Phantastic Phong Nha

From Hoi An we took a terrifying, bone-rattling bus ride to Phong Nga. We arrived there after about 7 hours of dodging between traffic on the highway, going somewhere between 80 and 100km/hour (we couldn't tell because the speedometer was broken) when the speed limit was 60. We were very happy to be alive and back on solid ground when they dropped us in front of a decent looking hotel in the small town of Son Trach. Nobody in the town spoke any English, but we managed negotiate a reasonable price for our hotel room and order some dinner. It was dark when we arrived so we had no idea what to expect when we woke up in the morning. To our delight our room had a 270 degree view of the beautiful jungle-covered karst mountains that surrounded us.

The view from our hotel windows.

We arranged a tour of the Phong Nga Ke Bang National Park, for the next day. Our only option was to book it through the Phong Nga Farmstay, who seemed to have a monopoly on foreign tourism in the area. At $45 per person we thought it was a bit over-priced, but hopefully it would be worth the money. They came to pick us up in the morning in a minivan filled with 8 other foreigners and our Australian guide, Dave. We drove through the windy roads in the park while he told us some interesting stories about the history of the area.

The landscape was spectacular.

Our first stop was 8-Lady Cave, where 8 ladies were trapped during the war, after a bomb collapsed the entrance of the cave. In recent years the entrance to the cave has been excavated so that their bodies could be given a proper burial. A temple has also been constructed, next to the cave, to appease the spirits of the ladies. (You can see Dave explaining this in the corner of the photo)

We all lit incense sticks and placed them both inside and outside the temple, to please the good spirits and protect against the bad ones.

This is a pair of flip flops from during the war, made from discarded tires of American army vehicles, with inner tubes for the straps...innovation!

Next stop was 'Paradise Cave', discovered in 2009, and opened to the public in 2011. On our way to the entrance of the cave we came across this little guy.

Paradise Cave is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is among the largest caves in the world. As we descended down into it, this enormous cavern revealed itself to us. It was covered with breath-taking stalagmites and stalactites and was tall enough to fit a 20-story building. We were stunned by its beauty and felt that it deserved to be beheld in silent reverence. However, the crowd of Asian tourists, with screaming children and guides with loud speakers, didn't seem to agree.

After a boring but tasty lunch of chicken and rice we headed to our next destination where we would be doing some kayaking.

We all got situated in our boats and then proceeded to paddle about 100m down the river to the entrance of the cave we would be exploring. This was kind of disappointing as we thought we would be in the water for a lot longer. We docked our kayaks and headed into the cave.

We walked in a little way and then began to swim into the depths of the dark cave, with only our small headlamps to guide us.

We saw some iridescent green cave moss.

We swam to the end of the navigable part of the cave before we made our way back towards the sunlight. It was an eerie but awesome experience.

All too soon we were on the minibus heading back to Son Trach.

The next day we rented a motorbike and decided to do a little exploring on our own.

On our first try to find the national park we took a wrong turn and ended up in this deserted but beautiful landscape.

But we soon found our way and arrived at the 'Eco-trail' that lead through the jungle a short ways, to a nice swimming spot in the river.

The turbulence in the water here marks the entrance to the largest cave in the world, to date. They can tell it is the largest by the volume and rate of the water flowing out of this entrance. The British Cavers Association tried to reach the main part of the cave by scuba diving down through this entrance. However, they had to turn back when they reached a depth of 50m, where the tunnel was still descending. 

We found our way back without any problems.

We returned the bike to the Phong Nga Farmstay (because of course they are the only ones who rent out motorbikes) and enjoyed the rest of our evening there watching the sunset, and chatting to the other travellers, before taking a taxi back to Son Trach (which the Farmstay arranged for us of course).