Starting the day with a motorbike stack isnt much fun. Lucky for me its not me or my bike involved, but my recent acquaintances, Dan, and his hired scooter. Exiting the downhill driveway from the farmstay and turning left, Dan makes the mistake of looking at the rice field and the steep embankment he is trying to avoid. Fortunately the only real injury is to Dan’s pride so we continue our ride along the rice terraces to the small boat dock in the town.
Phong Nha Cave is the worlds longest wet cave and is accessible only by boat. Having been given the hot tip from other travelers, Dan and I charter our own boat to avoid being stuck with 14 Vietnamese tourists for the journey. Our two crew deftly pilot the small boat down the river for 20 minutes before making a left turn and docking at the mouth of a cave in a cliff face. They ask us if we want to make the climb up to Tien Son cave before coming back to boat through Phong Nha. Tien Son is well worth the short but steep climb and while psychedelic lighting has been installed, it doesn’t detract from the formations and their size.
Back on the boat we pass into the shadow of the cliff and into the cave mouth. Its immediately clear that while the cave mouth is immense, the body of the cave has disappeared. The boatwoman kills the engine and begins punting the boat towards the back wall. To our disbelief there is a gap between the river surface and the roof and approaching slowly, the boat squeezes under the low roof. A few minutes later we enter the massive cavern of the main cave. The immense block that screens the entrance of the cave made this cave impregnable during the war, when it used as shelter by the local people and army. The cliff face we passed under bears testament to this and the pockmarks of a few US rockets.
Punting through Phong Nha cave is a wonderful way to appreciate it. We make a few stops along the way and walk around the dry caverns. Having made an early start proves its worth and as we’re heading back the hordes of Vietnamese tour boats are making their way through the cave with guide and bullhorn.
Lunch and a swim at the farmstay round out midday before making a late start to Paradise Cave to again avoid the crowds. Paradise Cave was considered the largest cave in the world until a new cave was found close by in Phong Nha National Park. While this will surely be open to tourists one day, its currently off limits to all but those who can pony up the right bribe (currently US$8000).
It’s a solid uphill hike (or limo-golf buggy if you are Vietnamese) to Paradise Cave before dropping through a small entrance onto the top of the longest staircase in Vietnam. The staircase is level with the ceiling of the main chamber and disappears into the darkness and the floor. The entrance and main cavern of Paradise Cave is immense. I can’t articulate what it’s like to be in such a large space. The cave formation is 7km long and a boardwalk has been constructed for the first 1km to which tourists are generally allowed access.
Guided tours can be arranged for hiking 6km deeper, but they aren’t cheap and not many people have done it. The 1km stretch is not one chamber but made up from 5 or 6 separate halls. Passing through smaller connecting spaces only provides a sense of scale and perspective of how large each chamber is. Each one is unique. Like passing thought different sections of a theme park, each chamber offers a different world. Staying until close, Dan and I are in awe. While other tourists race in and out, we spend their entire time in one section.
That night, Dan and I are eager to make arrangements to see the remaining 6km and get this organised for the day after tomorrow. I spend the following day working on Suzi and by midday her charging system and speedo are working again.
It dajavu as we head back to Paradise Cave. Dan and I have met Urie and Cordelia the night before and Urie has signed on for the trek too, making three of us. We meet our three young Vietnamese guides at the park entrance and hike up to the cave mouth where we entered two days ago. Geared up in coveralls, boots and headlamps we enter the cave and walk the familiar 1km boardwalk. Where we turned back only two days prior we step down off the end of the main lit boardwalk and are soon entering darkness lit only by our head torches.
For the next seven hours we’re in another world. The landscape changes with every new cavern. A white waterfall and river of quartz, thick mud with bottomless holes formed by water droplets falling from the cave ceiling hundreds of feet above, a lunarscape of pools. However, the halfway and turn back point is the climax. Approaching our stop for lunch the roar of an underground river gets louder and louder until we reach the source of the noise. The cave the river runs thought has a whole in the ceiling that reaches hundreds of feet up and to the sky. A passage of light shines down to massive rocks forming the river bed. We eat lunch of the rocks and then swim in the river after.
Too soon our time is up and three hours later the world becomes familiar again as we climb the staircase back to the board walk and the surface.
