Phong Nha Cave and Bong Lai Valley

We woke up to a slightly warmer (high of 17°C), but still very cloudy and grey, day. As we are catching a sleeper bus tonight to Hanoi, we had the whole day free for activities. We decided to visit Phong Nha Cave in the morning, which is very similar to Paradise Cave, but is a wet cave instead of a dry cave. We arrived at the tourism centre, bought our tickets and shared a boat with 2 English guys. We spent a nice 40min boat ride to the mouth of Phong Nha Cave, from where the girls (one of them was no older than 14 or 15 years old) driving the boat turned off the engine and paddled us into the cave. It was a very peaceful and scenic boat ride through the cave.

After the cave, we scootered out to a small village in Bong Lai Valley, riding past rice paddy fields, water buffalo, and small family farms. Our main reason for coming to Bong Lai Valley was to visit The Duck Stop, but we also really enjoyed the ride through the village seeing all the small farms and animals. We arrived at The Duck Stop, where we had the best banh xeo (crispy pork pancakes and rice paper) before we visited the ducks. We didn't quite know what to expect from The Duck Stop, but we certainly got a lot more than we were anticipating! After changing into some jelly sandals, we were taken to meet the ducks. The host slowly introduced us to them, and then showed us how to feed them. The ducks would run in herds to whoever had feed in their hands, and they would run over your feet and peck at your feet with their round beaks - it was the strangest feeling! After we all fed the ducks, we were instructed to sit down on a bench and put our feet and knees together. We had no idea what was happening, but we didn't expect to receive a full foot and thigh massage from the ducks! It was the strangest feeling and we couldn't stop giggling - Cass eventually hid her feet up on the bench where the ducks couldn't reach because she couldn't take it anymore! The Duck Stop was so random, but so much fun and definitely a highlight of Vietnam so far!Read more