Remi on the Road: Day 5: Phong Nha, Vietnam

After spending nearly 5 days in northern Vietnam it was time to make my way to the central.

I took a 9 hour night open bus which meant I can hop on and off at the locations of my choice. Due to my limited time, I had to skip a few places and head straight to Phong Nha. The bus dropped me off at 4 am, in the dark, under millions of stars....again ☺

I was told that the bus stops near my hostel however, it was too dark to see where anything was. Of course, once the bus moved out of my way...the hostel was simply across the street.

Prior to check-in, I started my day with a shower and bunh mi for breakfast. During my shower I got to enjoy the sunrise and notice yet again that I was surrounded by beautiful hills. I think this is the kind of place sometimes people refer to as paradise. And I have 2 days to enjoy this pretty hidden gem!

The Easy Tiger hostel has a pool, open roof showers, great food and a tour guide who works at the hostel, from the UK, maybe, and gave us a few lessons on this magical place.

It turns out that actually this place wasn't always so pretty. This is a place where many of the large caves were used to hide the weapons and bombs during the Vietnam war. This place was bombed so much by the US, that it would take 1000 years to clean up any remainder inactivated/dead bombs. He also reminded everyone that all hiking plans must be confirmed with tour companies prior to going alone or in a group as wondering these forests are not allowed....due to the hazards.

On this first day, a group of us decided to visit Phong Nha and Tien Son caves via a boat tour. They both hold some of the oldest limestone formations ...while Tien Son offers a 400 stair hike ...but the view from the top is magnificent! Both caves display the bullet marks left by the US army.

It is considered a world heritage site ...
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/951/

This is the tour:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/vietnam/north-central-vietnam/phong-nha-cave/sights/natural-landmarks/phong-nha-caves-boat-trip

Day 2 - A visit to the Dark cave then free styling the rest of the way!

I met Mia from Denmark on my very first day at the hostel. We immediately connected and enjoyed talking, just about everything. While we enjoyed the tour on our first day....we were not very keen on following a large group of young people all stuffed I to a bus...all day.

So we decided to take matters into our own hands.... rent a scooter and adventure our own free way.

First we drove to the Dark cave...where I tried zip lining for the first time! Not too bad...but unsure if I would do that again. From there we walked into a large cave in nothing but a swim suit and a hard hat on as we were heading towards a mud trail....leading to a mud pool. Head to toe covered in mud...inside a dark cave!

This trip for me was recommended by a friend who visited this same place just a year earlier....and well....I will continue the recommendation as this place was awesome!

http://sondoongcavetour.abstravel.asia/phong-nha-cave-chay-river-dark-cave-by-boat.html

Unfortunately, the group was very large, about 30 people ...and made the experience very loud and hectic....but I can imagine if it was maybe 15 people....it would have been a much more joyful experience!

Anywho.....after all the mud we kayaked a little and got cleaned up. Since we had our own ride...we decided to drive the 60 km loop which was the entire Phong Nha national park. We skipped the Paradise cave and botanic gardens....and just spent the entire day driving.

While driving through the jungle:
- We tried chocolate Vietnamese coffee
- Saw some incredible looking butterflies
- And took some large deep breaths of the clean rainforest air

By sunset we noticed that we still had 3/4 of a tank left....so we decided to drive off the map and visit the farm stay which is affiliated with our hostel. Here we enjoyed a few bevies...watched the sunset over the rice fields...and the cows finding their way home...followed by the water buffalos. We stayed till dinner and enjoyed a few meals over an acoustic guitar and 2 singers. It was lovely....! We shared great stories which made Phong Nha my second favourite place after Sapa.