One of the things that’s made this extended trip a bit of a different experience than the usual 2-3 week vacation is the flexibility to not plan every little detail. To leave things open. The chance to throw out what you thought you were going to do and replace it with something you didn’t even dream of. My trip to Phong Nha was one of those moments
I had never even heard about Phong Nha National Park before but I had of one of its big highlights- the recently discovered “World’s Largest Cave”. You might have seen it one of those clickbaity posts that always gets passed around on Facebook and you file it in the back of your mind but never really think you’ll go. Fortunately for me, I had my friends Sam Ready and Sean Paul put the screws on me to make the trek out to visit at least one of its caves. Phong Nha isn’t really close to any major Vietnamese city- you can either take an overnight train or bus (I chose train) or you can fly to a town about 45 minutes drive from the park. Oxalis is the top notch trek operator that runs most of the treks to the caves in Phong Nha and they’re the exclusive operator in the world’s largest cave and Hang En (where I ended up going). The world’s largest cave requires you to sign up (potentially) a few months in advance, dedicated a week to trekking and plunk down around $3500. I was not able to afford any of these items so instead I booked a trek out to Hang En– the world’s third largest cave- and it was worth every moment and Vietnamese Dong I spent on it.
Phong Nha National Park is pretty huge and its known mostly for its massive caves. It’s the limestone that makes up the mountains here combined with the power of its mighty rivers that make these caves possible. Over millions of years these rivers didn’t just cut valleys into the mountains, they straight up punched right through the middle of them like the Kool-Aid man does to brick walls. Fortunately for us, the results are far more exciting than artificially sweetened drinks.
Oxalis offers a ton of trekking options from easy day trips to more intense trekking options. I chose the overnight to Hang En because it offered something I had never even dreamed possible – to camp overnight in a cave so big it makes the Moffett Field hangers look like shoeboxes.
The trek started out at Oxalis’ headquarters where they laid out the details for our trek including the equipment we’d use (Pezl mountaineering helmets and headlamps for the caves) and how the days would work. What made the trek all the more awesome was that Oxalis included porters- which meant we didn’t need to take our tents, our food or even 5 kilos of our stuff. As some who does love extended backpack trips in the mountains, I STILL thought this was awesome because all I needed to take was a daypack! We piled into a bus and off we went to the trailhead. After one quick “before” pic of our merry band of 10 trekkers, we were off onto the muddy track.
Because of our timing, we went during the rainy season which meant the trails were pretty muddy. The pro to this was it was wayyy cooler than it is during the non rainy season (which apparently is stupid hot). The downside? Leeches. Yup, I said leeches. Now growing up I always thought leeches were only in the water but oh was I wrong. The Vietnamese leeches have evolved into what I consider the Golden State Warriors of leeches. These little varmints look like a tiny inchworm that moves a lot like the sandworms from Dune crossed with something from Aliens. They apparently wait around all day for something to walk by and then wave around until the grab onto you. If you want all the exciting scientific leechy details- including how some guys apparently use oil squeezed out of leeches to enhance their “potency”- follow this link. Otherwise, avoid that link…..BUT IN ANY CASE! I had long pants with big huge trekking socks over them to lock out the leeches. Naturally, I still got bit in the first 15 minutes of trekking as one climbed up my leg and then went under my t shirt to bite me right on the belly. Apparently you have to tuck in your shirt- a lesson I learned really quickly. After that, we were off to the races.
The jungle as you can imagine was humid but not oppressive and the pace was pretty leisurely. In the trek description they said we’d be fording the river about 32 times and they weren’t kidding. Fortunately the rivers were pretty shallow and unlike my usual runs through Oregon Trail, no oxen were lost 😉
For lunch we stopped at a village of one of the minority tribes in Vietnam, the Ban Doong. There we got a chance to speak with the villagers and get a better understanding of their lives. Since there was about an 8km hike through single track jungle to get here, it was unlike the other tourist-centric “villages” like Cat Cat Village in Sapa. Here you got to see the villagers going about their days under the watchful eye of disinterested set of oxen. We left town just as the ring of the village’s two room schoolhouse chimed- the chime itself fashioned out of a remnant of US bomb. A stark reminder that even though the war was decades ago, its memory still lives on in what was left behind.
We followed the river down the valley further and after turning a bend, the massive entrance to Hang En cave loomed in the distance like some looming mythical place. As we neared the cave entrance, we ducked into a wide opening that the river had cut through the middle of the mountain. On came the helmets and lights for safety and as we came around a massive bend, the full massive splendor of the cave was revealed.
Below us at the foot of a boulder-strewn subterranean hill lay a beach with our campsite already set up below us. With the light filtering in through the cave’s entrance, it was truly a sight that can’t be explained. After taking the requisite amount of selfies, we clambered down through the boulders and boarded a raft to the other side. For all the jokes I could make about Charon crossing the river Styx, our guide Tha was more than friendly, and even gave us a shot of “happy water” (Vietnam moonshine) later to reward us for the day well trekked.
Oxalis really did a fabulous job and had all of our stuff waiting for us at our tents. I had to keep pinching myself as I looked around at the massive cave and our seemingly diminutive tents as they stood against the towering walls of limestone. To ensure the delicate nature of the cave’s ecology wouldn’t be impacted, we had a composting toilet and the porters (and us) made sure we came and left the cave as we found it. Another area they excelled at was the food! It was face meltingly good- and after trekking all day, the spring rolls, barbecued pork, stir fries and rice were much appreciated. It was all capped off with a bunch of Vietnamese Moonshine and some fun games like playing Plato’s Cave (using a super bright torch to project massive shadow puppets on the cave walls. The night ended up with just me and my trekking buddy Shawn with our guides Tha and Thanh who shared their life and perspectives on the massive amounts of change that Vietnam is experiencing. Exciting times indeed.
I slept like a rock…deep within a cave…that night and was awoken to a burst of sunlight pouring through the cave entrance unlike anything i’ve ever seen. This is apparently where they filmed a portion of the movie “Pan” and that was just this moment I was experiencing- something of pure beauty that I had not even considered was possible in real life. But there we were! As the light grew brighter, we packed up camp, ate a heart breakfast and donned our helmets to spelunk further into the cave.
A massive stalagmite 
Crystallized terraces 
An otherworldly sight 
Strange shaped stalactites litter the cave… 
Looks a bit like coral eh? 
Those lost cocktail onions
We traversed boulders and trudged past the fallen nests of the thousands of Swifts that call this place home in spring. Massive stalactites, stalagmites and otherworldly formations greeted us at every turn. From little hills made from crystallized minerals deposited drop by drop over thousands of years. There were even these little balls that looked a bit like cocktail onions that form by slowly rolling down the slopes of the cave. I tried to document as much as I could for dad as he used to be a Geologist and I just knew he’d get a kick out of this.
As we plunged deeper and deeper into the cave, we started hearing the chirping of countless amount of bats far overhead. The ceiling was so high we coudn’t really see it anymore- but Tha reminded us to keep our mouths closed just in case some guano came flying down. As we wound around one more hill, the second entrance to the cave burst into view with blinding light. The jungle extended right to the entrance where the river had continued plowing its way right through the mountain. It was a gorgeous sight and being able to see the sheer height of the ceiling blew my mind. One pretty cool thing we discovered was that little pebbles on the river’s beach had formed mini towers. As water drops fell constantly fell from above, a pebble would protect the sand below it and over time, the sand around it, forming a little tower the pebble as the “hat”. After bidding goodbye to the tiny hat festooned beach, we returned through the cave to our campsite and ventured home
The final portion from Hang En back to the main road was rather uneventful compared to the amazing experience of being in the cave. We forded the river a ton of times and our guides gave us a choice. Go a longer way back to the road (that we came on) or go on a new trail that was shorter but steeper and with more leeches. What did we choose? Of course the shorter leechier one. Now i’m not sure it was the wisest of the choices but it did give me a beer quicker. One thing i’ve discovered in hiking Vietnam is that switchback technology hasn’t made it here. Trails just go straight up hills and mountains. This one was no different but unfortunately it had lots of mud, thorn trees and of course leeches. By the time we got to the top, I was damn ready for my celebratory beer but only after all of us hikers counted how many leaches we had trying to eat us. I clocked in at 16 in total- on my pants, boots and socks. One had actually managed to chew through my sock and bite me- so in total, I got 2 bites. Not terribly bad considering!
As we rolled home in the bus I marveled at how much had happened on this Trek. It was an experience I didn’t even know I needed to have until I came here. I made it back just in time for my night train to Hanoi and Tiffany complete with a trainful of stories to tell. There was still so much more to see in Phong Nha too! If I could have stayed a few more days I would have nailed it, but I guess that means I’ve just got to come back. While my sleep was far from restful I couldn’t be happier to get back to a leechlees existence.