Caving in Phong Nha, Vietnam

We arrived in Phong Nha and loved it, a pretty little town surrounded by mountains with a river flowing through.  With just one main street, it was so easy to get around - a welcome change from some of the big cities we have been trying to navigate!




 The entire area is the Phong Nha- Ke Bang National Park which protects over 300 caves and grottos.  The largest known cave in the world is here, but you have to pay $3000 per person and book a year in advance to tour it, so that was out on both counts!  We did get to see 2 amazing caves though.

The first one was the Dark Cave, which was a small cave with a big impact.  We had to zip line across a river to the cave entrance, wearing our swimsuits, lifejackets, and helmets with lights.  That was pretty fun in itself!

Maya crossing over the river on the zipline to get to the dark cave

We then swam around to the entrance of the cave before following our group into the depths of the cave.
Our "before" shot - about to enter the cave - see how clean we are?
The cave got progressively darker and muddier, the floor and walls made of hard mud which got progressively softer and squishyer as we got farther into the cave. 
The floor is getting muddy but the walls are still pretty dry as our group heads through the narrow opening

The mud is getting better - the kids start to coat themselves as they wait to go into the "pool"

Someone is excited that the mud is getting deeper!  Mud angels were made here.

Eventually we got to the highlight of the cave, a natural pool full of beautiful, wonderful mud that our entire group piled into!  It was the most amazing mud because we were completely suspended in it, we floated on the surface, struggling to put our feet down if we wanted to because it held us up so well.  We were covered head to toe in mud, giddy and laughing at the uniqueness of the experience.


Our guide had us all turn our headlamps off, so we floated in the dark and silence for about 7 seconds until some group members couldn't contain themselves any longer and broke the silence.  Silence is hard to find on group tours! 

The "after" shot - we got the most out of the mud experience I think!

We walked back out and washed the mud off in a pretty cold water pool near the front of the cave.  We then kayaked or swam back across the river and had fun on the zip line and obstacle course for awhile, all of which helped to wash off the rest of the mud before leaving the Dark Cave facility. 

A fun place to clean off - but difficult - no one made it across the obstacle course.

The dark cave was a lot of fun, both inside and out!


The second cave, called Paradise Cave, lived up to its name.  It was a huge cave, apparently 72 m high in places, and 31 km long, although tourists can only walk down staircases and on boardwalks through the first kilometre.  That kilometre seemed incredibly long, with new and rather mind- blowing formations around every corner.
In the depths of Paradise Cave

Since it is limestone it was mostly white, and it was lit up really nicely to feature the unique formations, creating  an inviting and pretty magical atmosphere.  We walked along the boardwalk, taking tons of photos and marvelling at the stalactites, stalagmites, and still water pools throughout the space. 

A stretch of boardwalk near the beginning of the cave, taking us down to the lower level

One of several still pools of water in the cave

We got there near the time of day when they stop letting tourists in, so we were fortunate to have the cave to ourselves or share the cave with only a few other people for part of the time.

the walkway goes along the left of this part of the cave, it gives some scale to show how huge the cave is

cool formations everywhere


having the cave to ourselves gave us time for some fun pics too...

Lucas thinking bad thoughts as he waits (again) for Chris to get the perfect shot!
Man eating stalagmite?

looks painful

The sky is falling!

Cave dabbin'
Hard to imagine there are over 298 other caves in this area, we sure enjoyed the 2 we visited!
Mouse Gestures

Back
Forward
Scroll up
Scroll down
Switch to previous tab
Switch to next tab
Close all tabs except current
Close current tab
Open new tab
Close all tabs
Refresh current tab
Stop loading
Scroll to bottom
Scroll to top
Reopen closed tab
Go to home page
No action

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Now We're Cooking!

Image
Learning to Make Thai Food Thai cuisine is a big part of the Thailand experience, and, for the most part, we were really enjoying the food, so we decided to take a cooking course.  It was a pretty great experience.  We got picked up and taken to a Thai market where we were shown the various herbs, vegetables, and other ingredients that we would be using.  We didn't buy any because our class was on an organic farm where they grow everything themselves.  When we got to the farm we walked through the garden with our guide, smelling, tasting, and collecting all kinds of ingredients like Thai ginger, 3 types of basil, peppers, cilantro, Thai eggplant, lemongrass, kaffir limes, and more. Walking through the organic garden at our cooking school We then went into the outdoor kitchen and chose the dishes we would make.  We all got to make spring rolls, then a main course, then a curry paste to be used in a curry and finally a soup.  We each got our own sta...
Read more

Island Time Jan 12-20

Image
After spending a couple of weeks in beautiful northern Thailand we were ready to warm up and relax with some time on the beaches in the south. There are so many islands to choose from, and we only had time for a few - tough decision time!  We narrowed it down to the Andaman Sea side since the Gulf of Thailand was rainy and apparently flooding in some areas.   We  eventually decided on Koh Lanta since it was described as beautiful, laid back, and fairly authentic. We flew from Bangkok to Krabi on January 11, spent one night in Krabi Town, and then caught a ferry to Koh Lanta to begin our Island Time.  We stayed at a hotel just off Long Beach, originally booking in for 2 nights, but then starting the next 2 days with "Should we stay another night"?  "Yes!", so we stayed for 4 nights.  We enjoyed the pool, the beach, the sunsets, the air conditioning, and the clean hotel room with a fridge!   Maya finding ways ...
Read more

Lucas' question for Chiangmai: who is/was Buddha

Image
Answer:                         Before I did any research on the Buddha, I thought he was the god that Buddhists praised and believed in. Sort of like Jesus Christ when you're a Christian, but I was way off. Buddha was a man named Gautama Buddha, his parents were the king and queen of India. He was born in 563 BCE and died in 483 BCE. He was a normal man who lived in a magical world full of gods. Gods controlled everything from weather to wealth, shelter to trees. The gods could not end Buddha's suffering so he stopped praying to them. He went into the woods and took of all his clothes and jewels and covered himself in rags. He wanted to feel what it was like to suffer so he would no longer have to watch others suffer. Buddha meditated for 7 days without moving, eating or drinking. Finally, he had found happiness. Buddha them went on to go all over India and teach wha...
Read more