.
Another legend said that a young man from the Muong ethnicity (the dominant minority in the area) had to climb up the steps of the waterfall to earn the love of a maiden at the top.
Impressed by his determination, the maiden also scaled the 9 waterfalls with him to further express their love for each other in some enchanted land.
Based on this legend, it’s said that couples who bathe in the water will strengthen their bond and get married (if they’re not already married to begin with).
Anyways, this waterfall was said to be 100m in cumulative height, but its length was far longer than its height making the falls appear more like a series of much smaller drops as opposed to an impressive singular entity.
Moreover, the waterfall was also said to flow year-round, but as you can see from the photos on this page, that was clearly not the case during our mid-April 2025 visit.
In fact, none of the restaurants or cafes were active during our visit, which suggested that the Thac May Waterfall was more of a Wet Season attraction as opposed to the Dry Season when we showed up.
If I had to do it over again, I’d time my visit for this place around the latter part of the Wet Season (perhaps July through September) to ensure there’d be sufficient water in the stream.
By the way, it’s even said that it costs 30k VND per adult and 15k VND per child to visit the Thac May Waterfall, but no one was collecting money during our visit.
Thus, we pretty much just climbed up to the top of the waterfall, where I noticed a few pools and trickles representing the only parts that still had water (the rest of the steps were dry).
As a result, we didn’t linger for long, and we only spent about 25 minutes here before continuing on.
Authorities
The May Waterfall resides in the Thach Lam Commune of the Thach Thanh District in the Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. It may be administered by the local authorities of Thanh Hoa. To inquire about current conditions, you may want to try the Vietnam National Tourism Authority website.
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