Let's continue to Phong Nha National Park

After a 4.5-hour bus ride, we arrived in the evening at Phong Nha National Park. It's always surprising how everything works out. We only asked the last hostel for a bus and it was immediately booked. With a slight delay, a mini van picked us up and took us to the bus, and at some point we had to transfer again. All without a note in hand of where to go and that we have paid. The bus drivers don't speak any English and are quite unfriendly, but it works 😎

On Thursday, we had booked a day tour to Phong Nha in advance. Thanks to Sandra, I got a tip and it was worth gold... The blog could actually be called 'following Sandra K.' 😜

This tour was theeeee bessssst. You just have to do it. It costs 2.50 more, but it's totally worth it. On Thursday morning, we left the hotel. We were a group of 8 people and the first stop was a small temple. This temple was built because of the Vietnam War. Then we went to Paradise Cave. It's a huge cave with stalagmites and stalactites and everything that goes with it. It all looked like it was built specifically for tourism. But no, God must have been in a good mood and created something quite crazy. Then we went to the Dark Cave. We had a delicious meal and then the fun began 😅. We took a cable car across a lake and then swam into the cave. In the cave, as the name suggests, it was pitch black. At the end of the cave, there was a mud bath, which is supposed to make you look 5 years younger 😜. It was just a great experience and I can only recommend it to everyone.

On Friday, I rented a scooter and wanted to explore the area. The whole thing took 10 minutes and the throttle cable broke 👍🤣 Tommy had rented a bike luckily nearby. He got help and voilà, there was a new scooter. Luckily, it lasted the whole day. We actually went back to the national park. This time I wanted to see the Nuoc Mooc Spring. I wanted to swim and experience a bit of everything. When I arrived there, apparently I was the only tourist because the parking lot was completely empty. Never mind, I thought and went to buy a ticket. There was either one for the hike to the springs or one where you can swim in the 'Action Park' and ride a raft. But since I was alone, I thought it wouldn't make much sense to splash around in the 'Action Park'. My plan was to hike a bit and then jump into the cold water somewhere. She told me that because of the high water level, today we could only walk a short distance. So I started walking. When I arrived at the first pool, there were two people in the water wearing life vests. The 'park guards' were sleeping, so I just went past them, found a small spot, and jumped into the water. It took about 5 minutes until someone noticed that I wasn't wearing a vest and he wanted to see my ticket. Bam, I was immediately caught and of course I wasn't allowed to swim further. But I didn't care because I only wanted a short refreshment... Learning from the locals means learning how to save (a little insider 😉). So I hit the road again and headed... I don't know... I just drove off and it was worth it. I saw small villages where development is still far behind. No roads, small wooden huts instead of stones, but apparently happy people. Everyone always waved at me. It's probably very rare for a tourist to get lost here. What I found scary was that deforestation is happening everywhere in Vietnam. There are fires and plantations being built everywhere. Nevertheless, it was a very nice day and tonight we're going on the night bus to the next adventure 😉