Hiking the jungle in Phong Nha National Park
Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is a 6-hour bus ride north of Hue. We took the DMZ bus, 6 hours with very poor legroom. I belive the other buses are better, since they are more expensive. But they leave later and you arrive at 10-11 in the evening.
The DMZ bus leaves from DMZ Hostel in the backpacker street where we stayed in Huè. The hostel was ok, but noisy. Earplugs came in handy. The other buses from Huè are Hung Thanh Bus and Tan Nhat Bus. It is also possible to take a train or plane to Dong Hoi which is only 40 km from the national park. From there you can take a local bus or taxi.
Phong Nha has recently opened as a national park, so there are currently only backpackers there. It will hardly last since the area has the largest and longest caves in the world. The national park is covered by jungle and limestone cliffs, so-called karst mountains.
We had signed up for a one-day trek to Abandoned Valley with two cave visits. The trip was 12 km long and very strenuous. It had rained for two days before we left and we waded at times in extremely slippery ankle-deep clay. A jungle is characterized by a lot of shrubs and trees. This was no exception, and the path went over and under fallen trees, up and down steep grades. The thirteen other participants were probably a generation or two younger and set a very fast pace. We did not allow ourselves to be affected by that, but kept our pace. It suited the trip better, because we wanted to see and photograph a bit along the way. On return we were tired, but we were assigned our own helper who pulled Elin up the worst grades..
Carousel:
In the first cave, “the Dark Cave” we went and climbed 700 meters inwards with headlights. Fantastic cave. About 50 meters under the ceiling with a river in the middle. At the bottom of the cave there was a fairly large lake with a sandy beach. Little sunshine though. It is much nicer to visit such a “real” cave than those with a built-in light show that the more touristic ones tends to have. In the other cave you had to swim into. We blamed the water temperature and dropped it. Great lunch after the swim. The next day arose with a numbness of biblical proportions, from the fingertips to the toes. The only thing we managed was to drink a few beers. But I would definitely recommend such a trip. They are also available in shorter variants.
We hiked with Jungle Boss and they were very skilled, although as mentioned they walked a bit fast. A shorter trip may be a good idea.
Oxalis is another operator that arranges professional cave tours and expeditions.
A little History
The Phong Nha area is also historically interesting. It is located just south of the DMZ, Demilitarized Zone, the border between the former North and South Vietnam. The Ho Chi Minh trail goes here and we drove some distance along it. It has been paved recently. Fantastic to think that the North Vietnamese walked through this terrain with up to 30 kg on their backs. Ammunition and supplies were brought in via Laos. An incomparable perseverance and willpower. For this reason, there are large amounts of unexploded ordnance and mines in the terrain (UXO, Unexploded Ordnance), and deviation from the path is not advisable. The guide said that unexploded bombs are sold on the black market and the explosives are taken out and resold.
This article provides an interesting overview of recent Vietnamese history, up to the present day. How did it really go after the Vietnam War, and why did it go the way it did?
More about Vietnam and Cambodia:
Vietnam backpacking – Hoi An
Halong Bay – Vietnam
Cambodia – Angkor Temples
Phong Nha National Park Vietnam
Hanoi Obstipation, or the dream of porridge.
Jungel trek with a fear of heights
Other hikes:
La Gomera hiking
La Palma hiking
Mallorca hiking
Madeira Levada hiking
Viñales Cuba, tourism and hiking
Hiking Peru – Inka Trail to Machu Picchu
