Vietnam Trip ~ Day 8
July 20, 2012
When we left off in our last blog post from Thursday, July 19 we had gotten a minibus in Danang to take us to a village near the Phong Nha National Park. Since we hadn't been able to find the correct bus that would take us right to the village, we took another one whose driver said he was going in that direction and would get us there. We'll pick up the story there...
As it turned out, that bus went through Dong Hoi, a city about five hours drive up the coast and about 50 km or so from the inland national park. In Dong Hoi, the driver stopped a few times to let passengers off. At one stop, a man opened the door and popped his head inside asking, "Phong Nha?" The driver urged us out, and we obeyed, a little bewildered, while the driver told us that his bus was continuing on up the coast and this man and his friend would take us on motorbikes the rest of the way to Son Trach village, near the park. We had no choice but to hop on the backs of the motorbikes behind the drivers and hope for the best. My driver handed me a helmet, which I promptly stuck on my head. I only realized once we were already driving that the strap was way too big for me, though, so I spent the whole trip with one hand fiercely gripping the handle on the back of the bike to hang on, and the other firmly clasped on top of my helmet to keep it on my head.
Other than the helmet problem, the trip was amazing! It was the most beautiful ride I've ever taken on a motorbike, or for that matter, probably on any other type of vehicle either. We started out just as the sun was sinking into the clouds hovering over the mountains. The rays were shooting golden light across the valleys and the mountains were dark green in the distance. It was so beautiful that I was kicking myself for having my small camera in my backpack instead of in my hands (although I didn't really have any extra hands to wield it anyway...). That, along with the gorgeous drive in the minibus through the coastal mountains, will be a scene I'll just have to try to remember without any pictures to remind me. As we drove, the light faded behind the mountains and they became purple. The temperature was a perfect warmth, but not too hot since there was no sun. Eventually it got dark and then it was harder to see ahead and know when the bumps were coming, but the drivers were experts at missing them, so we managed alright. Finally, after about 40 minutes (we're just guessing) on the bikes, we drove into a village that we assumed was Son Trach village. After a few minutes of trying to figure out the right place to go and haggling with the drivers about the price, we finally ended up at the correct hotel that was booked for us.
(As a side note, we had previously read in our guidebook about a farmstay which operated tours of the national park. We had really wanted to stay there, but by the time we'd learned about it, it was all booked. Instead, we stayed in the nearby Son Trach village and booked a park tour for the next day.)
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| View of Son Trach village from our hotel lobby |
The next morning (Friday, July 20), we were out in the lobby of the hotel by 9 a.m. and a few minutes later the two tour minivans pulled up, and we jumped in. The man who ran the farmstay was Ben, an Australian who had moved to Vietnam about five years earlier and married a Vietnamese lady named Bich (pronounced Bick). Ben and another man working at the farmstay, Pavol from Poland, switched between the two minivans throughout the day. Pavol had only been in Vietnam for 3 months (3 weeks at the farmstay helping with tours and other things there). Ben knew SO much history about the "American war" and so much about that area we were touring in. It was such an interesting tour and I'm really glad we were able to go on it!
After entering Phong Nha National Park, we stopped a few times along the road and all got out of the vans while Ben told us about that area, especially history pertaining to the war. It was apparently a very important place during the war (this national park is in central Vietnam, in the south part of what used to be Northern Vietnam during the war - it's the skinniest part of Vietnam) and was very heavily bombed. There were still unexploded bombs all over the area, but all the pathways had been cleared of bombs, so if you stuck to the pathways you were safe. After stopping a few times along the road and learning interesting stories, we went to a small temple with a sad history; 13 people had died there during one bombing.
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| Our main tour guide, Ben, tells us stories about the area |
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| Incense burning at the temple |
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| Temple shrine |
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| Guard at the temple |
After that we went to a large cave called Paradise Cave, which happened to be about 10 km away from the recently-discovered
largest and longest cave in the world. We took golf carts to get closer to the entrance of the cave, but then had to walk up switchback ramps to get to the opening a ways up the mountain. From there we explored just a portion of the 31 km cave on wooden boardwalks. It was nice and cool inside which was refreshing since the day was very warm. After seeing the cave, we went back to the entrance area for lunch at the open-air restaurant. It was the BEST food we'd eaten in Vietnam so far! It was some kind of Vietnamese noodles with egg pieces and fried vegetables, and it was just delicious. When we were finished eating, we changed into swimsuits and drove down to a river to swim.
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| Entrance to Paradise Cave |
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| Us in front of the much-photographed "Bell" formation |
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| Cave cauliflower |
At the river, we hiked in and enjoyed the nice cool water. We had fun taking pictures of the jungle scenery and jumping from a large rock into the water.
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| Hiking to the river |
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| As we got out of the river, this butterfly landed on a towel |
After swimming, we walked back up the trail to the vans and drove down the river a little farther. There, we were all told not to bring anything along that we didn't want to get wet. We were given headlamps and lifejackets, got into groups of two or three, and carried paddles and inflatable kayaks down to the river. We got in the kayaks and rowed down the river a little ways, admiring the beautiful scenery. At a curve in the river, Ben told us to turn and a cave opened up in front of us! We left our kayaks on the sand, and walked along a boardwalk into the cave and down to some small pools of water. Then Ben led us into deeper water and we swam into the dark! Eventually we felt the bottom again and began clambering over some sharp basalt rocks. We stopped for a time while Ben told us about Dark Cave. It is 10 km long and only one person has traveled the whole length. It's a very difficult trek underground to get to the other end because of how sharp the rocks are -- apparently they quickly shred one's shoes. After learning more about the cave, we swam back to the kayaks and headed up the river to the minivans.
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| (Ali had a hard time focusing the camera in the dark cave...) |
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| Sharp basalt rocks in the cave |
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| Everybody posed for a picture :) |
On our way back to the farmstay, we made one more stop on a bridge near a village to take some scenic pictures. Back at the farmstay, Jonathan and I had supper and then had the owners book us some train tickets to Hanoi. Afterward, we watched as the sun dropped behind the rice paddies and mountains in the distance. It was a beautiful way to start the Sabbath! After sunset we were taken back to our hotel on a couple motorbikes.
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| Rainbow on our drive to the farmstay |
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| The farmstay |
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| Sunset over the rice paddies |
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| One of the resident puppies at the farmstay |
