Feb 3rd Dong Hoi to Hue

Feb 3^rd Dong Hoi to Hue

Due to our unfortunate delays yesterday, we asked Quy to rejig our itinerary.  We decided to forgo the planned excursions for the day in favour of what we should have done yesterday i.e. the caves.

We had a reasonably long drive to Phong Na National Park.  We stopped just on the edge of it to take some photos of the dramatic limestone scenery set off by the verdant paddy fields in front of them.  

We parked up and boarded our little fishing boat for the 1.5km cruise down the river to the cave entrance.  The couple who lived on the fishing boat eked out a living from taking tourists to the cave but as there are so many of them, they generally only get one job a week as it’s done on a strict rota.

I enjoyed slowly chugging down the river getting small glimpses into other people’s lives  – we saw people doing their washing in the river, water buffalo feeding by the river and small ferries being rowed across moving people and their motor bikes from one side of the river to the other.

Finally, we arrived at the cave entrance which looked like a small slash in the bottom of a tall cliff.  We stopped to get tickets and picked up a surly black clad individual who was apparently there to check we didn’t deface anything.  Engines are not permitted in the caves, our husband and wife team both got a large oar and rowed us through them – he from the back and she from the front. 

We ended up being rowed in for 0.5km and we kept thinking as we turned each corner “it can’t get any better?!”, but it did.  It was just a stunning experience, made even more special as we just glided through it almost silently apart from the constant gasps of amazement.  Our photos simply don’t do it justice.  On the way back, we were dropped off just short of the cave exit and walked through some of the towering stalactites and stalagmites which we all really enjoyed.  We then rejoined the boat and were taken back down river to our van.

We then had about a 40 minute drive to Paradise cave which was only discovered in 2005 by the British Cave Research Association.  The cave is a wopping 31 km long and parts of it are 100 metres tall and 150 metres wide…..Yes, it’s BIG!!!  Many people consider this to be the most impressive of all the caves.

As time and my energy levels were short, we got the buggy to the bottom of 570 metre uphill concrete path through the tropical forest to the cave entrance.  I struggled as was wheezing so badly, but Chris dragged me up there!!  For such a huge cave, the entrance was tiny – down some wooden steps through a small crack in the rock and if you were tall you had to duck.  You actually had to descend a wide wooden stairway that zig zagged down the cave side but it gave you the most incredible initial views of the cave and it is simply jaw dropping.  The wooden walkway takes you about 2 kilometres into the cave and you twist and turn a bit so that there’s always something new, unexpected and spectacular around the next corner.  Again, our photos won’t have done it justice, but it was very special and not something any of us will ever forget. 

Once we’d visited the caves, we then had a long drive (over 4 hours) to Hue.  As it was raining, I slept for most of it only waking up as we got to the outskirts of the city.  In spite of the rain, it looked interesting – colonial buildings and lots of river action.

As I was feeling quite under the weather still, I retired to bed when we got to the hotel, but Kim and Chris met up for cocktails and dinner.