We arrived in Phong Nha at the ungodly hour of 4am, completely dazed from the night bus. Luckily our hostel offered free pick up! By the time we had recovered the next day, we didn’t make it out until the afternoon. We were staying a couple of kilometres out of town, but we took advantage of the hostel’s free bicycles to cycle around and explore. We spent most of the afternoon in town, lazing around by the pool of another hostel, ate some good food, and had an early night.
On our second day we booked a tour with a company called Jungle Boss; the tour included a visit to 3 caves and a jungle trek. We were picked up at 8am and headed straight to Paradise cave. Our group was made up of 12 awesome people, and our brilliant guide Bamboo got us all to introduce ourselves – we all clicked pretty quickly!
Our first stop was the famous Paradise Cave. Discovered in 2010 by British Cavers, its only been open to the public for a few years. The cave was probably the most touristy of the ones in Phong Nha, with steps, wooden walkways and lights. The stalactites and stalagmites were amazing! I think its best to let the pictures describe this one.
The 8 Ladies Cave
Next we got back on the bus and headed to the 8 Ladies Cave. This was a cave in which 8 Vietnamese people hid during a bombing in the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, although they sought refuge to escape the bomb, an explosion sealed the entrance which trapped them in the cave. People on the outside cleverly used bamboo shoots to provide them with water. This tale has a sad end though, as by the time they reached them, there were no survivors. The cave entrance is now a shrine in memory of those who died there. Now people leave offerings for them to enjoy in the afterlife, which we’ve seen at numerous temples, including beers, cigarettes, money, and cans of coke!
After this, we began our jungle trek, 2.5km led by our guide. This was my first experience in the jungle and it was a nice little trek. Before we knew it, we’d arrived at a river, and while the guides prepared our lunch, we were all straight in for a swim! They water was beautifully clear but very cold! We all had a quick swim then it was time for the best part of any day – lunch! Our guides had prepared lunch on the other side of the river – we all sat down and assembled our own spring rolls with rice, tofu, eggs, and green stuff, wrapped in rice paper. Incredibly simple but so tasty!
Trang An Cave
Now it was time for the biggest adventure of the day; our swim in the Trang An cave! We all put on our safety gear – a life jacket, helmet, headtorch, and gloves (or as one of the group called them ‘hand shoes’, because she forgot the English word. I was honestly still laughing about this the next day). The journey to the cave meant crossing the river again, and then climbing over about 100m of massive rocks. The cave was totally unspoiled and we had it to ourselves! We got into the water and started swimming into the mouth of the cave. Once again the water was freezing! The head torches went on, and as we got further in it got darker and darker. The cave was 600m long and as we turned a corner, we were plunged into darkness, with only our lights shining on the cave walls. it was a surreal experience, swimming in the darkness, and it was only then we saw how many bats there were on the ceiling when we pointed our heads up (hundreds, maybe thousands).
As we reached some rocks near the end of the caves, our guides made us stop and climb up onto them. Once we were all seated, Bamboo instructed us all to turn our torches off. I grabbed onto Chloe for dear life. I’ve never ‘seen’ darkness like it – your eyes search around for some kind of light source but there is absolutely nothing at all. We all shouted at the tops of our voices and listened to the echoes around the cave, and then sat in darkness and silence for a while (probably longer than felt comfortable, to be totally honest!) It felt like total isolation, and I was very grateful to be holding onto Chloe to give me some kind of grip on reality!
It was a relief to turn the lights back on, but wow, that was an experience. We made our way back out of the cave, and I swum pretty quickly in search of daylight – it was a beautiful sight. That was certainly one of the bravest things I’ve ever done – none of us realised how dark it would be or how far into the cave we’d be going – if you had told me before I would’ve run a mile! But in retrospect, it was a fantastic experience – there’s nothing quite like facing your fears head on!
After the trek back to the road, we had some victory beers and headed home. That night we went for celebratory drinks with our new friends, and ended up on an accidental night out until the early hours.
Phong Nha Cave
The next day we dragged ourselves up and walked to the Phong Nha Cave for a recommended boat tour. Chloe, Alpa and I were joined by 3 girls also staying at our hostel. The boat tour lasted about 3 hours, and took us through the incredible cave. On the way back, we stopped at a bit of land and got off the boat, and walked through the rest of the cave. We’ve been pretty spoiled with caves in Phong Nha, but this one was just as superb as the others.
We spent the afternoon chilling before Chloe and I headed for the night bus to Hue. This is where we said goodbye (briefly) to Alpa – we wanted to explore the Imperial City in Hue, but she was keen to hang back in Phong Nha and go on a trekking day. So with plans to reunite in Hoi An, we were off. Hue here we come!
Annie x
Pint-Sized Adventurers 