Journey To The Centre Of The Earth

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June 23rd 2017

Published: July 9th 2017

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Delek Delek

Paradise Cave

This caves has now ruined all caves for me.

Vietnamese transport has been pretty easy so far; many buses will pick you up from your hostel meaning that you save money and time on a transfer to a bus station and with my bus to Phong Nha, the bus dropped us off right outside the hostel too! Door to door - brilliant.

And sometimes there is a hostel so legendary that everyone just simply ends up there. Its legend spreads by word-of-mouth and it often isn't on any booking website. Its reputation comes before it and is all it needs to pull in business. In Phong Nha, that place is called Easy Tiger. Therefore it was no surprise that I bumped into so many people that I had met previously in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hoi An at the hostel. The place had a pool, a pool table, foosball, hammocks to lie in, a bar, a kitchen serving Western food you haven't had in ages and live music which got the crowd going, fuelled on the free beer served every night at 6pm. It was a party hostel but you could chill too; and run by a Brit who knew what he was doing, there was no wonder this place was

Stalactites & Stalagmites

Inside Phong Nha Cave.

doing well. It was so backpacker-friendly and familiar that people were comfortable here straight away. The only time you had to leave the place was the see the amazing sights that Phong Nha had to offer.

And Phong Nha sure has plenty of those.
Phong Nga-Khe National Park is home to Asia's oldest karst mountains and due to the brittle nature of limestone, where there is karst, there are caves. Phong Nga caught my attention back in 2009 when the world's largest cave - Son Doong - was discovered here. The thought of spelunking, abseiling or even just visiting the world's largest cave ensured that there was no way I'd be skipping Phong Nha during my tour of Vietnam. Sadly, the only way to get into the cave was on a six-day tour - at the prohibitive price of US$3,000. That is 64 million Vietnamese dong! Fortunately, there are other caves you can visit in the area that while not as big or perhaps as impressive as Son Doong, are probably still as good as any other cave you might see around the world.

The scenery was already pretty awesome; imagine the limestone karsts of Phang-Nga in Southern Thailand

Entrance To Paradise Cave

Looking down into the incredible depths of Paradise Cave from the cave's entrance.

but with the water replaced by lush jungle. Having arrived at lunchtime, Sigi - who I met in Hoi An and hung out with in Hue - and I still had half a day to do something so we decided to visit the least eminent of Phong Nga's three most visited caves; Phong Nga Cave. Picking up Frenchman Serid - who had had a nasty fall from his motorbike earlier that morning - we waited at the ticket office to pick up enough people to affordably rent a boat to take us there. Among our number were a Vietnamese family and guide, a German, two Colombians and two Italians. The reason we needed a boat was because it was the only way to get into the cave.
We got to see rural Vietnamese life along the way; grazing water buffaloes along with local farmers' children taking a dip against the scenic backdrop of the limestone karst.
Once we reach the cave, the engines turn off as we glide inside it. The place is wonderfully lit and already pretty impressive. The cave is so tall and there are loads of freaky stalactites and stalagmites. The only comparable cave experience I have

Along The Boardwalk

Visitors can follow the boardwalk 1km into the cave; the cave is 30km deep in total.

had was in Slovenia's Skocjan Caves where you stood 45 metres above an underground river. That was pretty spectacular and this was perhaps on a par, although floating silently through the cave provided a different experience. But if this was already the equal of the best cave I have seen, I was excited about what lay in store at the other two I had planned to visit.

In a place like Easy Tiger it is almost impossible not join in the fun and I enjoyed some good times drinking with Sigi, Serid, the Italians from boat trip and later on, a group of Irish lads. I wasn't planning on having a big night out but sometimes you just go where the flow takes you and that night the flow took me to Andy's, the only club in this one street town. The music was pretty average though; drunk crowds just want to hear the hits - like Gala's "Freed From Desire" which seems to now be a legit dance floor banger, thanks to a certain Will Griggs.

I normally pass out fairly quick after a night out but not this time. When you're getting bitten painfully enough to keep you

Road Scenery

With views like this, just driving around Phong Nha-Khe National Park on a scooter was a pleasure.

up despite being drunk and tired, it can only mean one thing; bedbugs. A second bedbug fiasco in a week. I couldn't believe it. This is getting ridiculous now. It was impossible to know whether I brought them with me or if they were already here. I didn't get free dry-cleaning or a free night this time however; the laundry bill was gonna cost me big. The little fucking bastards have been the worst things about my entire trip. All in all, being bitten, tired and hungover wasn't great preparation for the big day I had ahead, although I was about to do something that would definitely wake me up.

Scooters aren't my favourite form of transport but they are a necessity here in Vietnam, if you wanna get anywhere efficiently. Serid was far from the only tourist I had seen in Vietnam so far who was all patched up from a nasty fall. As mentioned before, the drivers here don't exactly follow rules and like me, tourists are often forced to hire a motorbike because it is the best way to get around. Inexperienced motorbike drivers in a country with traffic as crazy as Vietnam? It's a recipe

Inside Phong Nha Cave

Gliding through the water inside Phong Nha Cave.

for disaster. Yet Vietnam is a popular place for backpackers to buy a motorbike at the start of their trip - because it is cheap enough - and then drive their way across the country before selling it off again at their end point. I knew of three guys who had done just that recently. Serid was another one. He wouldn't be any more though; word got out that his wounds had got infected - his bike was now packed up and he was heading for Hanoi and better medical care. Yet all of that didn't stop Sigi and I from motorbiking to the caves despite having only ridden a motorbike for the first time when we got to Asia. We would just have to ride very slowly...

Our first stop was the much-hyped Dark Cave. Talked about as a bit of an adventure similar to canyoning, I had heard that exploring the cave involved zip-lining, swimming, mud baths, kayaking and exploring the dark depths of the cave by headlamp. Overall, the experience was fun but I've done all the activities before. Zip-lining? Check. Going into a dark cave? Check. Kayaking? Check. It was a little similar to canyoning

Rimstone Pools

Inside Phong Nha Cave.

but way less exciting. There was nothing spectacular about the Dark Cave itself because it was er, dark. It was a little more exciting than my other most-recent dark cave experience, as we walked a kilometre into it on slippery mud and stone which ended with a mud bath. It was cold and I'm not one for getting dirty for dirtiness' sake so I didn't really enjoy the mud bath. We then make our way out of the cave and onto some kayaks for a leisurely canoe to a ropes course which included a zip line into the water. OK, it was fun, but for the price - 450,000VND - probably overrated.

What also put me off about the experience was again, how costs, prices and money was at the forefront of everything. I mentioned the aggressive selling and the absolute importance of money in my last blog entry - the difference in culture when it comes to money - and on the safety video, it seemed like there was more emphasis put on the cost of losing every single piece of equipment than there was on actual safety and this really grated with me.

Overrated however, is

Into The Depths

The most impressive feature of Paradise Cave was just how deep the cave went.

not something that can be said of the Paradise Cave, which was absolutely amazing. Few things blow me away anymore but this cave is just phenomenal. Inside, despite all the tourists and guides on megaphones, it felt like I was in another world. It was like I was in Jules Verne's Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. The cave was just massive - it gets up to 72m high in some places and 150m wide - and just went on and on and on. That was probably the most impressive thing about it - just how deep the cave went. Tourists can explore the first 1km - which is already pretty long - but there is still another 30km beyond. It was definitely biggest cave I've seen and most probably will be the best. Skocjan Caves is the only thing comparable that I have visited, but it wasn't as well lit up as Paradise and certainly not as big. Like Iguazú Falls has ruined all waterfalls for me, Paradise Cave has now ruined all caves for me.

It was a shame that I couldn't spend longer in Phong Nha - particularly at Easy Tiger which is a great place

Journey To The Centre Of The Earth

Inside the cool interior of Paradise Cave really did feel like you were in Jules Verne's famous novel.

to chill and have fun. It was a shame that I was in such a rush through Vietnam but such is the way when you can only get fifteen days in the country. Even with thirty days, you'd be hard pressed to get to all the main places in time. Which does go to show what there is on offer here in Vietnam; I wouldn't go as far to say that it is one of my favourite countries but there is plenty to occupy your time and your eyes here from the nature of the caves, karsts and jungle; the craziness of the cities and all their motorbikes; the beach; and an absorbing history which takes in the Vietnamese-American War, colonial rule by the French and the magnificent tombs and palaces left behind by the imperial dynasties.

But for now my time in Vietnam was up - I will come back into the country through the north in 2-3 weeks - but in the meantime it was time to switch countries with Laos now on the agenda!

Hẹn sớm gặp lại,
Derek

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