Scrapes & japes in Phong Nha

I have become an unrecorded statistic, it's happened - I fell off the damn bike and scraped myself up. Annoyingly it wasn't even my fault; a car came round the corner too fast and I had to swerve to avoid it hitting me, so ended up in a heap on the tarmac and a smashed phone. It was a country lane too so it was unfortunate that the car was even on it - I saw about three in a couple of days- typical. You'd think it would be on a main road but no, the quietest road there. The bastard didn't even stop! Anyway I was lucky, I'm absolutely fine, just a few cuts in the arms and legs and will probably sport a small scar or two which makes a story. That's that, it happened, it was painful and annoying, but I'm still alive so onwards!

On to more interesting things - Phong Nha is stunning, I'd go as far as to say it's one the most picturesque places I've been in Vietnam. Apparently it's where they are filming some of the new King Kong movie - I can see why, it's all lush green jungle and high cliffs encompassing caves and taverns. It's really enjoyable just riding around the area (when you're upright 😶). The weather was overcast but it didn't really matter and gave it an eerie atmosphere.

There's a number of caves in Phong Nha, some that have only been discovered fairly recently. On the first day I went to the boringly named but beautiful Phong Nha cave. We had to join the locals on a little boat. It was me and one other Westerner - the locals loved it and insisted on taking photos of us with them. The little boat goes along the river then makes its way into the cave for about 20 mins. The cave was huge with loads of interesting rock formations and caverns. We got out for another 20 mins and wandered around it a bit before heading back for lunch.

In the afternoon, we went to the more creatively named Paradise Cave, previously the largest cave in Asia. It was massive and you could walk 1.5 km within it. Apparently the cave is actually over 30 km long and you can do special tours to see more if you wish. The scale is ridiculous, I'd have been there all week! Paradise Cave was breathtaking though with massive stalagmites and rock formations that looked like frozen waterfalls, it was like walking on an alien planet. People used to think Paradise Cave was the biggest but they have recently found an even bigger one. The catch is you have to pay over $3000 to visit it and trek for miles - I passed on that particular tourist activity.

The following day apart from my little incident, I also visited the Dark Cave - aptly named becuase it's pitch black inside. This was more of an activity-based visit and included ziplining and venturing down into the cave where there was loads of liquid mud. We were given hard-hats that resembled a childs toy and a headtorch which gave off about as much illumination as a lighter - the group was large though, so the combination of light showed the way. As we descended into the mud, everyone covered themselves and we looked like a bunch of swamp monsters in the dimly lit cavern. It was quite weird and you could float in it strangely - it looked like melted chocolate but I wouldn't reccomend tasting it - it definitely wasn't Wonka's chocolate factory! The way it just naturally occurred in the cave was cool though. After getting outside, we messed around on some climbing frames in the water to clean off a bit before driving back through the breathtaking Phong Nha scenery.

The amusingly named Tam Coc was next - a tiny picturesque town near Ninh Bin. Arriving at 4 AM from the sleeper bus - we waited for an hour before being transferred to the hostel. The waiting room was half finished and looked more like a crack den than a bus office - somebody get the builders in! Once in Tam Coc we went on a boat ride which was pleasant despite the nagging for tips. Loads of Asian tourists on the passing boats kept taking sly photos of us. They love it - I must be in so many random photos. If I did it the other way round I'm not sure it would go down too well. 🤔

We had to drive to Ninh Bin town to find an ATM. It was like a pilgrimage for the elusive cash machine, we finally found one tucked away on the side of a small road. I thought Ninh Bin town was a bit rubbish so was glad to get back to the beauty of Tam Coc. In the afternoon we rode to a massive Pagoda, it was awesome, relatively new and very ornate. There were hundreds of Buddha statues there and a couple of huge golden ones that rivalled Bangkok. It was also much less touristy and the views at the top were brilliant - worth the ride.

Back on another bus to Hanoi next.Read more