Down in Southern Lao Claire & I found one of the most beautiful spots in South-East Asia. Waterfall Tad Fein comprises two rivers meeting the edge of a cliff a few metres apart and plunging 120ms to the valley floor. We stayed in the resort overlooking the falls for two nights, the sounds of crashing water lulling us to sleep and views of the waterfall available from our balcony. It was cold to the point that we had jumpers on, and mist rolled in and out of the valley and surrounding forest through the two days we were there.
Our first afternoon provided full views of the waterfalls, we just watched quietly for a while, and then tried feebly to put our response into words to each other. Claire has brought a book with her entitled Mountains of the Mind, which explores peoples' reaction to mountains specifically and landscapes generally. In short, it proposes that our interpretation of a lanscape is dependent upon our personal and cultural backgrounds. Watching the water plummet I fit firmly into the modern category - awe at the sublime, sublime being an inarticulate-able combination of the beautiful and terror.
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