Down and dirty in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park

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Sarah: Despite the 6 hour train journey turning in to just over 7 hours, the views were stunning as we rode up the coast from Danang to Dong Hoi, arriving at about 7:30pm. We didn't get round to exploring to see if there was a buffet car on the train, but several trolleys came through with food of increasing palatability...passing on the steamed corn and weird boiled eggs we settled on some barbecued skewers with some rice and veggies. It was certainly an improvement on a tasteless sarnie from the First Great Western trolleys at home! The train station was a typically hectic affair: backpackers, locals, taxi drivers all determined to slow our progress through the crowds. Nonetheless, we found our pre-arranged ride and hopped in with another couple to our latest digs in Son Trach, a small village right on the edge of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, about a 40 minute drive from Dong Hoi. The park is another UNESCO world heritage site, containing some of the oldest karst mountains in Asia, which in turn are riddled with underground cave systems, most of which have only been discovered in the last 10-15 years.

We had booked ourselves in to the local 'party hostel' and when we turned up with our bags there was indeed live music and plenty of people having a good time! Keen to join in after our long journey, we dumped our bags in our dorm and headed for the bar. The singer was belting out hits from Lady Gaga to Oasis and the obligatory Beatles. Getting peckish and having had our fill of local grub in Hoi An, we treated ourselves to a couple of late-night pizzas, which turned out to be excellent and a nice reward after a day of travelling! We also got a couple of games in on the pool table, including a game of doubles with a win for the Adams's! Hot, sweaty and with an early start the next day for our cave tour we had what we thought was an early night, but we still had to tiptoe around our roommates who were fast asleep by the time we got to bed. There had been a power cut earlier on in the evening which may have been the reason that the air conditioning had turned itself off and turned our room in to a large sauna...even when the AC was on, it didn't really do the job it was made for. The benefit of a cold shower before bed didn't last long and we both had a bit of a hot, sticky and restless nights sleep.

On the Sunday we had booked ourselves on to a tour of several of the caves and sights of interest in the national park. After an early brekkie of pancakes for Nick and good ol' peanut butter with crusty bread for me we piled in to the minibus with several others from our hostel and set off. Slightly off-putting, our tour guide told us of an incident on the same tour from the previous day where a girl had cut her leg to the bone and he had spent most of the previous evening at hospital with her. Hmmm...no injuries for us please! As we drove in to the park we made a few stops on the side of the road to admire the limestone karst and getting some of the history of the national park. Many of the mountains haves 'scars' where they were bombed during the Vietnam war. One of the main highways that used to move supplies from north to south runs through here and so the Vietnamese lived in the caves during the war and came out to repair any damage to the bombed highway. Our first proper stop was at a temple built in remembrance of the people who lost their lives during the war along this highway. The temple was built next to '8 Lady Cave' where eight ladies who were supplying food and drink to the Viet Cong were trapped and starved to death after the entrance to the cave was bombed and blocked. A man-made entrance has now been created and the remains of the dead properly buried in their home towns.

Our next stop was a much more light-hearted affair: Paradise Cave, a 31km cave, although we would only be going through the first kilometre or so. The trip to the cave started with a short ride on a golf buggy, followed by a half a kilometre walk up to the entrance. The climb and the heat were starting to get the better of us, but once at the top we could start to feel the cool air coming out of the cave. It would be a excitingly cool 17-23 degrees Celsius inside. Hallelujah! Let us in! Paradise cave is the most popular attraction in the region and so we started the descent in to the cave down wooden steps accompanied by hoards of other tourists. The cave was enormous and the stalactites and stalagmites were prettily lit. It took a few flights down in to the cave and we had cooled down a bit and were feeling a bit more 'with it' and able to enjoy the spectacle. We walked along the boardwalks, spotting shapes in the rock formations: We definitely saw an Angkor Wat and a bunch of cauliflower!

After a wander through Paradise cave we braved the outside world again to continue our tour, next stop...lunch! We took our seats at the restaurant at Paradise cave and before long we were presented with the typical fare of spring rolls, rice, tofu, pork, and morning glory. All very tasty. It was then time to change in to our swimming togs. The next cave would see us getting wet....and muddy! Swimming togs on we were driven to Dark Cave. In order to get to the cave, we had to zipline over the river to the entrance. Tourism here is really only just kicking off, and the zipline has only been open since last September. First things first, we had to get our lifejackets, helmets and harnesses (a bit 'chafey' with only a bikini on) fitted. We then climbed the tower one by one, zipping 400m across the river, to land on the sandy bank opposite. Nick seemed to have built up enough momentum to break through the mountain, but the guide managed to bring him to a stop before he flew in to the wall!

Whilst waiting for everyone to complete their zip, we were directed towards the river to wait. Having operated at what felt like 100 degrees for the last week I immediately sank in to the cold river up to my neck and could feel my body temperature gradually return to normal. It was bliss bobbing around in a lifejacket, but the relaxation time was only to last a short while. Looking like new members of 'The Village People' we had a short swim to the entrance of the Dark Cave. The cave was unlit and so the head torches went on as we started to enter. This cave is formed out of black limestone and apparently is older than the white limestone that I'm more familiar with. They weren't able to answer Nick's perfectly valid question as to why it is actually black so don't ask me! The first part of our exploration was a short walk along a boardwalk, followed by wading through some cool cave rivers that were about knee deep and over stoney sand in between. Our guide pointed out some fossils and shells buried in the rock and we could hear the bats squeaking in the 'rafters'. The cave itself, while not as big as Paradise Cave, was a lot more atmospheric due to the absence of the tourist masses and from being lit only by headtorches (or not, my battery was very low and didn't stay on for more than 30 seconds at a time).

We made our way in single file in to a narrower part of the cave, leaving our lifejackets near the entrance. Underfoot was becoming a lot more muddy as we were going ever deeper in to the cave. Managing to avoid slipping completely on our arses was the primary challenge and we were winning (so far). The mud started to spread to the walls which were narrowing. At one point we were squelching through a channel that was only just wide enough for my size 8 feet, Nick's size 12's had to be manoeuvred at all sorts of awkward angles! Soon we could hear our fellow cavers squealing with delight ahead (we seemed to always end up behind everyone for some reason!); they had reached the mud pool! We slid our way in and all our efforts to not get too muddy sliding through the walls proved futile. We were neck deep in mud, mud, glorious mud and I can assure you there is nothing quite like it for cooling the blood! It was the most bizarre feeling as you could 'sit' in the mud without any rocks beneath you or treading water. The mud just raised you up, so much so that it was difficult to get your legs back down again! It was exactly what we would imagine swimming in the chocolate river at Willy Wonka's would be like, although having got some mud around my mouth, the taste did not live up to my imagination! Once we had all had some fun in the mud making mud bubbles, playing mud monsters and generally larking about in mud, we were asked to turn off all our torches and be quiet. Once everyone had got over their nervous giggles we were in complete darkness with only the cave drips for company. Very, very cool! Our guide had stayed mostly out of the mud and had brought his camera down to take some excellent photos as attached to this blog, so all photos from in and around the Dark Cave are credited to Hung Nguyen.

We made our way back through the muddy passages, much more carefree now about leaning against the muddy walls for support! Coming back a slightly different way, we both took the inevitable slide on our rear-ends down one of the last muddy banks, before a dip in one of the river to try and wash off some of the mud. There was still more adventure to come! We pulled our lifejackets back on and swam down a much deeper, wider river down a different section of the cave. After a brief rest at the other end, we swam back with our headtorches out, aiming only for the light at the end of the tunnel. By this point we were pretty bushed, after not much sleep the night before but buzzing from our experience in the dirt. Once we made it out of the cave, not being able to zipline back, we boarded some kayaks to take us back to the opposite shore. We seemed to fishtail our way across. I was in the back and I think supposed to be steering but it didn't seem to be working out...anyway, we made it across eventually, if not very efficiently!

It felt as if our day had been jam-packed but there was one last thrill to be had. Nick almost admitted defeat and wasn't going to go on the 15 foot high zipline and drop in to the river. But, since I was going and Nick would not to be left behind we both made our way to the launching platform. There were two lines side by side. We wound in the handles from the previous pair and stepped up to grab on. The countdown commenced and on three we took off. As the zipline approached the centre of the river where it subsequently stops, Nick let go and bombed in to the greeney-blue water below. Looking down it was much further than I thought and I couldn't quite bring myself to let go... As my line made it to the centre and stopped there, Nick bobbed up from below the water to cries from the bank of 'jump, jump!' and to see me still dangling above. Oh dear. With nowhere else to go I did let go and splash down; it was really far! Nick claimed it was his favourite thing that we'd done all day so was glad that he decided to go ahead. I did enjoy it but wish I had jumped while still in motion like everyone else seemed to be able to do!

Back on dry land the cool box was opened and cold beers distributed as we sat on the bank watching the staff throwing each other in the river at the end of their day. It had been a fantastic day, particularly the afternoon of adventures in Dark Cave and luckily injury-free! After cleaning mud out of every nook and cranny in a very welcome shower back at the hostel it was back to the bar for more live music, Grand Prix on the telly, a bit of pool and some spicy peanuts to help the cold beer down. We had some Vietnamese fish tacos for dinner: wraps with fish cakes, cabbage, black beans, mango and chilli sauce which were really yummy. They say a busy day is a happy day and happy we were! At bedtime we found the room was much cooler than the previous night and the days exertions soon sent us off in to a deep and restful sleep.

The early-ish check-out time the following day meant we were up earlier than we would have probably liked to sort out our bags. After showering and packing we were pretty hungry and so Nick went for the 'Caver's Big One' (a massive cooked brekkie of 2 fried eggs, a proper pork sausage, loads of bacon and a plate-sized hash brown) and I got peanut butter and crusty bread again, with a side of sausage to make a sausage sarnie for 'main course' and peanut butter with the rest of the bread for 'breakfast pudding', as well as helping Nick out with some of his eggs and hash brown. Suitably stuffed, we lazed in the hostel for the rest of the morning.

Around midday we went to go and rent some push bikes to explore some more of the area. The temperature was much more bearable than of late and we were given a nice gentle route a long the river by the owner of the hostel. The scenery was really beautiful and the National Park area is one of the most amazing places I've been, definitely up there with Patagonia and the Amazon for giving me good feelings inside. The karst mountains rose up around us and the dragon boats pootled tourists up and down the river, waving to us as they passed. Local children stuck their hands out for high-fives, shouting 'hello, hello!' repeatedly. After about 45 minutes cycling we made it to the entrance to Phong Nha cave, where we watched the boats going in and out and the cows drinking at the riverbank. Bliss!

Back at the ranch after a leisurely cycle home we had a bit more time to relax before our sleeper train that night. We took a dip in the excellent hostel pool before showering and ordering another round of fish tacos for late lunch / early dinner (the brekkie had kept hunger at bay for a loooong time!). Having had a few travel nightmares along the way, we like to think that we had learned most of the lessons their are to learn when it comes to transport arrangements: be in the right place at the right time according to said arrangements being priority number one. To try and avoid another long wait at a train station while still arriving in good time we booked a taxi that should take 30-40 minutes for one hour before our scheduled train departure time. This area has no traffic issues and so we thought we had a good 15 minute window for any delays. However, 10 minutes after the scheduled taxi time he had still not arrived. This village of 3000 inhabitants is not the kind of place where a taxi can be picked up easily and we were starting to get a little concerned. After having the driver called and him saying he was 10 minutes away he finally arrived 25 minutes late and 35 minutes before our train and bed for the night. We were quite irate about the fact that we were now relying on the lateness of Vietnamese transport in order to make our train. We arrived at the station with two minutes to spare and the train didn't disappoint and was indeed late. Another travel day, another drama over and crisis averted. The train arrived about 20 minutes later and we made our way to our sleeper carriage, where I am now writing this blog from. We are both tucked up in our top bunks, train guards coming in and out periodically to rest and chat on the free bunks below. Sleeper trains are now the future for me. We have tried to defend most of the night buses, despite everyone trying to convince us that we are being driven by drivers who are drunk or high or both. However, now I have tasted the comfort of the sleeper train it may be hard to go back! In approximately 8 hours time, we should be arriving in Hanoi at about 5am, praying that our beds are ready for a bit of extra shuteye! For now, I have the rhythm of the train to send me to sleep - so goodnight!

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