I was up early as I had seen that there was a coffee shop open at 0630 near my pick up point and that would give me around 45 minutes to have breakfast before getting the transport.
It wasn’t to be though as the 2 staff there couldn’t get the equipment to work to take my order. Thinking it wouldn’t take long to sort out I sat down and waited. 30 mins later I was still waiting, eventually they got it working and took my order but I had to get it to takeaway instead and headed for my pick up point.
It was on the corner of a busy intersection and I was there for 7.15 for a 7.30 pick up. It was pretty busy but I didn’t see any sign of anyone else waiting. 7.30 came and went and I found the number of local provider of the tour and rang them, he said there had been a problem as I had booked late ( yesterday ). He said he would sort something out and ring me back. He rang back after a few minutes and asked if I could do the tour on Monday, I told him that’s not possible as I’m off to Danang tomorrow and had a hotel and transport booked, he said he’d ring me back again.
When he rang back he said he would send a car to pick me up but I’d need to go back to the hotel. Eventually I managed to communicate where the hotel was ( I’ve yet to learn how to drop pins to someone! ) I got back to the hotel to find I needed to change rooms because of needing to do some maintenance, I agreed that they could move my things while I was out ( it wasn’t the best start to the day ) .
I received a call while waiting for my pick up but they only spoke Vietnamese and mine is pretty much non existent still but I passed the phone to they receptionist and they had a conversation ( car was now on its way ).
A guy pulled up and motioned me to get in, so it seemed I was on my way. He didn’t speak any English so I began to wonder how today would go. I could at least see on Google maps that we were heading in the right direction. It was around 4 hours to Phong Nha caves so I settled in for a long drive thinking as long as he gets me there I can still make it work.
After just over an hour we pulled off the main road and down some unpaved roads and tracks, he seemed to be looking for somewhere or someone, after a few wrong turns and having to double back, we pulled into a car park with a few vehicles in it.
I was transferred to another vehicle with around 8 tourists and an English speaking guide ( I’m not sure if this the original tour that I should have been on ).
On the way the guide pointed out where the border was between North and South Vietnam and monuments erected there. The 17th parallel was established by the Geneva Conference 1954 and lasted until 1976 and classified as a demilitarised zone rather than a border.
Arriving in Phong Nha we were directed into a restaurant for lunch and sat in silence during our meal, we were quite a mixture from as far as I could make out Japan, India, Russia, UK / Canada ( Me ).
After lunch we were directed to the Son river where we boarded our boat for Phong Nha cave. It took around 20 minutes to reach the Cave via powered boat. On arrival at the cave there is a brief stop before heading into the cave being paddled by the guide.
The cave itself is quite amazing and pictures probably don’t do it justice. The cave is 7,729 metres long of which 1500 metres can be explored by tourists.
I hadn’t realised that when I had travelled from Nimb Binh by train that I could of got off nearby and made my way to Phong Nha and spent more time here and explored other caves ( around 1/2 of the tour group stayed here longer ).
The last 400 yards of the cave system is walkable via purpose built platforms and stone steps. This was my favourite part, I love being on water but would prefer to explore caves by walking and climbing if possible.
The trip back to Hue was long but uneventful, I think the ones of us making the return journey were tired after a long day but I’m glad I got to see Phong Nha cave and it would be nice to return to the Park one day to see some more of the caves here.
I got back to the hotel and the room change over had gone well and it looks like they got everything so that’s a bonus.
Tomorrow I check out and head off to Danang for 2 nights, Transport is booked so hopefully all goes smoothly, it’s only a couple of hours from here so quite short.
I was going to wait till tomorrow to publish this but I think there’s enough there so I’ll do it now.
Thanks for reading
Take care
Regards Chris
chris herbert's travels/adventures 