This huge cave is simply breathtaking. As you enter the football stadium–sized cavern you’ll be greeted by (what else?) dozens of buddha statues, a couple of pagodas and some newer clay wall carvings.
Saddan Cave can be traversed only during the dry season (around November to April) and is 17 miles from Hpa-an along the road to Eindu. To get there, take a pick-up to Eindu (K1000). From the village take a motorbike taxi (K2000) for the remaining 2 miles to the cave.
In absolute darkness (bring a torch; otherwise for a donation of K3000, they’ll turn on the lights for you) you can scramble for 15 minutes through black chambers as high as a cathedral, truck-sized stalactites and, in places, walls of crystal. To add to the general atmosphere, thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of bats cling to the cave roof. In places the squealing from them is deafening and the ground underfoot becomes slippery with bat excrement!
Emerging at the cave’s far side, the wonders only increase and the burst of sunlight reveals an idyllic secret lake full of ducks and flowering lilies hidden in a bowl of craggy peaks. There is another cave on the far side of the lake that is actually half flooded, but local fishers occasionally paddle through the cave for 10 minutes to yet another lake. You may be able to persuade one to take you along.
