04.11. Mud bath in the caves of Vietnam

Today we continued our exploration of the caves in the Phong Nha area. First, we visited the Dark Cave, which gets its name because it is not illuminated and the only light comes from our own headlamps. From the ticket office, we took a cable car over a small lake to the cave entrance.

After taking off our cable car equipment, we swam with our group through the cave entrance into the Dark Cave. Since I bought a waterproof phone case before the trip and probably won't use it again, I brought my phone with me into the darkness, which allowed me to take photos. After walking through the darkness with our headlamps for a few minutes, we reached a narrow tunnel that we had to pass through. A few times, bats almost flew into our faces, so the whole group had to duck synchronously to avoid them. There were also some "interesting" insects that usually prefer to stay in the dark, which is probably for the best because nobody really wants to see them...

At the end of the tunnel, there was a small natural pool of mud where we could wallow and bathe. There are also professional mud bath offers here in Vietnam, but none of them can compare to one in a dark cave (it would be a paradise for Luis Litt [reference to a TV series]). For a minute, we turned off all our lamps and experienced what real darkness feels like: it almost feels tangible as it envelops you like a thick coat and suddenly your eyes become completely unnecessary.

Further along the way, there was another swimming stretch and then a mud slide into another pool, which was quite painful for our bottoms...

After making our way back out of the cave, we had the opportunity to take a short cable car ride into the water, paddle in a kayak, or tackle an obstacle course, which was a fun ending to our tour of the Dark Cave.

Next, we went to the Paradise Cave, which was located deeper inside the national park. The scooter rides are always a daily highlight. The incredible views of the densely forested mountains and valleys are always stunning and leave you in awe.

A few minutes' walk beyond that, the stalactites and stalagmites started to sprout from the rock in various shapes. Here too, there were such large and especially wide dripstones that most trees couldn't compete. But as always, it is difficult to describe nature, so I prefer to show photos, which of course cannot always capture the feeling inside the cave.

The return journey to the hostel turned out to be a little adventure. We briefly stopped at a small waterfall and then wanted to complete the circuit around the national park that we had started with the Dark and Paradise Caves. However, we had only refueled 1.5 liters - the actual recommendation was 3 liters...

"It'll be fine," we thought, as the tank was still over a quarter full. It was unfortunate that the fuel gauge suddenly dropped to zero a bit faster after a few kilometers when we were going uphill. We were in the middle of nowhere and no gas station was in sight, and we still had 12 kilometers ahead of us. Fortunately, we managed to cover these 12 kilometers by coasting and using very little gas, so we returned one of the emptiest scooters in a long time to the rental shop.

Now we're back in the beloved Bamboo Café, enjoying the end of this eventful day. Tomorrow evening, we will take an overnight bus to Ninh Binh and in the meantime, we will visit a goose farm in another area of the Phong Nha region.

Today was also the halfway point of our trip to Vietnam. 15 wonderful days are behind us and hopefully we will have 15 equally amazing days ahead of us. Vietnam is such an incredibly beautiful country with charming cities like Mui Ne, Dalat, or of course, Hoi An, and it also offers nature that is unparalleled. Everyone should come here at least once, as it is not expensive for us Europeans and yet it offers so much.