Our very chill evening last night has left us ready for quite a long day today: first a full-day tour of the neighbouring Phong Nha Kebang geological park, in order to visit two of its major caves, and then a « night » train from 7:30pm to 3am to travel almost to the top of the country, the region of Ninh Binh.
This morning, we are allowed to use the restaurant for breakfast, and as in quite a few hotels in Vietnam to date, we get a Chinese-inspired buffet including rice rolls, congee soups and various stews. There’s still a few sweet options to ease us in, and we tuck in heartily before packing up and getting ready to leave. We get picked up in a compact seven-seater car: we’re obviously part of an exclusive tour today! The drawback is that in this small vehicle we barely fit in even the largest middle row seats - as we pick up the remaining three members of our tour we end up in a bit of a game of musical chairs to figure out where we can pack ourselves. Luckily, all the rest are characteristically small-framed Vietnamese, and with our guide kindly leaving Ollie the shotgun seat, we end up comfortable enough for the one-hour drive to Phong Nha.
As the rest of the group chatter away in Vietnamese, we drift off for a bit - but as soon as we start nearing the mountains our guide introduces herself in English and gives us a bit of background on the park and our itinerary. We even manage a bit of banter about the temperatures - for us it’s just starting to be cool enough to bring out the rain jackets and a shirt for a bit of layering, whereas Hin is sporting a thick red puffer: for her it’s the middle of winter!
Before we even set off underground, the park itself is impressive: we hadn’t really seen much of Vietnam’s countryside until our visit to Hue, and this is a new and spectacular side of it. Huge limestone and karst outcrops cloaked in forests rise above perfectly flat fields, reminiscent of the landscape in Northern Laos - which is indeed just a few hundreds of kilometres west of us right now. It’s much greener here though and no wonder as the drizzle from yesterday is steadily continuing. And the lovely tendrils of mists that embellished our visit to the tombs are at work again today, shrouding the top of the outcrops in even more mystery.
We’re starting our visit with Paradise cave: over 30km long, this cave has only recently been discovered in 2005 when a local resident fell down a sinkhole into it. Opened in 2010 to tourists, it’s now by far the biggest and most impressive attraction of the park - dethroning the previously reigning titular Phong Nha cave. Our guide seamlessly manoeuvres us past the crowd of other, much bigger tour groups, and sneaks us in first on one of the electric buggies taking us to the foot of the hill. After a short ride through lush forest, it’s a wet ten-minutes ascent to the mouth of the cave - good thing we’ll mostly be inside away from the rain today!
As soon as we step through the entrance, it’s a spectacle: cathedral-sized chambers filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and gigantic rock formations in all shapes and sizes. We carefully snake through on the well managed paths as Hin points out the various “official” stone shapes: Xmas tree, elephant, Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ… Although she does get rather surprised when we try our hand at it and show her one rock that we think looks quite like a sitting king! The cave is indeed massive, although we are only walking through the first kilometre or so. Heavy rock ceilings covered in spikes disappear in the darkness a hundred meters above our head, we round a stalagmite the size of a small house, and spot a few picturesque rock pools as we go deeper within.
Paradise Cave is much more popular than the one we visited in Ipoh, and the number of fellow visitors is in proportion. But in such a massive space, it’s hard to feel crowded, and we continue slowly walking through, admiring at every turn, and exchanging photos and smiles with our fellow tour attendees. We even get a group picture together! We also have a quick chat with Hin, learning a bit more about her life as a guide - it’s quite monotonous, long days for her as she ends up in this cave a few times a week in winter. After reaching the end of the permitted path, it’s back through those grandiose vaults, up the steep stairs to the very unassuming entrance, and on we go.
Lunch is a very basic affair, all seated at a round table with a spread of local sharing dishes. Luckily our group is gelling together a bit, and the two Vietnamese gentlemen each speak a decent bit of English. They kindly walk us through the different customs and dishes, and we have a stilted, but well-meaning conversation about each other’s travels: they have been to the US and even London!
After a very satisfying meal, we walk just over the road to the starting point for the tour of Phong Nha cave. There’s a twist: we begin by boat! We’d be more excited about it if the drizzle wasn’t steadily increasing in strength and decreasing in temperature. Chilly and damp, we don’t quite appreciate the scenic twenty-minutes ride down the river to the cave entrance - and rather than wonder, our first reaction once we get in is one of relief as we are sheltered again.
Partially eclipsed by the marvels of Paradise Cave, Phong Nha is still very impressive, with a navigable river running deep within it, and as our boatmen silently row us further underground, we start appreciating the crazily jagged rock labyrinth around us. Luckily for Ollie’s claustrophobia, this is another massive space and our twenty-people boat fits easily through, even overtaking a few of the other tourist crafts! After ten minutes or so of subterranean navigation, it’s time to turn around and disembark, still inside, for a quick walk-through and a closer look at the stalactites. Another series of very impressive rock formations later and we’re back in our boat for the (wet) return stretch of river - thankfully there’s a bit of cover and we don’t get completely soaked.
We’ve been very efficient with the programme - and as advertised, we are back to the hotel by 5pm, easily in time for our train. We even have the luxury of a hot drink in the lobby and a quick change of clothes to dry off before starting our journey north. As we leave, Ollie is delighted that our taxi finally uses the regal driveway to pick us up - everyone else just parked on the side of the road until then, probably by habit!
Getting ready to board at the station, who do we spot on the platform but the couple from the tour today? They’re headed back to their home in Hanoi, and happen to be not only on the same train as us, or even the same carriage - but actually sharing our 4-person compartment. It’s nice to be amongst friends and we feel like we’re getting more Vietnamese by the minute as we share photos from the day and have another chat while we get ready to sleep. It turns out the gentleman is an English football fan - and him and Ollie end up happily watching the current match together on a tiny phone screen before clocking off. What a nice end to what turned into quite an authentic day!
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