Ban Gioc Waterfall & Cave exploration

We stayed one day in Cao Bang and used that for a day trip to the famous Ban Gioc Waterfall. It’s the fourth biggest waterfall at a border and is quite contested between China and Vietnam, currently there is an agreement to share it for touristic purposes. The drive was really fun since we didn’t have our big backpacks with us. We were a little later than the tour buses so it was pretty empty on the Vietnamese side. Entry was less than 2€ per person. The spray from
The waterfalls was pretty refreshing. A highlight was our accidental VIP boat ride to the waterfall since we were the only tourists there (4€). After that we wanted to see whether we could make it to the Chinese side since we were told there was a pilot project to let tourists pass to the opposite side with a visa exemption, the Chinese side is much more developed with viewing platforms. Unfortunately we were not successful as it is only possible for tours, which of course makes sense since they don’t want you to be able to leave the tourist site.
We then made our way to a cave close by. Jeroen had been there with his friends in 2019 when you could just enter alone. When we arrived it was more commercialized entering with a guide, a head lamp and wet shoes. They had extended the route further passing underground rivers which was pretty spectacular. We even took a little raft. Pretty cool what water and minerals can create over millions of years. They had really pretty light installations to illuminate the stalagmites and stalactites. There were also bats on one of the ceilings which we could hear and smell, the pictures didn’t turn out that well because of the height and darkness.
The tour took a bit longer than expected so we didn’t make it home before sunset, but ultimately worth it.Read more