Our favourite place we’ve been so far – the stunning Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park. A land of steep sided karst mountains, massive caves, stalactites and stalagmites, and with a river thrown in for good measure. All relatively untouched – our idea of heaven!
Day 170: Exploring Phong Nha
We awoke to these views, from our dual aspect windows 😊. Suddenly I don’t want to rush home anymore! Just beautiful.
After our late night, the kids slept in and we only just about made it down to breakfast at 8, which is when we’d asked them to cook for us. We were back to eggs and bread (or noodle soup), but at least this came with a drink, was included in our homestay price of £17 per night, and only required us to walk downstairs, so it didn’t feel like eating in another restaurant. The fact that it was on the riverside probably helped.
After breakfast, the kids were meant to be doing some learning, but the two young boys who live here (or around here?) brought a football to the door so Aiden went to play. He doesn’t get many chances so we weren’t going to force maths on him instead.
Time for me to do some planning and research into what we should do here. The area has only recently become a tourist one after the Son Doong cave was properly explored in 2009 and declared the biggest cave in the world. It is over twice as big as the previous record holder (Deer cave in Malaysia) so it smashed it! The fourth largest cave has been found here too, along with the cave with the longest underground river (44.5km long). All set amongst jungle and karst mountains. Over the past ten years, people have started to come to see these amazing natural wonders and enjoy the scenery. Getting here was pretty easy, and there are loads of homestays to put you up.
Of all the caves, there are some which are more easily accessible, to which you can go by bike, or take a short boat ride, and others which require some serious planning and cash. It’s $3000 each for the 5 day trek to visit Son Doong cave (you spend three days inside the cave)! Clearly that one wasn’t in our plans. Which of the other ones to visit though, and which should we go to on our own or with a tour?
After some research, we jumped on the bikes provided by the homestay. Or rather, three of us did, Chris sat on his gingerly as it was the definition of rust bucket and looked ancient! It definitely had some sort of issue, as sometimes the pedal/chain didn’t turn the wheel. Overall it seemed to work though so we set off down the 3km of quiet road into the main town.
The road follows the river, with mountains on the other side, so it was very pleasant. Halfway there, we stopped to check out a restaurant that had tables right on the river front. We hadn’t initially planned to eat here, I was researching for another time, but we ended up staying for food (the kids fault I think). The smoothies here were the nicest we’ve had anywhere, and so cheap! We ordered three meals (although one was a plate of veg and rice) and some sweet potato fries and regretted it. The food was delicious for something so simple, but the portions were massive! We hate to leave food, especially good food, but there are only so many vegetables you can eat. What a great place, the views were marvellous and the waitress was possibly the smiliest person I’ve met out here.
I think the toilet also goes down as pretty amazing, it was easily the most basic we’d seen anywhere! But it’s their genuine house toilet I think. When I asked for a toilet she looked a bit embarrassed, but got her daughter to take me down, literally to the end of the garden in a little hut. With no door, so the neighbours could have seen me squatting, a roof too low to stand up straight under without hitting your head, and a simple hole in the ground to squat over and aim into, it was certainly a novel experience!
We will be back (more so for the food than the toilet of course!) But for now we had to carry on into town to speak to some tour companies. As soon as we arrived at the town outskirts, you could no longer see the mountains or the river and I was very glad we were in our place, literally the last one down the road!
First up was the Phong Nha Tourist Centre, which is where you go to book boats to the most visited cave, Phong Nha. There was some info here, which I was able to get clarified by the lady. For children the prices and activities they can do are not the clearest. Whilst we were here, Aiden ran his bike into someone’s parked scooter and knocked it down. People gathered, there was much chatter as they seemed to think the bike was damaged (although it wasn’t in perfect shape to start with). We spoke no Vietnamese and they spoke no English so we weren’t able to communicate. Aiden was very apologetic. Then they dispersed as quickly as they’d gathered, including the owner, and we were left alone with the scooter again. Presuming they’d decided there was no damage, but not keen to wait around for them to change their mind we continued on. Or at least, three of us did. When I arrived at the first tour company Chris was nowhere to be seen. After making some enquiries he still hadn’t show up, so we headed back to the tourist centre to find him enjoying a beer at the side of the road, his chain of his bike jammed down the side of the cog and his fingers covered in oil after unsuccessfully trying to fix it. Seemingly he needed a beer to help cool him off!
After some hauling around, the waitress got it loose, even though Chris protested that it was no point, as the chain had already come off quite a few times. The bike was bust. She carried on regardless to get us back up and running.
As we were not keen to take Chris’s bike any further away from the homestay, he started back, whilst the kids and I rode back into town to speak to a couple more agents. When we looked he seemed to be cycling away, but apparently that only lasted about 5 metres before the chain came off again and he gave up. The bike had to be pushed the 3km home…
We were not having much luck at the tour agencies, many of the treks do not allow children under 10 or 12 years old. They are also pretty expensive and none offered any child discount. It seemed it would be around £200 for any day trips we wanted to make. The question was then which one? We could trek in jungle, visit private caves or kayak to caves. Many choices!
Back at the homestay we continued our day of catch up learning, and enjoyed a dinner cooked by our hosts. It was really delicious, and not really like anything we’ve seen on menus in the restaurants. Eggplant cooked with tomato, a sort of coleslaw and pork cooked in a sweet sauce, with rice and fruit. Very good, again full of vegetables and again so much that we couldn’t finish it. Eating well is not an issue here!
We watched a movie – King Kong: Skull Island, as quite a lot of it is set around here (and it has a backdrop of the Vietnam War) and enjoyed pointing out scenes that could have been filmed near us.
Day 171: Exploring Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park by scooter
We tried to get out early today, just after breakfast, but by the time the scooters had been sorted, and we’d got helmets which fit it was well past 9am. The bikes were totally empty of fuel, so we had to go back through Phong Nha and to the petrol station on the other side of town, and back, before we could even get going!
I was a bit nervous about the bikes, they kept saying motorbike, rather than scooter. The bikes looked to be somewhere in between. Would I be able to handle driving a faster bike through the hills and on the bends? Whilst they did have more power than the e-bikes in Bagan, they didn’t shoot off uncontrollably, and the road out was really quiet, with superb views as we started to climb up into the hills.
Not far in, we came up to a barrier. Is there an entry ticket to the park? Nope, we were waved under the barrier, which required some serious ducking down. Should have done what the locals did and gone under the left hand side as its higher!
The Botanic Gardens came up soon after, even so, it was nearly 11am by the time we arrived. So much for a morning walk before lunch and before it got too hot…
We paid the token entrance fee and set off up the trail. There are a couple of options. We chose the long one, hoping it wouldn’t take the 3 hours that they said to cover the 3-4km. We would be getting hungry soon!
The Botanic Gardens here are not what they sound, rather than some nicely manicured and planted gardens, it’s trails through jungle, with a path up the waterfall and signs telling you what some of the plants and trees are (in Vietnamese). For us it was the chance to go for a hike in the jungle, without paying a fortune for the pleasure!
The trail starts out past a small enclosure, in which we saw some monkeys. We weren’t sure if they were wild or not, as it seemed they could easily use the trees to get out into the jungle… it’s semi paved, made of large concrete blocks, which was a bit of a shame, but meant that everything else around them was green, so it didn’t look so much like a path.
It’s a one way route, so we saw a few people on the trail, but we managed to overtake most of them and lose them behind us. Hopefully some would detour onto the shorter route. The trail wound up through dense forest, up a creek and then to the top of the ridge. We definitely felt like we were in the jungle. Jungle trekking ticked – no need for an expensive tour. We made good time, and arrived at the viewpoint in around an hour and a half. The views were pretty great. We met another group there who took our picture.
The route down to the waterfalls was pretty steep, but supported by ropes. The waterfall initially looked pretty unimpressive, and our friends stripped down to their swimmers to play in the pool. We continued along the path, which was going up along the waterfall. Pretty cool with a little ladder and everything.
Just around the corner, the waterfall showed us it was not at all done! There were another whole load of cascades running down the slope, and the path continued up alongside and then across it. There were ropes to help if it was slippery and little bridges to get between the rocks. A bit of waterfall climbing 😊.
From the top, we got views out across the valley, before heading back across to the car park. We found some swings on the way, which Aiden fell off and bumped his head. Oops!
Back at the car park, we sat down to lunch in the restaurant here, which was pretty busy. Our lunch order was painfully slow in coming, but it did give us time to spot a Giant Squirrel in the trees, and a crab scuttling along past the tables, hoping no one would notice.
After finally eating, we were pretty short on time, so we jumped back on the bikes and headed further in. We climbed initially, and then hit a really steep downhill on very poor condition roads. A bit of a challenge for me on the bike, and we were a little worried about the brakes as it seemed to take about 10 minutes to get down, but our descent was uneventful, and gave us glorious views over the next valley and the massive escarpment we were heading to the bottom of. We were too busy holding on to take pictures, sorry.
Once we were on the flat again, we skirted the base of the escarpment, enjoying the ride on the deserted road. The best was yet to come though, as we turned right to head across the range towards Paradise Cave. The views here showed rows of lumpy hills, all green and covered in vine filled jungle. We did see one person on a pushbike, I was simultaneously impressed with them and full of pity. These roads would not be fun without gears (or with them!).
The turn to Paradise Cave took us up and over a couple of other steep ups and downs, before reaching the car park. We had to pay for parking again, and entrance fees, which is a little annoying, and we were worried that we might not have enough time in the cave as it shuts at 4.30pm and it was now just after 3pm.
When you buy your ticket here, you can choose to also buy a ride on the electric buggies as it’s nearly 2km to the cave. We chose to walk, and did it in 13 minutes, so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t as far as they said! Even if you get the buggy, you still have to walk 600m up switchbacks or steps uphill to get to the entrance. There’s no lift here!
The entrance is small and requires you to stoop a little to get down the steps, before opening into a massive cavern, 72m high and 150m wide. It’s hard to imagine that size space, especially inside a fairly small hill. The cave is set a couple of hundred metres up from the ground, so the hill must be literally hollow! At one end of this massive cavern are all sorts of rock waterfalls, stalactites and stalagmites, including this massive one that you walk down stairs around.
Initially, we thought that this space might be it, but once we were on the cave floor, the cavern turned a bend and continued. This section was much smaller, but the formations within are incredible. Everywhere you turn there are huge stalagmites, many well over 20m tall, and each one is different.
We had fun saying what they looked like (like you do with clouds), and saw a were-rabbit, dog and garden gnome amongst others.
It was really a surreal place, like no where we’ve ever been before. Aiden likened the floor to the surface of the moon, the ceiling was like a painting and at times it felt like we were on another world.
To protect the cave, a boardwalk has been built the whole way down the 1km open to the public. We were really surprised how few people were in here, and impressed that most of them were either silent or talking quietly, seemingly they too were awestruck by being in such a place.
We spent an hour in here, and I could have turned back and done the whole thing again, but we were starting to worry a little about the time and having to go back down all those hills and bends in the dark, so we left.
We decided to head back the way we’d come, in theory the shorter route in distance, but possibly the more hilly. It was also the route we knew, which seemed like it may be helpful if we were riding in the dark.
On the way back, we couldn’t help but stop and look at the setting sun behind the mountains. From this bridge it was simply stunning, with all the layers of mountains into the distance.
We raced back, beating the sun by mere minutes. Perfect timing! And time to eat. We’d assumed that with the bikes, we’d just head out again into town, but we were really worn out from our day of walking and riding. It’s actually quite hard work on these hills on the arms and legs, bracing yourself from falling onto the handlebars (the hills were that steep!). We wished we’d ordered dinner here again!
I had seen a vegan restaurant just a few doors up the road and it had good ratings, so we headed over. We were surprised to find it so busy, seeing as we’d seen few tourists at this far end of the road. Service was super slow, but we had an eggplant stew which was sensational. We will be making this again in England!
Time to crawl back to bed and flop into it, shoes still on.
Day 172: A failed cave trip
We were all pretty beat still this morning, so decided to do our boat trip in the afternoon, allowing us to chill out in the morning, catch up on some admin and learning and enjoy the views from the window. After watching all the Phong Nha Cave tour boats go out on our first day here, it seemed that fewer boats go in the afternoon.
We headed out around midday, taking the bikes into town (a different bicycle for Chris this time), where we parked at the boat hire centre and walked across the road to the place where Chris had his beer after his bike broke. We’d noticed that they offered cheap burgers and that’s what we were all feeling today. Service was amazingly slow though, even for SE Asia, and so it was gone 2pm by the time we returned to the boat ticket office. We wanted to see both caves, and were told that there was no longer time to do both. They wouldn’t sell us the tickets. We had to decide whether to do one cave only now, or try doing both again another day. After deciding on the latter, we walked back to where we’d parked the bikes. Three were there. Where was mine? There was a similar one, but it was way too nice… Some locals came over to see what our problem was, but we were all pretty confused. Now what?
Looking around there was a bike parked about 50m away, it seemed like a random place to leave it so I went to check it out. It was mine. But how had it gotten there? After being momentarily freaked out, a man appeared from a bush next to me, where he was doing some pruning?, and said ‘yes yours’ to me. Had he really used it to avoid walking the 50m to where he was going to do some work? I know the SE Asians do not like to walk, but really!!??
We mounted up and headed home for an afternoon of schooling and a dinner at the vegan place again. There was no eggplant stew tonight though. We were pretty disappointed!
Day 173: Exploring Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park by scooter again!
After such a great day on the scooters, we hired them again to head in from the other road. This involved going back into town, which was good, as the scooters we were given today were empty again, even though we’d left them with half a tank each! In fact, Chris’s was so empty, it only made it 500m up the road before dying. I had to go back and get our host to bring a bottle of petrol!
We stopped at the bakery in town to pick up some sandwiches for a picnic in the mountains. A Vietnamese baguette really, but we got a bit more choice of fillings today (egg, pate, pork or some sort of fish in brown jelly like strands…). After filling up again at the petrol station, we crossed the river and headed up the main road through the valley and small towns. Even here the hills were visible to the side, and we had the river winding through rice paddies in the foreground so we were pretty spoilt.
Having read someone’s post about one of the roads into the mountains being pretty impassable for rookie riders, I was prepared to have to turn around, but this turned out to be the easy road in! We turned off the main road heading straight for the hills, weaving around between the near vertical forested outcrops through perfectly flat valleys covered in rice paddies and dotted with small villages with Christian churches. These were not what we expected to see here, and much grander than the ones we have in villages at home! The best thing was that the rice paddies here were green! Finally we’d hit the right season to enjoy this SE Asian must see at its best.
The weather was a little crazy, with sudden gusts of wind and bits of rain to keep us on our toes. Mostly it was full sun though. After a while, we turned again, and started to climb up a steep sided gorge. We stopped to find the free little cave on Maps.Me, which is not big, but you can climb down twenty metres or so into it to a small river flowing through.
We continued on past the turn we’d taken previously to Paradise Cave and back along the road we’d travelled two days ago through the mountains. Still beautiful!
Our plan was to find somewhere for lunch. The vegetation us right up to the road everywhere around here, and there are no picnic areas as such, so we looked for the trail entrance to Elephant Cave, hoping we could go and look at the entrance and eat there. The big sign saying access was prohibited was enough to put us off. It’s a private cave only accessible on tours.
We headed instead for Ma Da Lake, hoping we could find somewhere we could view the lake from. But it’s the other end to the private tour route, so no access again. Next we tried the public Eight Ladies Cave, which you cannot actually enter as it was bombed in the war, sealing eight people inside. Instead, there is a fairly large building here as a memorial to the lives lost. Preferring to eat outside rather than in an odd building with metal chairs all facing a massive TV screen, we moved on again.
We tried for Nurse Cave, heading on much further up into the hills, where the temperature plummeted and it started to rain. Nurse Cave was actually a shrine, with people worshipping there, so it didn’t feel like an appropriate picnic spot….
We went back to the memorial site, and got inside just as the light rain turned into a torrential downpour. Puddles formed almost immediately, and we were very grateful of the roof over our heads and our sandwiches – there is no where else to get food around here.
By the time we’d finished the sandwiches, the sun had come back out and the road was steaming. By the time we were ready to leave on the bikes, parts of the road were already dry!
The Dark Cave was our final stop, and most the way back down to the valleys. It’s not our usual place, and pretty expensive, but much cheaper than the tours to the private caves. It sounded fun too. You sign a waiver, change into your swimwear – t shirts are not allowed for some reason, and line up for either the zipline or the kayaks. Yep, that’s the way in, a hundred metre zipline or a short kayak trip.
Evie unfortunately was tall enough for the adult price, but too light for the ziplines, which seemed a little unfair. Aiden was too light but paid a fraction of the price. One of us also then needed to give up the zipline and paddle with them. Which was actually fine, as we were able to get the boat lined up under Chris as he came down the zipline.
At the cave entrance on the other side, we joined with nine Americans and a tour guide for our trip into the cave. After kitting us out with helmets and headtorches, we wandered into the cave entrance. It was a good one with still blue water, and an eerie mist giving great atmosphere to the large entrance.
Time to get wet. We had to wade into the water up the river that flows inside to get to a side tunnel, a climb up a mud slope was required to get in. Then we followed a narrow path between the rock walls, dotted with cave insects with long antennae, and lined with mud.
After a few hundred metres, the path ends in a mud pool. It was not warm and the floor was totally uneven so people kept falling over! Chris got in pretty easily, Aiden followed, Evie refused, and I made it eventually. You float so easily it’s really weird! We covered ourselves in the gloopy mud from the bottom and then everyone turned their headtorches off so we were sat there in the pitch dark, floating in mud. Pretty cool. Unfortunately we have no pictures here as we didn’t have a waterproof camera with us!
On the way out we had to wash the mud back off, which was easier said than done – I had some on my face going home still I’m sure! The kayaks were not in the right place when we came out, so Chris and Evie took the only one and the rest of us started to swim back.
Aiden said he wanted to swim too, but after 30m, he changed his mind and climbed into the boat. It is a fair swim across. Also here, there are some ziplines into the water and a swing you can jump from. That’s not massively my thing but Chris wanted a go on one. I initially decided not to do it, but after thinking about it I knew that that’s just my natural response when it comes to anything involving water, speed and uncertainty. When I thought about it, I like ziplines on land, and I was already totally wet, so that wasn’t an issue. Time to say yes. Hanging onto the bar at the top of the platform I was fine. There are two lines next to eat other so we were going together. As soon as we jumped off though the water was not getting closer and seemed really far down. I was properly scared. Why was I doing this? Having seen people hit the end and getting flung off so they landed badly, I was planning to drop before hitting the end, except I couldn’t let go! I hit the end and swung madly, and opened my eyes to find myself still hanging on. Luckily, now we weren’t moving the drop seemed ok so I let go. As a total no expert at this I ended up with water up my nose, but it was fine. I didn’t line up to go again though… Afterwards, my hands were white blisters where I’d held on so tight – whoops! Chris loved it though and managed to flip almost all the way round!
We could have stayed to mess around in the water longer, but it wasn’t warm, and Aiden had the shivers, so we changed and left.
The ride back was also lovely, although riding back through the town when we got to the main road was a bit crazy as so many people were out and about. We got stuck in groups of bikers, had dogs run in the road, played chicken with water buffalos and herds of cattle crossing the road. All good fun!
We’d ordered dinner from the homestay, so we stopped at Da Viet for more of her excellent fruit shakes before heading back for dinner. Fish, aubergine and a cabbage and carrot fried coleslaw again, which was very good.
Day 174: The Bong Loi Valley
Time for another day out on the bikes. The Bong Loi Valley is often dubbed as the best thing to do in the area, which we couldn’t believe after riding through the mountains. It is basically a valley, with not as many hills, and quite a few places where locals have set up places for tourists to hang out and eat and drink. We didn’t have high hopes.
It was around 14km down the road, back through town and out on the main road, and then down a concrete road. All easy going until the concrete petered out and became very rough. After bumping our way down the road for a couple of kilometres, we came to The Duck Stop. This was a bit of a surprise for the kids, as information was a little sparse online. We pulled in and were greeted by one of the sisters of the brain behind this little enterprise, ‘The Quack Quack man’. Seriously, that’s what he said his name was when we asked him! It was actually a pretty organised set up. First you are offered cold drinks and fed some samples of the peanuts and peppercorns that they grow on the farm whilst you pick your tour.
We went for the full package for most (Chris didn’t fancy riding Donald Trump – their resident water buffalo). We were offered lovely plastic sandals to change into and were then whisked off by the ‘Quack Quack’ man for a pretty crazy half hour in a pen full of ducks.
He started by making the ducks bow to their honoured guests (by throwing food in the air so their heads all go up then down together), then we fed them from our hands. It’s all about being a Duck Leader, so you take it in turns to make them follow you, and then make them bow to you.
Then it’s duck massage time. With bare feet cupped together, he puts food inside which they all peck out.
The perfect mix between tickling and feeling great – we were all giggling like schoolkids. Except Evie, who had realised she had a fear of ducks and didn’t want to join in with anything ☹.
We did manage to convince her to ‘toss a duck in the pond and make a wish’ though, and then to have the massage after.
She even fed them from her hand before we left – no more duck fear here. At least we achieved something today!
A couple of final posed shots and we were off to find Donald Trump. It was a short walk through their farmland to a pool with a massive water buffalo in it. Meet Donald Trump! The ride was pretty short, you’re hefted up, walked down into the water (beautifully cool on the legs until Donald swishes his tail and splats you with it like a wet sponge from behind – thanks Donald!), and then over into the field for some posed shots. Laying back on a water buffalo and posing is definitely one of the weirdest things I’ve ever done and will be remembered!
After cleaning up, the tour was not done. We were fed some Vietnamese pancakes, which are wrapped in rice papers with veg and some homemade peanut sauce. I love peanut sauce 😊. We must make this more often at home. Chris is slightly converted to the joy of peanuts now, so I may actually be able to cook with peanuts when we get home – yay!
Feeling pretty good about this valley, we continued on down the bumpy track. It was slow progress, but the route was nice, past farms and locals, with views across the green valley. We were tempted to bail out and stop at the ‘Pub with cold beer’ but pushed on to our intended destination at the end of the valley, ‘Swing Valley Farm’. Despite nearly having our brains rattled out of our skulls, this place was so worth it! Perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the valley, the views are stupendous – I can’t believe these people live here!
The owner was really nice, and spoke great English. Again, they have a menu of tours you can do, and offer food and drinks. On offer here, the chance to take some pics on the small swing and rock (if you buy some food), the big swing, which Chris was all over, and a cricket farming experience.
We wanted to try it all! Starting with the crickets. The owner started farming crickets here a year or so ago, and showed us them all growing at different stages. He does it to feed his family and to sell the excess in the market. It’s also as a tourist experience to bring money into his farm. After looking at them we got to cook and eat some. The kids dug straight in of course, and even Chris and I said they were pretty nice. Definitely something to look into when we get home as a sustainable protein source…
We decided to eat next, and picked the BBQ chicken off the menu. ‘It’ll take a while’, he said, ‘I have to go and kill it’. We’ve never seen a chicken prepared before, only bought them from the supermarket, so it seemed like a good learning experience. We decided not to join in killing it though – whilst you should be able to kill it if you’re going to eat it, I was too worried I’d mess it up and cause extra suffering. In the end the death wasn’t that quick, as he slit its throat and waited for it to bleed out. We distracted ourselves with the cute piglets rummaging nearby…
We did help pluck it though.
And watched him chop it up and remove the insides – time for a biology lesson! Whilst the kids were initially a bit squeamish, they were soon squishing the spongy lungs and unravelling the intestines out to full length.
Whilst it was BBQing, we went back to the swings, hammocks and rocks to enjoy the view.
Our chicken was pretty delicious, with a homemade peanut sauce again, greens and rice. We were stuffed!
We whiled the rest of the afternoon away with a ride for Chris on the big swing…
Take a dip in the river at the bottom of the hill…
And make a new friend…
Time to say a sad goodbye to this beautiful place and lovely family and make our way home. There’s a second path up the valley on the other side of the river, after a couple of km back down the super bumpy road, we crossed the bridge and were delighted to find solid concrete!
That’s easier! We’d expected to only spend a few hours in the valley, but instead we’d had an amazing day. The kids said it was one of their best days travelling! They do have quite a short term memory for these things, but it was a very good day. We have absolutely loved Phong Nha. Possibly our favourite place we’ve been to whilst travelling…
As we weren’t particularly hungry, we picked up sandwiches and cakes from the bakery on the way past and munched in our room when we got home. Phew, time for bed!
Day 175: A rainy day in the mountains and a night bus
We awoke to our last day in this stunning place to rain. The forecast had it in all day, although I’m sure it wasn’t there when we checked a few days ago…
Our plan had been to go out on the boats to Phong Nha cave, and Tien Son cave. With low cloud, and drizzle, the bike ride into town and the boat ride up the river in the rain suddenly didn’t seem like as much fun. Neither did the climb up to Tien Son cave.
We also saw no boats going up the river during breakfast, when there were normally loads. Were most people deciding against it? As many people only stay in this area for one or two nights, that seemed unlikely when the majority of the trip is inside a cave. So perhaps they weren’t going anyway due to the weather, and we’d get all the way down there and have to turn around? After some deliberation, it seemed that none of us were that bothered about visiting anyway, and we were happy to enjoy this nice accommodation in the dry, cramming some Spanish now that we know we’re going to be there pretty soon 😊. A learning day.
We did have to go out for lunch though, so we grabbed the bikes in a vaguely dry spell and sped down the road to Dat Viet again for some super massive piles of noodles and tomato tofu.
We should have asked for dinner at the homestay again really, but forgot to in the morning, so we went back to the Vegan place again, hoping for the Eggplant stew to be on the menu. It wasn’t ☹. We tried the bamboo shoot one instead this time, which couldn’t match it but was still nice. I enjoyed the sweet potatoes in the mixed veg stew. Sweet potatoes are so good 😊.
Our taxi was due to collect us at 8.40pm but a little late arriving, but it was fine, as it’s only a couple of minutes up to the bus station in town. The bus was fairly on time and we managed to get on early and secure four seats on the floor level in the middle of the bus. After an hour of loading people on around Phong Nha, we finally got underway properly, so I assumed we’d get in late. Gives us more time to sleep anyway.
We struggled to get comfy at first, the foot cubby hole is not quite tall enough for our toes, so our feet had to be sideways, and they are pretty narrow if you like to sleep on your side. I prepared for a bad night after only managing fitful dosing for the first hour.
We’re very sad to leave this beautiful place, our favourite place so far? Quite probably! Our next stop Ninh Binh is also mountainous, the land version of Ha Long Bay apparently, but we are expecting it to be a lot more touristy too. Time to find out…
If you missed it, head back to our time beaching and exploring the temples and old town around Hoi An.