Day 26: Getting our farm stay on

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Geo: 15.12, 108.81

A little road trip today of 5 hours and one toilet stop saw us climb from Hue through magnificent pristine jungle to the national park of Phong Nha-Ke Bang.

We had thought it was going be an easy drive and could turn off the senses. But if "you snooze you lose." This was a constantly changing landscape as we ventured back into limestone karst territory. Rivers and bridges by the dozens, with each waterway becoming more emerald green. The rice paddies were replaced with watermelon, papaya, corn, pineapples, taro, peanuts and pepper. And the trees transitioned from forest to the verdant green of the tropical jungle. It was too good to miss for about 4 hours.

Then we distracted ourselves from the numb bum of the seats with a team effort on a Crossword. Loraine, after years of practice with Richard's Mum, was our obscure clue champion and we did complete with just one creative solution. But it certainly did eat up some kilometres and deflected attention from not only the butt but also the bladder.

Broke the trip with a quick toilet stop and then a sprint around a war memorial. Maintained by the local people, school children and university students, this war memorial is dedicated to 11 000 VC martyrs who lost their lives building or defending the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This was the largest of many such memorials we saw on our trip today. There was a ceremony in place with the monks when we arrived and visitors were placing tributes and placing incense sticks on the evenly spaced memorial headstones. The comrades who had died together were buried side by side after their bodies had been exhumed from various sites along the trail.

We were definitely keen to stay on the beaten track defined by Huan, because at regular intervals, signs are posted to warn of unexplored ordinance!

Approximately 85% of this mountainous area features pristine forests. Our destination for the farm stay was in the UNESCO listed Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park

Arrived at Chay Lap Farmstay to double bad news. Firstly we had the dreaded set menu for lunch with tomato salsa-smothered sea bass, over spicy pork, tomato and pineapple soup and some green stalks in garlic .....there was something here to annoy everyone! But the really bad news was that our accommodation was a CLOSET.

I am not joking. The room was so small that you couldn't walk around the end of the bed and it was impossible to open two suitcases at once. And to add insult to injury, the two Viets bunked in the closet nextdoor in our little bungalow built for three, were smokers and they were puffing up a storm on the verandah when we arrived! NOT HAPPY JAN....literally.

Mac was equally unimpressed. This was the first "unexpected" booking of the trip so far. He got really serious. Dug out his glasses, connected to the internet, trolled the web and consulted our documentation - and our pre tour pics definitely did not match the reality of the closet. And he had to do this outside sitting on the wooden seat, in the blazing sun, adjacent to the cow pen because there certainly wasn't any room in the closet to spread all his stuff out.

Armed with his research he was off to reception only to be informed there was a VIP group of 80 Viets at the farmstay and they needed the larger rooms to accommodate sleeping three and four people. They had to have the larger rooms. We had been bumped to a closet.

Mac pulled out all stops and negotiated an upgrade for "tomorrow" when the VIPs were scheduled to leave. And Richard delivered the double barrel to our wonderful host and had us "released" from the set menu.

With all this housekeeping taken care of we were handed off to the the local guide and the local mountain driver for the afternoon excursion to the Paradise Caves. Discovered in 2005 it is the largest and considered the most beautiful cave in the National Park. Although 34 km in length, general tourists ( that's us) have access to the first 1 km by an impressive set up of wooden steps that plunge you to the depths of the cave floor. Keen hikers can explore to the 7 km mark with a local guide and stay overnight in the cave.

We did have to work for this attraction after the Eco bus (read golf buggy) got us quickly over the first 2 kilometres. The humidity was oppressive and even at 2 pm the 575 metre climb up the switch back path to access the mouth of the cave was arduous. But there was an elderly lady with a walking stick slowly plodding ever higher and there was no way she was going to outdo us. #motivated.

Once at the entrance you need to then climb down 507 wooden stairs ( in various states of repair, with wobbly hand rails), all the while thinking that you have to climb back up to get out. The pictures won't do it justice, but the stairs fell so deep into the dimmed cave they looked like something out of an Escher drawing. All you could see were stairs zigzagging backwards and forwards in silhouette with no bottom in sight.

The temperature in the cave was a welcomed cool and constant 23 degrees and for the first 100 steps down you were covered in a fine mist. Loraine and I had thought that we would just do the stairs and stay in cavern 1 but once you were there and the cave opened up to display soaring stalagmites/tites we just couldn't stop. Each turn in the cave and each rock formation was more impressive than the last. And you didn't know where to look. The one kilometre walk on the wooden walkway was a breeze.

Tom pointed out the rabbit, the Buddha, the temples, towers and the flower Pagoda , the girls, the horse and the frog. Of course Richard saw his microwave everywhere and topped off the photo shoot with about 20 pictures at the exit of what he identified as a dead ringer for a penis in a condom. His retort of "Come on, what else could it be," was met with Loraine's constant "You can't take him anywhere." Where oh where is our delightful Kihue when you need a naughty, giggling comrade for Richard.

Can't really understand it. We have driven for nearly 4 weeks with the Trails of Indochina drivers and haven't been sick once. Spent 5 minutes each way in the car with the jerking, speeding, braking mountain man and I was done for the day. Got back to the room to the overwhelming smell of lemon essence and the neighbour's cigarette smoke and was positively green. Was much better after a good "hurl" and took about 2 hours for the head to stop spinning.

The "free choice dinner" was wasted on me! And we are still laughing at the " Potato Soup" option - it turned out to be mashed potato. The staff did try to look after us - all 80 Viets were set up outside around the pool for dinner and were literally riotous. There was one lonely table in the dining hall - and that was us!

The music choice for dinner was much better. At lunch Loraine and I had puzzled over the familiarity of the background music. Took us a couple of minutes to recognise Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Old McDonald and This Old !an. Did take us a lattice longer to explain the music choice to the staff. They did get a good laugh out of it.

Have to say that Huan is great value in the info stakes. He has the history, the dates, the players, the landmarks, the culture, the vegetation and the animals down pat. But so far he hasn't quite "loosened up" and we do get chastised if we ask a question that he has already answered. We are paying attention, but definitely have difficulty retaining the detail of the lessons! At one point, complete with dramatic actions he told u "What I tell you goes in one ear and out the other!"

The caves were really worth the trek out to the farmstay! Not so sure about the closet, the rock hard bed and the tea towel sized towels. Suck it up princess- it is only two days.

Steps: 13 894
Temperature: 36 degrees

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Comments

[Aunty Gail]

The caves look amazing....your accommodation, not so!!!!!!! Pity about the Viets invading your space - we are still smiling at the dining room photo - a classic!!!!....xxxx