Down, down, down

Yesterday was a nice low-key day to travel out to the farmstay in Phong Nha. We taxied out to Hue’s train station (~33000 fare), only to realize we were way early.

The train ride was rather pleasant, and I get why people kept their feet off the ground, as I spied a cockroach and and mouse weaving through the seats.

We arrived at the farmstay and settled in for the night.

In the morning we set off for our cave tour, after breakfast. With a view like this out of our door, getting a move on was a bit rough.

We were escorted by motorbike. It definitely feels better being on one than dodging them on the streets. After arriving and hiking up 524 steps. We reached the staging house for the cave.

Paradise Cave is 31.4km long. The tour we were on was supposed to have been 7km, but due to rain flooding part of the cave, it was cut down to 4km. The first 1km is publicly accessible and the rest is for tours, with no wooden decks or lighting.

After the public part ends, the headlamps come on and we made our way further down the cave. Came across some cave petals, as our guide called them, rolled and smoothed by water.

Continuing on, we plodding through various bits, which I’ll just let the pictures explain.

Then it was time for a brief kayaking stint further into the cave. No pictures as left phone behind so it wouldn’t get lost in the deep water. The guides really wanted me to swim as my companion was not going to. Given the cut I got on my ankle, decided against that. We took a break for lunch, and they sure packed a serious lunch.

After that, it was a fairly rapid trip back out. Given the heavy rains going on, what was dry on our way in was now covered in water, with it rushing around in some parts.

Fortunately the motorbike ride back was much drier, in fact, it dried out clothes. Since I was more comfortable heading back, managed to get some scenery. That bridge was real fun to traverse, it was a plank suspension bridge that was missing a plank and had several loose ones. It was narrow enough that it’s one way at a time.

We decided to chill in front of the fire at the farmstay upon returning, catching up on reading and enjoying some live music from a Philippine Trio who were a treat to listen to. They were doing acoustic covers of a bunch of songs.

Dinner was tasty, consisting of BBQ pork cutlets with sunny side egg and the caramelized pork and duck egg claypot.

That brings us to our last night in Vietnam, and our last day of truly cool weather. We journey to Bangkok tomorrow to the land of 30 degrees!