We planned two days in the Phong Nha area, as there is more than enough to fill these days.
Today was a “leisurely” cycle around the National Park. Most of the backpackers do this by renting scooters – we took the opportunity to cycle without luggage – something we don’t get much chance to do.
As it was raining/misty/foggy, we thought we’d start in a clockwise direction (Botanical Gardens with Waterfall first) and then see how the weather is and how I am feeling.
And a wonderful cycle it was – wonderful steep rocky outcrops, jungle-type vegetation, and 2 hills (only around 250m high, but they were tough for me in my not yet 100% condition).
The Botanical gardens and Waterfall were a nice break after the first hill – a great 2.5km hike around the gardens and then down to the base of the waterfall and up the other side. The air humidity was very high, and it was either drizzling, or it just felt like you were walking through a warm (about 25°C) mist. The path itself was mostly well done, but there were some quite slippy muddy sections, but there were ropes to guide most of the slippery sections – in general, a wonderfully laid out small park.
Then, it was off to the old Ho Chi Minh Way – first a nice steep downhill with amazing views into the valleys – the park is quite remote, and there is a lot of pristine forest yet here – it was a wonderful cycle.
When we got to the Ho Chi Minh way, we were amazed as to how empty the road was – hardly any traffic, except holiday goers on their scooters. we spent quite a bit of time on one of the main bridges in the area walking on the “highway” as if it was closed to traffic. As we were taking pictures, a groups of Vietnamese joined us, and grabbed our bikes and started taking all sorts of pictures of them sitting on the bikes – Jörgs’ bike being quite big, they had a great time trying to cycle it – quite funny, and quite outgoing of the group – they were forever taking pictures of us, with our bikes…..
Then came the second hill – seemed a lot easier than the first although it was quite steeper, but given that there was hardly any traffic, it went quite well. Then down again on the other side until we got to the turnoff to Paradise cave.
At first we had planned to see Paradise cave tomorrow, but as we were good in time, and it was still quite good (even if quite humid) weather, we headed the 3km up the raod to the caves (that we would be confronted with 2-3 short but nasty hills on this road. We got to the main parking spot, then off into an electric buggy for about a 2km drive (we could have walked….), and then around 300+ steps up the hillside in the middle of nowhere (its amazing they found this cave at all).
At the mouth of the cave, there were some consession stands to buy a whole bunch of touristy stuff, but otherwise, without the good signposts, it would have been tough to find the cave entrance – keep in mind that this is the worlds largest dry cave!!
But once inside, going down the wooden steps….oh my goodness, what an overwhelming experience coming into this HUGE cavern – bigger than any cathedral I have every seen – rivaling many covered football stadiums and ice arenas….. It took quite a while to really appreciate how absolutely immense this cavern was, and walking the 1.5-odd km to the back of the portion open to “day tourists” (with a guide, you can go back another 3.5km, and it goes further than that still), you have a feeling it never ends.
Alas no amount of pictures can compare to experiencing this in person – absolutely amazing….