The Wanderlust voyages of a Laura: Phong Nha and the World's Largest Caves: Part 1

I said goodbye to Hanoi and hopped on the sleeper train headed south to Dong Hoi. I opted for the "soft sleeper" car, which means there are 4 bunks per room as opposed to a "hard sleeper" with 6 bunks. My final destination was the Phong Nha Farmstay--a little guesthouse built near the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in central Vietnam--about 500 km south of Hanoi. Unlike many of my destinations, which were just planned on the fly, this was a place I had hoped to see since before I even left home. A coworker (thanks, Brenda!) sent me this National Geographic article on the recently discovered (and largest in the world) Sơn Đoòng Cave. Also make sure to check out the photo gallery!

After reading that article and seeing those pictures, I knew I had to get as close as I possibly could to that cave. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that Hang Sơn Đoòng is still being explored by the British Cave Research Association, and is not open for tourists (yet). Buuuuut luckily, being that the park contains one of the world's two largest karst regions with over 300 caves, I still got to see some really amazing stuff. My home base for exploration of the park was the Phong Nha Farmstay--a very nice guesthouse run by an Aussie named Ben and his Vietnamese wife, Bich (pronounced "Bick". Yeah, could have been awkward...). At the train station in Dong Hoi, I met a young German couple also headed to the Farmstay--Martin and Franzisca. The two of them had just finished school (Martin dentist school, Franzisca med school) and were traveling for a couple of weeks before starting their new jobs. We decided to team up and use the rest of the day to go and see Phong Nha Cave--the park's namesake. In order to reach the cave, we rented some bicycles from Ben and Bich and road through the village to the boat landing. The way was fraught with children, most of whom only wanted to say "hello!" in English or get a high five, but a select few were keen to throw rocks and sticks or hit us with their fists as we passed (99% of them were boys, I might add). Another group just stood holding out their hands yelling "money money money!" (westerners are always assumed to be rich, and compared to the locals, most of us are). In any case, it was certainly an interesting bike ride. Once we passed through that gauntlet, we made our way to the boat dock where we paid a boat operator to drive us down the river and into the cave. Phong Nha is mostly a wet cave, meaning a river runs through it and it cannot be accessed on foot alone. We later learned from one of Ben's Aussie friends at the Farmstay that Phong Nha Cave was used heavily during the American War as a shelter from American bombers. The entrance was once covered in teeth-like stalactites, but they were blown off during numerous missile and gun strikes as the pilots tried to fire directly into the mouth of the cave. The interior of the cave was really incredible to see, and was especially fun to float in on a boat. Fortunately, the cave has been lit up to make it easier to appreciate all the great rock formations that would normally be hidden in shadows. Unfortunately, the Vietnamese people are very fond of multi-colored lights, which in my opinion made the place look more like a cheap carnival ride than a beautiful natural wonder. But, in spite of the touristic technicolor interior, it was still something to behold.

View of rice paddies in front of the Phong Nha Farmstay

Biking to Phong Nha Cave! This must have been before the onslaught of children since I'm still smiling.

On our chartered boat, approaching the mouth of Phong Nha Cave

Once the boat rounded the corner, we came upon this little beach where we were able to dock and explore on foot

Even though the river kept going into the darkness, tourists are only allowed in about 1,500 meters and have to dock at this little beach. Considering that 44.5 km of Phong Nha Cave have been explored so far, 1,500 meters is just a sliver of what this cave has to offer!