Amazing Cave Tour (Jan. 8, 9, 2015)

Jan. 8, 2015

Yesterday was the most amazing day! It was rainy and a little chilly, but I went on a cave and National Park tour for the whole day. Marlene, the older lady from the couple I met the day before really wanted to do the tour, but her husband, Ted, doesn’t swim, so didn’t want to go. She was deliberating about going because of this, but ended up coming when she realized I was going on it too. She is 63 and so much fun. I was really glad that she came on the tour because we connected well, and were the two ‘older’ tourists in the group so we could feel better as a pair. It ended up not mattering much as we managed all the challenges without too many problems. She has a bad ankle and I have Cleo, so we just helped each other in the tough spots and took it slow and steady.

The minivan picked us up at 8:45 am and off we went to tour the National Park, see some wonderful sights there, and learn a lot of interesting information from our super knowledgable Vietnamese guide. He spoke great English and was full of facts and information about the park, the war, the geology, the caves, and so much more. Here are some of the sights along the way to our first cave, Paradise Cave.

Lion in temple on mountain

Marlene and Me

Waterfall 

Mist on mountain

Entrance to temple

Window in temple

Then it was off to see Paradise Cave which is the largest one here to explore. It has long wooden walkways inside it for you to go along and take photos and see the cave. First, of course, there were 500 stairs up to get into that cave…….urghh. We did it a lot more easily than we did the day before because the steps were not nearly as steep, and were of a uniform size. Marlene and I felt quite proud of ourselves that it wasn’t that big a deal going up all those stairs after the last ones, yesterday. Boy, what a reward when you finally get up there because the cave was stunning. 

Me on the little park tranfer train, wet.

View down into Paradise Cave

Stalagtites in cave

Stalagtites

Me by a stalagtite

Giant, lit stalacmite

Me and Marlene

After Paradise, we stopped for the included lunch at the Paradise Cave Restaurant. It was a really great lunch of rice, pork chunks, chicken, Bok Choy, soup, spring rolls, beef, and some other things. We all sat at a long table and they brought dish after dish of food out for everyone to share. There was lots of food and totally decent.

Then it was on to visit the next cave called Dark Cave. This is the one that they told us we needed to bring our bathing suits, towel and change of clothes for. Wow, what an experience. The only disappointment was that I didn’t get any photos because you are in water, mud, and kayaks so you can’t take your camera with you to get shots. I did take a couple of shots of an advertisement photo for you to give you and idea, but it truly doesn’t do it justice.

Outside Dark Cave

Dark Cave

Dark Cave

Ad photo for zip lining into Dark Cave

We got changed, and it was pretty chilly as it was still raining, in fact in rained the whole day. Then the guide came and put a zip lining harness onto each of us, gave us a hard hat with a light on the top, and a life jacket because you have to zip line from this tower, over the water, and into the cave entrance. They used to kayak the tourists there, but last year they installed this zip line to get you there faster, and with more adventure. I had never zip lined before, but it was incredible. You are sent from this three storey tower, out the top from a kind of ladder step overlooking the valley and water below. You pass by the beautiful trees of the jungle, and end up on this mud hill to get off. It takes about three minutes on the zip line to get there. Though this doesn’t sound long, it feels incredibly long and the view is amazing. It might have been longer, I’m not sure, but was awesome. Marlene did it too and is super adventurous. I was nervous, but once I started down the line, I relaxed and it was spectacular. Then we swam into the cave which was totally dark. They have not installed any lighting in this cave so you need to use your hard hat lights to see when inside. We swam, and walked and swam and walked deep into the cave. It is black limestone so there aren’t the stalagmites and stalactites that there were in the other three caves I saw. They were all white limestone and apparently this is much easier to erode than the black.

We got deeper and deeper into the cave and started to pass through crevasses that were very narrow and got increasingly muddier as you went. We heard people up ahead yelling and ewwing and awing but didn’t know why until we got further. The mud gets incredibly deep, including mud walls, and muddy water that you step into, sometimes up to your thighs. Then at the end of this muddy slimy passage way, you end up in this huge mud bath which is a much broader area. It’s like a huge mud spa where we all immersed ourselves in the velvety soft mud and hung  out. I have never had a sensation like it before. The mud was so soft and lovely, and you floated in it. It was thick enough to stay stuck to your body in a layer, but runny enough that you could slide it down your body as if brushing it off. My skin felt great and everyone was completely muddy and brown. It was amazing. Marlene and I were lying down in it, and were the last ones out. An incredible feeling and so interesting to find this in the depths of a cave. We turned our head torches off before leaving the mud spa and everyone was quiet. It was an amazing, black, muddy soft experience to be in total darkness and silence. It felt so safe and peaceful though. Like you’d been swallowed up and protected by the cave.

We made our way back out of the cave after that, and kayaked back to the tower and locker buildings. Before going to change, they allowed us all to use the ‘fun’ zip line that went from the same height, but you just hang on to the handles without safety lines and then drop into the water. It’s kind of a beach water fun park in the summer and this was one of the amusements they offer in addition to the kayaks, fun water climbing equipment and swimming area surrounded by the jungle. It is fantastic, though would be much better in the warmer weather. It was definitely a cold outing but so totally worth is and I will never forget it.

Once changed and a bit warmer, though it was still raining, we all gathered by this fire they had for us, and got either tea, coffee, or rum to drink. It was perfect and Marlene and I put the rum into our tea. On our way back to the minivan for our return back, they gave each of us a cup of hot, thick soup to take into the van. I think it might have been pumpkin soup and was delicious.

That was my super fantastic day! I had booked a bus ticket to go to Hue, the next stop, for 4:30 am the next morning, which is when it passes through this town. I guess I was super tired from the great day, because I forgot to set my alarm, and missed the bus. I wasn’t upset though, as I decided to stay another night and try for the bus the next morning.

Jan. 9, 2015

Today Marlene and Ted were surprised to see me because we had said our goodbyes last night as I was going on the early bus. I told Marlene I forgot to set my alarm and missed it. They invited me to join them for a bike ride that they were planning for today, so that’s what I did. We were so lucky too, as it didn’t rain at all though was supposed to. It was overcast, but not wet, and was a wonderful ride.

We biked to a nearby coffee shop we’d heard of that serves chocolate coffee, which was fantastic. A layer of Hershey’s chocolate syrup on the bottom, then one of condensed milk, then the Vietnamese coffee dripper on top. Once the coffee finishes, you put ice into the glass and drink it. Yummy! When we were there, an English man who lives here was sitting at the table next to us, talking to another English couple. The couple had just arrived and were going to be taking tourists on cave tours. They were Expert Cavers and the man was there, telling them some things about the job or something. Anyway, he suggested to us, a bike route to see a nice tour of the surrounding area. We thought that sounded great and went to take his route. Well, we missed one of the turns, and ended up riding into the National Park which was just beautiful, but up hill and far off our course. On our way there, we saw so many neat things along the roads, and just off of the roads. There were Water Buffalo walking around near the river, upright graves where several family members were buried, and lots of other cool things. Rice paddies that were flooded and just starting to grow some rice were incredible, as were the lush gorgeous vegetation we saw. It was magical and we ended up riding for about 4 hours because we kept getting lost and having to back track or ask for directions back to our town. That is always challenging because most of the Vietnamese you pass, do not speak English. Anyway, we finally did find our way, and ended up running into the English guy on one of the roads. We told him where we ended up and he thought we were ‘mad’ for going so far into the park with the up hill roads. I think he was kind of shocked that we made it all that way. He told us where we’d missed the turn, so we decided to go back and try again. We had better luck, until we were almost back to the town, and turned the wrong way. We almost made it to the next little town before we realized our mistake. By now we were hungry and getting tired of riding. All of our tail feathers were worn down and it was starting to look like it was getting dark.

Water Buffalo on the road

Individual Family Grave Site

Entrance to Grave Site

Entrance to National Park on bikes

Rice growing

Rice paddies

Family grave sites on rice

Ted and Marlene going into dinner
restaurant

Puppy for Rachel.....he was so cute.....lol.

We did find our town, got back, returned the free bikes to our hostel, and then went to a local restaurant, suggested to us by the English guy. We had a nice supper, then came back. I showered and blogged. It was such a nice day, with lots of lovely, local sights, gorgeous scenery in a mountainous setting, and super sweet people to spend the day with. I will definitely keep in touch with Marlene and Ted. They live in a small town in Nova Scotia not far from Cape Breton and they are encouraging me to come out and visit, go kayaking, seal watching and seafood eating. A tempting offer to say the least. 

I am going to try to catch the bus tomorrow morning to go to Hue. It’s the same sleeper bus that I took to get here. You use your book of tickets to catch the bus to wherever the next stop is. I think I will stay one night in Hue, and then go to Hoi An. It’s supposed to be lovely, and warmer. I never thought I would say this after being so hot in Thailand and Cambodia, but it will be nice to have some warmer weather again.