Mon 27 Mar
Departure day – train to Dong Hoi at midday . Lazy morning then packed up and got taxi to train station to catch the 12.15 train. Took about 3 hours to get to Dong Hoi – again passing by some lovely scenery, rice fields and much cultivation abounds! Once we arrived at the station we had to make our way over to the bus terminal and catch the last bus to Phong Nha. We grabbed a taxi and in sign language and broken English explained where we wanted to go. After we had negotiated the price he kept arguing that he wanted to take us all the way to Phong Nha! He just dumped us outside the bus terminal and we went in and found it wasn’t the right place – lady kept waving to where we had just come from! Cursing the taxi driver we were looking very lost and confused when a kind man pointed to where the taxi had dropped us and sure enough there was a sign for the bus T4 to stop right there! Well he could have told us! Someone pointed to a time on my watch so we knew roughly how long to wait – only 15 mins! Loaded on the very local bus when it came, and bounced our way through villages and roads (no suspension) on the packed bus . Took about 70 mins to get to the small grubby looking town of Son Trach/Phong Nha beside the Song River. Dusty looking town with hostels and older hotels lining the main street. We were dropped right at the Phong Nha Midtown Hotel where we were staying for 3 nts (CA$60). Checked into a large room with big windows opening up over the main street – very musty damp smelling room (seems to be typical up in the northern area, due to the humidity). Huge concrete bathroom with bright colored fish design on the wall – very mod! Went for a walk to explore the town and ended up eating at a busy pub full of younger travelers, the Bamboo Café. Friendly staff, chatty girls. Had a huge plate of food – generous portions for sure! Decided to have a glass of wine in the Tiger Hostel right next to our hotel – it was also busy and had a big outdoor area with fire pits. We were defiantly the oldies in the crowd! Went back to the room and listened to 2 hours of Karaoke that started up at the Tiger Hostel next door. Very good about shutting off at 11pm – after all the kids were all here for hiking or trips into the caves so needed their rest! Wifi not good in the room so sat in lobby and chatted to some kids that were travelling around Vietnam and got tips for the trips to the caves .

Tue 28 Mar
Breakfast included in the hotel rate so got the usual choice of egg/baguette/banana pancake – with very strong bitter coffee loaded with sugar! There are several ways you can see the caves in the area – most involve expensive trips – ranging from the 5 day trek with a company, Oxalis Adventure Tours, who have the exclusive rights to conduct tours to Hang Son Doong (the largest cave discovered so far (opened up in 2009) and costs about US$3000 pp and is booked one year in advance), to the do it yourself walk in trips to the other caves in the area. We had decided to rent a scooter from the hotel and go on our own adventure. We had been warned about their scooters from one of the young girls we were chatting to the night before who had broken down and wasted 2 hours of her day waiting to be rescued. We gave them the benefit of the doubt but lasted 200m before stalling so turned around and went to exchange it. Other girl was there too – returning her rental again – so we all called it quits and went in search of something more reliable! The tiger hostel (slick operation) had their own bike stall and repair guys onsite fixing them so figured that was a good bet – paid D150,000 and set off again! Beautiful journey along a section of the Ho Chi Min trail and then turned off to pass through communities in the rice paddies with limestone karsts dotted around the landscape – a small river winding through – making it all so picturesque . Pulled into the stop at Nuoc Mooc Eco trail but looked on their poster board and decided it wouldn’t be worth paying the fee to go in and to get moving to Paradise Cave – while deliberating we got chatting to a friendly Portuguese man who was travelling alone – also in the same state of indecisiveness as us! Laughed about all being the oldies in town and so we asked him to join us on our adventure to the Paradise cave. We scooted on to the Cave care park and introduced ourselves – he was Joao from outside Lisbon and was over on a recee trip – putting together a tour for a group proposed for 2018. He had just completed a tour in India with a group. Dong 250,000 each to enter cave – this cave extend back for over 31km but we were just going to do the boardwalk which extends over 1km into the cave. Firstly we walked about 1km to get to the cave and then you start by descending a wooden staircase into a cathedral like cavern – its massive, with huge stalactites & stalagmites in a variety of colors – all sparkling in the light, the deeper you go into the cave, the more staggering it becomes and its vastness just blows you away . Words cannot do justice for this natural phenomenon, not sure my pictures do any better a job either! Spent at least an hour and a half in there and not very busy so weren’t tripping over people at all – in fact hardly any one at all – think we were there early enough to beat the busloads! We walked back to the carpark and had lunch at the restaurant – fried rice and morning glory shared by the 3 of us. Heard all about Joao’s life and the amazing travels that he and his wife had done, in Africa on a canoe through the Congo (many years ago) but more recently cycling through South America to Mexico with his wife and 2 boys (aged about 10 & 12 at the time!) – built their own canoe and floated down the amazon with their bikes (crazy or stupid as he himself admits!). What an adventurous man – now settled outside Lisbon with his Swiss wife and turning to a form of Eco farming & tourism! Will be sure to visit them if we ever venture thereon our travels! After lunch we decided to stick together and head to the 8 lady temple set into a cave nearby . Apparently 8 ladies of the Revolution were in the cave in 1972, when the front collapsed after the US dropped a bomb nearby, trapping them inside where they were left to die. When we arrived to see the small shrine to them there were men placing 8 massive bowls of food in front of the cave – so they continue to be active in remembering the dead and offering them sustenance! Quick stop here before continuing on the loop road to find the Botanical Gardens. Such a lovely drive through the villages and beautiful countryside, pretty hilly in some parts. We found the Gardens and paid a nominal entry fee. The archive building was just in a shambles with display cabinets broken and a mess – nothing interesting to see – did the short loop walk through the forest, passing porcupines and monkeys in a fenced off area, some straggly looking peacocks were further on – steep climb down to get to a river and follow along to find a waterfall. A bunch of travelers were swimming in the cold water as was a pretty pool with falls flowing over rocks . We climbed to the top of the falls, luckily a series of ropes to help us up and then returned to the car park. This was the only thing worth seeing in the Gardens – a lovely meander back towards town and Joao spotted a riverside spot where a family were carting tables onto the grassy verge so people could sit and appreciate the river view and have a drink. We sat here and waited for the sun to go down – our beers were served by a lovely friendly young girl who we nicknamed “Four Minutes” as every time we asked for something she said “can you just wait for minutes” and then ran off to get the answer! Such a sweetie! Lovely view watching the boats along the river. Back to town to shower and then met up with Joao for dinner back at the Bamboo Café. Was nice to have his company for a change. I was exhausted that night and passed out, not hearing the loud wedding music that was blaring most of the night from a wedding tent about 100m from our room!

Wed 29 Mar
Breakfast not too wonderful at the Midway – coffee even worse . A leisurely morning before meeting up with Joao again at 10. Today we were going to Phong Nha cave by boat. We walked up to the boat ticket office which was about 10 mins from the hotel. You have to pay for the whole boat when making the trip so it makes sense to wait for a whole bunch of people to make it more affordable. After 10 mins a young French couple came along and joined us and then an amazing 70 year old Vietnamese lady, Lilly! Lilly had spent 12 years living in Hawaii so her English was excellent and she was dolled up in her off the shoulder shirt and not a grey hair in site! Boy was she ever a live wire! We all decided to wait another 20 mins and if no-one else came we would set off anyway. No-one came! It was a lovely trip, passing buffalo and limestone karsts along the way, as well as some large churches on the banks. 100’s of blue boats lined the village shore. Each boat operator has a number on their boat and once a week they get to take a boat to the caves, but you have to own your own boat to do it – the most ridiculous system as they all have to buy these long boats from the government! Lily was a great asset to have on-board as not only did she keep us all laughing but could translate everything of interest. Once you get to the cave the engine is turned off and the boats are negotiated silently through the illuminated caverns, again just a spectacular site and different from the Paradise Cave as the water runs through the cave so you just float into it. During the American War it was used as a hospital and ammunition depot. We were dropped on the inside and walked through the stalactites and mites to get to the entrance of the cave. What a stunning place to see! Interesting talking to the French lady on the boat – covered in tattoos and her jet black hair – she is a fashion photographer and covers the European fashion weeks and works for celebrities taking their pics for their release onto twitter or what ever they want! Sounds like a great job – anyway she was taking pics on her cell phone as no way she was bringing her huge cameras on holiday! On return to the boat launch after a couple of hours we said our good byes and the 3 of us headed into the market to find somewhere to fix my reading glasses as the arm had snapped off. Found some glue and did a hash job of fixing but better than nothing! Then we headed to “The Best Spit Roast Pork & Noodle Shop in the World” for lunch – just a little roadside café that had a great reputation for its pork. Luckily we saw a young girl who had helped us when buying our minibus transfer from the Tiger Hostel and she told us what was good to eat and ordered it for us. She had given up her life working for a Marketing Co in HCMC as she loved the laid back life in Phong Nha – pork with noodles was very good! Looked around town but not much excitement there – Joao left to check out hotels in town, for his proposed group trip. We arranged to meet up again for dinner at 7. Did catch up stuff on internet etc and had a lazy afternoon in a café next to the Tiger Hostel. Ended up eating dinner with Joao at his hostel, the Nguyen Shack, owned by a guy from Montreal and has 4 of them, 3 in Vietnam & 1 in Cambodia – his wife is Vietnamese. Chatted to the owner for a bit – the restaurant certainly became a busy place in the evening. Phong Nha is certainly a place that all the young backpackers gravitate to – I guess there is so much hiking and many physical activities which attracts them. I had a ginger coconut curry that was fairly tasty! Had a pleasant evening there and then said our farewells to Joao as all heading off the next morning.