Phong Nha was Magical — and completely Slept On (Vietnam)
(Preface: I’m doing this blog in order, and I’m quite behind. We were in Phong Nha in the first week of June)
The start to Phong Nha was rough. Real bad. The way to get there from Ninh Binh was to take a bus. While Vietnam does have a good train system, Phong Nha was too rural and inland for there to be a stop. So instead, we had to take a 7-hour sleeper bus. Now I, being a reasonable (and tall) person, thought that it would be reasonable. You know, the bus would be bed-aisle-bed. Nope. It was bed-aisle-bed-aisle-bed. Each bed was maybe 18 inches wide. They were also designed for the average Vietnamese person, who appears to be a foot shorter than me. To be short: I did not fit. Lena barely fit. It was not fun. My sleep-deprived self decided to go use the bathroom at 3am, but the bus was hitting all sorts of bumps and curves, and I was so stubborn but outmatched that I think I hit all three sides of the tiny bathroom being jostled around. Funny in hindsight.
Thankfully, we arrived before dawn, and were able to sleep a second time, and actually function the following day. Things got better quickly. We stayed at Phong Nha Farmstay, which our Lonely Planet said put the area “on the map” when it opened in 2009. The area has only become a destination in the past decade or so, when the Vietnamese Government opened Phong Nha National Park and its many caves to tourism. This includes the largest cave in the world, Hang Son Doong Cave, though we did not go as it requires extreme physical fitness, 4 days/3 nights, and $3,000 USD. Thankfully, we got to see 3 other caves at a much more reasonable ask.
The first cave we saw was 8 ladies cave, which was accompanied by a small temple. The cave was dedicated to 8 youth female volunteers who were trapped in the cave after an American bombing run during the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese tried to free them for 8 days but were not successful; all 8 passed in the cave. A sobering reminder of a dark past.
We then visited Paradise cave, which was a Vietnamese hotspot. Tons and tons of Vietnamese tourists, tour buses, but not many Westerners. We found out it was due to Vietnamese summer, which despite all the heat, is high season for tourism. In any case, the cave was ungodly. Huge, vast, cool (in both senses), breathtaking, monumentous, and captivating. They built staircases down into the cave and we walked on a wooden path the whole time (to help preserve the cave, I presume). But we could only walk 1.5 kilometers or so into the cave before we had to turn around; the rest of the cave totals 7 km in length. But it was well-lit, and beautiful — I’ll let the pictures do it justice.
We then had lunch and headed over to Dark Cave. We took a zipline to near the cave’s entrance, and swam into the mouth, before donning headlamps and exploring the pitch black expanse. We were led deeper and deeper until we reached the mud bath. And true to name, it was a pool of mud waist deep in some nook of the cave, and it was equal parts gross and fun.
A day or two later, we headed to Phong Nha Cave, and learned a lot about the area’s role in the Vietnam War, and in particular, the toll on the people and the land that the war had on them. Phong Nha is just about the narrowest stretch in Vietnam, so the Americans treated it as a choke point and bombed the whole area to shreds. Its estimated that they dropped 20 tons of bombs per person on the area. 40,000 pounds of ordinance for everyone. Phong Nha cave became a vital base for the North Vietnamese Army as well, as they used it as a hosptital, storage for munitions and food, and other supplies to bring down to the front lines. Since all the bridges were long bombed and destroyed, they gathered the supplies at the cave, and used a floating bridge at night to bring the supplies further south using the Ho Chi Minh Trails.
The Americans, after a year or two, finally figured out the role of the cave, but could only manage to get one bomb to explode in there before they gave up, blowing off the stalagtites on the mouth. To the North Vietnamese’s credit, most everything was farther inside than the first chamber, and operations went on mostly unscathed as a central resupply point in the war. It was fascinating to explore the cave first-hand after hearing about its historical signicance, and imagining the locations for the munitions and hospital.
Overall, Phong Nha was a highlight of Vietnam, and the trip in general. It was beautiful, not overrun with tourism, incredible sights, and adventurous motorbiking. I highly recommend anyone to make time and go if at all possible.
We did a couple more things, which I’ll have in the next (mini) post.
PS Thank you Lena for the wonderful pictures :)
