#37 Phong Nha

Lofalitsidwa: 13.05.2019

Lembetsani ku Newsletter

On 09.05.2019, we arrived in Phong Nha in the evening by sleeper bus.

The place, or rather the adjacent National Park 'Phong Nha-Ke Bang', is mainly known for its numerous extraordinary caves.

Among them is the biggest cave in the world, the so-called Son Doong Cave. With an entrance that is 250 meters high and 150 meters wide, it is currently the largest cave ever found. However, the entrance fee is 3000 US dollars per person and you need to join a four-day tour. Also, only 500 people are allowed to visit this cave per year. That's why we only considered the "smaller" caves, which were still impressively large. But more on that later.

The village of Phong Nha is very small and manageable. You will meet many tourists and backpackers here who are attracted by the beautiful landscape and the caves.

On the first day, we rented a scooter to explore the area on our own. We first headed to the Wild Boar Eco Farm, where there is a swing right on a cliff. Swinging gave us a brief moment of feeling like we were floating above the valley.

For both of us, it was definitely an adrenaline rush, albeit a short one.

There was another swing that wasn't as high and could be used by two people. Really cheesy romantic *laugh*

The farmer told us what he grows and how the farm operates. The craziest thing were the crickets that he breeds in these boxes.

We wondered what he used them for. At first, we thought he would feed them to his chickens. But we were wrong. These animals are intended for human consumption. Said and done. Meykel received a bowl of fried crickets from him. And with a bit of salt and a cold beer, he really enjoyed them.

A type of chips that looked disgusting. I couldn't bring myself to try them, but someone had to take pictures of Meykel enjoying them.

Feeling strengthened, we continued to the Botanical Garden. However, this cannot be imagined as a normal botanical garden. It was more or less just a footpath through the jungle.

We hiked for about an hour through the dense forest and saw hardly any impressive plants. But towards the end of the trail, we were rewarded with a beautiful waterfall. Of course, it had to be climbed. And all this in over 30 degrees Celsius and with a humidity of what felt like 99 percent.

At the end of our jungle path, we fed a few small monkeys with bananas, which are kept in a large enclosure for reintroduction into the wild.

These are injured and found animals that are being nursed back to health here.

In the evening, we booked the tour for the next day. As mentioned before, we decided to visit two smaller caves.

The first one was called Paradise Cave. With a length of 31 kilometers, it is the longest dry cave in Asia. The entrance was quite small, you went down a staircase into it. The first look into the cave was already impressive. We had never seen anything so big before.

For tourists, only the first kilometer of the cave is accessible. Walking through it feels like being on a different planet. The ground often looks like what you imagine the surface of the moon to be like.

In addition, there are huge stalactites and stalagmites.

And in between, you can see mist, which enhances the impression of being on a different planet.

The second cave expedition of the day was completely different. We took the bus to the river to have lunch and then transfer to a boat. This boat took us to the so-called Phong Nha Cave. It was a completely new experience for us to be able to enter a cave by boat.

Upon arriving at the entrance of the cave, the engine was turned off and we continued paddling.

The cave is nearly 8 kilometers long, with the river inside it extending 13 kilometers. Only the first 1.5 kilometers are accessible to tourists, and even then only outside the rainy season. During the rainy season, the water level is so high that you can't enter the cave by boat.