Our open bus ticket didn’t include Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. So we went to Hanh Café in Hue and asked them if it would be possible to change our last bus from Hue-Hanoi to Phong Nha-Hanoi. They said this was no problem as they go through Phong Nha on the way to Hanoi anyway. So we bought a bus ticket from Hue to Phong Nha for VND220,000pp and booked our onwards ticket from Phong Nha to Hanoi for two days later. We caught the 7am shuttle from Hue and arrived in Phong Nha at 11:30am. We checked into Mountain View Hotel, a family-run hostel with private rooms for $14. Phong Nha is a tiny town with only one main road. The main hostel and place to hang out is Easy Tiger, but they only have dorm rooms. So we stayed in our nice private room at the hotel and just walked the 20m to Easy Tiger every night for some cheap happy hour deals and some intense games of pool.
The next day we hired a scooter and drove the 65km loop around the National Park to see Dark Cave and Paradise Cave. Our first stop was Dark Cave as tourist groups usually go there in the afternoon so we wanted to get in before the crowds arrived. We got there just in time to join a group of three other people. The VND350,000pp ticket includes a zipline down to the entrance of the cave, the walk into the cave with the mud bath at the end and a kayak back to where you start. You can then also do another zipline into the water and an obstacle course above the water if you like. They give you helmets and headlamps which are required as the cave is completely dark. After walking into the darkness of the cave for about 15mins, we reached the roughly 10m x 3m mud bath at the back of the cave. This was the best part of the whole thing. The mud is so dense, you feel weightless as you step into the deep mud. Just trying to get from one side of the mud bath to the other is a mission as you basically float on top of the mud. It was lots of fun! They have lockers at the entrance where you can keep all your valuables. Unless you have a waterproof camera it is not advised to take your camera in with you.
After the Dark Cave we had showers and changed into clean clothes we brought along. We then had a little lunch and continued on our scooter for about 10mins until we reached the entrance of Paradise Cave. The entrance is VND250,000pp. You can then decide to get a buggy to the entrance for an extra fee or walk the 10mins to the start of the stairs up the cave. We weren’t prepared for the 600m uphill walk to the mouth of the cave and were still stiff a couple of days later! The walk from the bottom of the stairs to the cave is about 15mins. We reached the cave and went in through a small entrance that, to our amazement, opened up into the huge cave. At 31km long with sections of 100m to 150m in height, this is one of the largest caves in the world. It was spectacular! Only the first 1km of the cave is open to tourists. After walking around the cave for about 20mins we made our way back to Phong Nha. On our way back into town we passed Easy Tiger and saw it was happy hour so we decided to stop for “1 drink”…
We woke up the next day with very sore heads. We had great plans to go for a hike around the nearby Botanical Gardens but instead we rolled out of bed at 2pm and just managed to go to Phong Nha Cave. The entrance into the cave is VND150,000pp and then you have to take a boat to get to the cave which is VND320,000 but can be shared by up to 14 people. We waited around for 15mins and managed to get a group of 8 people together so we only had to pay VND40pp for the boat trip. The total trip is about 2hrs with the boat trip taking about 45mins each way and about 45mins through the cave. We are happy we did this cave, as it was cool to go through the cave on the boat. They switch off the boat engine as soon as you get to the mouth of cave so it’s very peaceful as they row through the cave.
Our bus departed from Phong Nha at 9pm and luckily our hotel was awesome and let us only check-out at 8:30pm free of charge. So we had some pizza for lunch and then headed back to our room until we had to catch our bus. The bus ride was OK. We arrived in Hanoi at 6am and took a taxi straight to our hotel.
Chris and Ro go... 