A very muddy day today...in a good way!
So first, our accomodations at Phong Nha Farmstay are out of the way and usually that's not great, but here it's excellent. The main hotel building and attached building (where our huge room is) sit atop a hill overlooking miles of rice paddies (sadly these ones are dry right now) with the limestone mountains of the national park in the background. The sunsets are spectacular (Mum, Eve would love it) and the mornings are serene. The social scene is like an upscale backpackers resort, the food is great (and not a rip off which you might expect with a captive audience), the pool is certainly nice and there are even outdoor movies, always with a Vietnam theme, playing every night at 8pm.
So today we were to go on a tour of the National Park put on by guides from the Hotel. The guides were great and even though we had a relatively big group (maybe 15) it didn't seem too big for the day. First up was a drive through the park, checking out part of the Ho Chi Minh trail called "road 20", named after the 8,000 people, mostly 20 or under, who built this part of the transportation network used during the American war.
The park is really a continuation of the geography we'd seen in Ha Long Bay, though this was farther inland. Huge limestone carsts covered in lush greenery with calm rivers meandering their way through the valleys.
We stopped a few times along the way to get a briefing from our guides. The park was designated as a UNESCO world heritage site a few years ago due largely to the large number of caves. In fact, a couple of years ago, another cave was discovered here that would become recognized as the worlds largest cave (overtaking the one we will see in Borneo with the Versluis family... D'oh).
Hung, our guide, showed us examples (pictured below), of the results of Amercian bombing runs that were designed to break rock off a mountain to cover the Ho Chi Minh trail below (this particular road goes into Laos so that the North army could supply the south through Laos and Cambodia, whichpartially explains why Laos and Cambodia also got carpet bombed throughout the war). Once the
planes had gone or were shot down, crews that lived in small caves would come out and systematically clean the debris and they were back in action.
We went by a small temple that used to be a bit of a way station for travellers going south on the trail.
Here is Hong with an old bomb shell that was turned into a bell. An estimated 30% of bombs never detonated in Vietnam, largely because the bombs were designed for war in Europe where they would hit hard surfaces, not for jungle warfare.
By about 10:30, we got to Paradise Cave. We noticed there were about 50 buses parked in the parking lot and were thinking... "Here we go". Turns out, the place is so big, it would be hard to get crowded. We got out, went through the main gate and were whisked to the bottom of the cave area by golf carts. Then we climbed an almost endless number of switchbacks, gradually climbing up the side of a tree covered mountain. We passed a lot of people that were resting as they went up - it was very hot and pretty steep too. When we got to the top, we saw a narrow stairway leading into the rock. I was thinking "oh, Beth might not like this", but when we started to descend into Paradise Cave, we were shocked at what we saw: it was huge. I would guess we went down 8 or 9 flights of stairs into the first cave that is probably 500 meters long, 100 meters wide and at least 50 meters high - it was breathtaking, in a totally not Seinfeldian way!
The entire walkway to the end of the tourist section of the cave is probably 1km long. It takes you through chamber after chamber of beautiful limestone caves, marred only by amazing stalagmites that were much bigger than anything I'd ever seen (some of the stalagmites went to the roof of the cave and were more than 30 meters in circumference). We felt very small walking through this stone palace. I tried to imagine what it would have been like being the first to explore this place without lights - being inside somewhere that big with no hint of light and no idea what to expect. Well I didn't have to wonder long, because after lunch we were going to the Dark cave!
After a great lunch, we got in the mini busses and headed over to the Dark Cave area. They explained that we would be zip lining over to a huge dark cave, then walking and swimming our way through the cave system.... I could hear Beth gritting her teeth from 10 meters away. First up was a swim and little zip to jump line that the girls enjoyed.
When it was time to get our harnesses on for the zip line, an Aussie guy and I failed the 198 pound Vietnamese weight limit for the zip line. Really? 198? That would mean of all my friends at home, just Probir and the ladies would be zip lining.... However, I don't think I missed much as it was pretty slow and not very long. The Aussie, 2 guides and I kayaked over to the entrance to the dark cave, and I was trying to catch Beth and the girls do their zip line, but when I got there they'd already arrived.... And Beth survived!
The dark cave was something else... We all got helmets with lights and began swimming into the cave. The water was crisp and refreshing. Eventually, we got to a brown pathway that narrowed and gradually became quite muddy and a tad treacherous! Robin was having a blast and I was trying to stay by Beth yet keep up with the single file row of spelunkers. The mud was getting very thick - up to our knees occasionally - when all of a sudden we came into a small chamber that was filled with mud. As we made our way into the chamber we got deeper and deeper - I guess it was 3.5 feet deep at most, but the buoyancy in the mud bath was something I've never experienced in my life. Eventfully, I got used to it and found that I could sit, floating/suspended in the mud with my belly button near the surface - it was the strangest thing I'd every experienced.... I can't really describe it, and I don't have any pictures. At this point we were all covered head to toe with thick brown mud in a small cave some 1km or so underground - then we are asked to turn off our headlamps!
The room became pitch black. Pitch. Black. Then some people in another small group that came up behind us starting throwing mud around. The guides told them to f-off, and we all tried the no lights thing again. There we hung, suspended in a cool emulsion of pure mud, with nothing to see - that is what space must feel like... Surreal.
We walked out of the mud bath area then got to some water where we could mostly wash off the thick mud. Then it was off to explore a different area - we swam this time, about 100 meters until we reached a kind of tunnel which eventfully got shallower until we were standing on a gravelly beach surrounded by a black moonscape. You see, the Dark Cave is not named for its lack of light (duh, every cave would be the dark cave, our guide reminded us) but for its unusual black limestone interior.
We swam back and eventually got to the cave entrance - what an experience. So weird, so cool - fantastic. I'm sure 10 years from now they will be charging people $500 to come lay in the rejuvenating mud baths of Phong Nha! A bit more swimming and some beers ensued. We realized we'd been in the cave for about two and a half hours - weird, we totally lost track of time (even Timex lost track of time Jill and Tracey!). We got back to the Farmstay at about 6:30 and enjoyed a nice sunset and dinner. Another great day - as Robin and Abby proclaimed, "this was our best day every". We are blessed that we have heard that about 20 times on our trip so far, so we must be doing something right!
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