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

On our second day, I, Martin, Franziska, and 3 other couples (yes, I was constantly surrounded by couples. Awesome.), decided to take the full-day tour of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park offered by the Farmstay. We headed out early in the morning with our guides--a middle-aged Aussie named Dave and a Vietnamese woman nicknamed "Mập" which means "chubby". The joke of course, was that she was anything but chubby. Ha ha hilarious. Anyway, Dave did most of the talking and was a really great guide full of interesting information and dirty jokes--my favorite kind. Turns out he comes up to the Farmstay from time to time to visit his friend Ben (the owner) and to take a vacation from his life in Australia. When he runs out of money (which takes a while since he stays at the Farmstay for free in return for giving tours), then he heads back home to work again. Pretty cool way to live. The first part of our tour consisted of just driving around the park and checking out some of the really great views from atop the hills. This sounds pretty straight-forward, but a lot had to be done in order for us to even be allowed into the park on these roads--mainly Ben had to work out some sort of "understanding" with the park guards. Our drive included parts of the actual Ho Chi Minh Trail, which was dotted with warning bells made from old bomb shells (the Vietnamese recycled EVERYTHING). If any citizen heard approaching planes, they rang the nearest bell to spread the word so everyone could reach shelter (usually the nearest cave) before the bombs began to fall. After our drive, we made our way to Thiên Đường or "Paradise Cave". Before the discovery of Sơn Đoòng cave, Paradise Cave was considered the world's largest at 31km. It was only recently opened to tourists in September of 2010, so I felt pretty fortunate for getting to visit. A 1.1 km path has been built inside the cave and the whole thing is lit up to reveal the incredible formations. Much to my relief, the lighting was done very tastefully, with no colored bulbs save a single random one right at the entrance. Dave informed us that that one colored bulb was added later after too many Vietnamese tourists turned back after looking in and seeing no colored lights, deeming the cave "not worth seeing". Ohhhh the Vietnamese and their love affair with colored bulbs. Anyway, this cave was absolutely mind-blowing, and made me feel way better about not being able to tour Sơn Đoòng. I could have hung out in this cave for hours and hours, and to think that I only saw 1 kilometer out of 31!

After Paradise Cave, we headed to a nearby swimming hole where due to high levels of calcite leaching into the water from ancient shelled creatures, the water was an electric blue color. We all took turns jumping in from a high rock (I had to nerdily tuck my glasses into my pocket before each jump) and relaxed a bit on a nearby beach. Back at the road overlooking the water, Dave pointed out a section of the water that seemed to be bubbling up slightly. This, he said, was the source of the water seeping out from undiscovered underground caves. Neat!

The next part of our tour was my absolute favorite. We divided into pairs and kayaked down the river to the mouth of Hang Toi or "Dark Cave" where we parked our boats, received a headlamp from Mập, (only about half of them actually worked) and ventured inside. Being only a few thousand meters deep, Dong Toi certainly isn't as impressive as Paradise Cave, BUT, exploring it in complete darkness (and BARE feet!), not knowing what to expect next, was soooo much fun! Huge boulders littered the cave floor, which was dotted with little "bowls" carved out of the rock. I was having a blast scrambling up and over the boulders and exploring little nooks and crannies (even though it was not always so friendly for bare feet), when suddenly we came to a lake inside the cave. The water was completely black, and the other end of the lake was no where in sight, so I figured this was the end of the road for us and we would turn back. "We swim." said Mập, and into the water she went. At this point, I was having flash backs to my cave explorations in Vang Vieng, Laos and the "clystal water for take a bath...beautiful water for swimming and tubing" cave. The concept of swimming in that black body of water had terrified me, and here I was at an even bigger and blacker one. Interestingly enough though, having other people around me significantly alleviated my fear, and I was literally giddy with excitement as Mập and I lead the group in swimming across the black expanse. I avoided thinking too hard about what was in the water below us and before long, we were on the other side. We made our way through the cave for about an hour before we had to turn back so we could make it home in time for dinner. Upon exiting the mouth of the cave, we were treated to a monkey sighting! There they were above the cave entrance flitting from branch to branch looking down with curiosity at the strange creatures in orange vests with lights on their heads. There are several species of monkey in the park, but they are very few in numbers and sightings are quite rare. Even Mập got really excited.

As fun as this little cave expedition was, there was one casualty--my camera! I had it inside in my pocket in a ziploc bag (which apparently had a hole), and although I left it on a rock when we went swimming, the splashing of water during the kayak must have been too much for it. For the next few days while it dried out, I traveled picture-free.

A view of Phong Nha-Ke Bang during our driving tour of the park

Emma (daughter of a couple on the tour) takes a walk on a stretch of the Ho Chi Minh Trail

Emma outside a cave memorialized to remember a group who hid inside during an air strike but were killed when the entrance collapsed and they could not escape. Hanging is one of the recycled bomb shells made into a warning bell.