Blogs from Phong Nha Ke Bang, Quang Binh, North Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia

After shitty Hue anything would have blown our socks off but Phong Nha was really something special, the drive up in the bus gave you glimpses of what was in store and we were excited to explore when the sun got up the next day. We had our free breakfast (always a winner) and hired a moped to head out and explore the national park. There were beautiful limestone mountains as far as the eye could see. Everywhere was thick dense jungle and the place was really wonderful to explore. We paid entry to Paradise cave which was well worth the money. It was only discovered (by the Brits of course) in 2009 and was the most beautiful and impressive cave either of us had ever seen, and there was still 7km of the cave left ... read more

I left Hue once again heading North and again via train in the economy section ($60,000VND) for a four hour journey to the coastal city of Dong Hoi which was to serve as my base for exploring Phong Nga-Ka Beng National Park. The National Park is about 50km outside of the city and is home to some massive limestone caverns and cave systems just recently discovered in the early 2000s. Some of the caves are so big they are still being mapped out and are not yet accessible to the public. The ones that are accessible are an incredible sight to behold. I've been in some caves in my day and "Paradise Cave" that I was to visit in the park was one of the most impressive I've seen. Ya, it's not true spelunking as their ... read more

This morning we were up and having breakfast by 7.00am as our pickup was 7.30am to take us to the airport for our flight to Dong Hoi. We had a bit of a panic at the airport as the taxi driver took us to the International airport instead of the domestic. Lucky there were shuttle buses to transport people from on airport to the other as they are just down the road from each other. Hopping on the plane I was a bit nervous as it was only a fairly small plane. You know it’s a small plane when there are only 5 steps to walk up and into it. Flight was fairly smooth and we arrived at Dong Hoi airport at 11.00am. We were met by our driver who drove us the 45mins to the ... read more

Leaving Hanoi was hard as we'd had a lovely time eating and drinking our way through all the streets of the old town, and wandering around the lake of an evening. Our next stop was the famous Phong Nha caves, home to the very recently discovered biggest cave in the world. To get there we took a tour to the "Halong Bay of the rice paddies" at Ninh Binh (Tam Coc). It was a beautiful trip in a small canoe along a central canal in the rice paddies with spectacular karst mountains rising up all around you. We also went through a few caves on the boat. It was very touristy however, with boats waiting for us at the end of the river to sell souvenirs, food and drinks, and pretty incessant "tip, tip sir, tip ... read more

vietnam von unten, ist das tages thema von heute. wir haben neue freunde: esther aus vorarlberg und ben aus neuseeland, die jetzt in schottland leben. zu viert mieten wir uns zwei mopeds um unter strahlend sonnigem vietnamesischen himmel eine tour zu zwei weiteren höhlen zu machen. vietnam lässt sich ja angeblich am besten via moped erkunden und unterwegs wird uns klar, warum. es fahren ohnehin beinahe ausschließlich mopeds, was es zum puren vergnügen macht, über die breiten straßen und ohne störende autos zu cruisen. rechts und links weitreichende reisfelder, kleine dörfer und immer die wundersamen berge in unmittelbarer nähe. nach kurzer strecke erreichen wir den nationalpark, zahlen völlig zurecht eine kleine gebühr, um dann durch irre grüntöne, entlang von türkisen flüssen und beeindruckenden kalkfelsen zu kurven. die straße ist in bestem zustand, der fahrtwind... read more