Day 92 and 93: two days at the Phong Nha Caves

Today, after breakfast, I went straight to the mechanic to ask about Maggie. He said the 'entire' engine is dead and he needs to replace it. We negotiated the price to around 60€, he needs another day and then everything should be working again.

Shortly after, Jan and Markus arrived on their functioning motorcycles and checked in at the same hostel.

Over the next two days, we visited three caves: the Dark Cave, the Paradise Cave, and the Phong Nha Cave.

The Dark Cave was all about adventure and fun. It had the longest zipline in Vietnam that took us to the entrance of the cave. Then we had to swim a little inside the cave. We climbed through narrow passages and finally reached a larger hall, where we could swim in the mud. We all felt a few years younger. After returning to daylight, we took a rowboat to a water park and spent a few more wet minutes there. Then we had dinner at the cave's restaurant and continued to the Paradise Cave. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures of the Dark Cave because our cameras are not waterproof.

To reach the entrance of the Paradise Cave, we had to walk about 2 kilometers through the forest. The entrance to the cave was very inconspicuous, but behind it was a gigantic hall full of stalagmites and stalactites. On the 700-meter-long path into the cave, we saw various shapes and colors of stalactites. After the very impressive cave, we headed back to the city.

The next day, it was raining heavily in the cozy mountain town. Jan and I picked up my motorcycle and it was working perfectly again. The entire engine wasn't replaced, but some parts inside were. Anyway, it works! Then we took the other two motorcycles to another mechanic to have them thoroughly checked so that we won't have the same problems as two days ago. After that, we walked to the boat dock, about 500 meters away, where we booked a boat to the Phong Nha Cave. This cave was similar to the Paradise Cave, but the special thing was that we could see a large part of it from the boat.

Since it kept raining for the rest of the day, we had a relaxed afternoon to gather strength for the next leg of the journey.

All in all, we really liked Phong Nha during our two days here.