The Cave World of Phong Nha

The rain was a constant companion these days. But well, we came to Phong Nha to explore more caves, so it shouldn't bother us. It was a pity though, as the area is very beautiful and we would have liked to see more of it. Rural area with many rice fields, surrounded by small mountains, villages with Catholic churches in between. From a distance, you would think you're driving through southern Germany, it doesn't quite fit together perfectly, but somehow it adds up to a beautiful overall picture.

But back to the caves, which we were able to explore extensively compared to the surroundings. Of the many caves in the area, we picked two - the Phong Nha Cave and the Paradise Cave. The Phong Nha Cave could only be reached by small boats. The tour there was already worth seeing. The cave is the entrance or rather the exit of a huge underground river (was it the longest in Asia, the world, Vietnam? We don't remember...). Arriving in the cave, you are rowed one kilometer into the interior and on the way back you are dropped off and hike through side arms back to the outside. The rock formations are overwhelming, huge stalagmites and stalactites and various other formations whose names we don't know. Really awesome.

The second cave, Paradise Cave, was no less spectacular. The cave was only discovered in the 2000s by a hunter. You hike uphill through the jungle and reach the rather small cave entrance. Behind it, there is the largest dry cave in Asia with a length of 34 km. After crossing a huge hall, the passages become somewhat smaller, but still have the cross-section of a gymnasium. Here too, you can take a short hike and still only discover a fraction of the cave. Gigantic. And again here, spectacular formations and colors and everything oversized. The detour to this area was worth every bus ride!