2 bikes and 3 Buses...

As always we never want to make our lives easy... We recently heard about the Vin Moch tunnels and found them to be fascinating. This tunnel system was made by a village for them to live in during the war. The tunnels are about 26km in varying direction with various entrances. We just had to go and see them. However, it seems that most tourists either have their own bike or go on a tour which incorporates various other sites and costs a hell of a lot. So obviously we had to try DIY. We asked both the students and various other locals how to get there and it wasn't easy but we decided to go for it anyway with the aim to be in Phong Nha that evening. So the adventure began.

As we got in quite late the night before resulting in only 4 hours sleep and then getting up for 6am was a struggle! The students were so unbelievably kind and took us on their bikes at 7am to the bus station (10km) out of town and put us on the correct bus.

Next stop Hồ Xa, the nearest town to the tunnels. The bus journey was very straight forward, but then they dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. We spoke to the locals and one offered to bike us the tunnels and bring us back. We agreed a price, but didn't realise we would all be on one bike! Meh, we jumped on the guys scooter and let's just say I was literally hanging off and holding on for dear life. Not the most comfortable 20 minute journey... By this point we still hadn't eaten so we went to one of the cafes for instant noodle lunch... Not the most fulfilling lunch after such a journey...

We then went round the tunnels which were actually quite impressive. We then jumped back on the bike for another horrific bike journey back to our bus drop-off. On the way we also chatted with the guy and he said he can put us on a bus to Đồng Hới where we would then catch our final bus to Phong Nhà. It was about 1:30pm when we were dropped off at Đồng Hới. We were absolutely ravishing but the bus dropped us off in the middle of knowhere again (luckily at a bus stop) so we had to ration on Rambutan. We had no idea how long we had to wait and just had to hope that this was the right stop. We waited 40 mins in the hot sun and the bus arrived. We were soooo relieved to be on the last leg. We were exhausted, felt sick from hunger and lack of sleep but we arrived safe and sound! We met a lovely Hungarian guy called Matt who was able to distract us from our true grumpy feeling!

When we arrived we attempted to nap and then headed out for dinner. I have to admit we did go for pizza... We were craving carbohydrates and luxury. We can't walk past a guy making fresh pizza and not go in... It was yummy and just what we needed!!

Full and happy we went straight to bed and slept for 12 hours. Bliss!Read more