Located in the Ke Bang mountain region, we took a half-hour boat trip down Song Troc (river) in the Quang Binh province. Wow! We passed the most spectacular landscape of mountains. Imagine the humps of bactrian camels, the pairs adjacent to each other, placed one after another. These mountains are sloped as such and are covered in lush greenery: thick jungles of tall trees enveloped by suffocating green ivy. The sun was blanketed by soft clouds, and through this filter, the sky glowed a lavender color. Our motorboat was low to the water and it was smooth sailing towards the dramatic entrance to the Phong Nha caves.

Cave entrance.

We took a left fork in the river which continued through the mouth of a dark entrance at the base of a mountain. The engines were shut off and the pilots silently rowed us through by hand. And I was not prepared for the sight we were to see. That short, dark waterway entrance led us into an enormous cavern of sparkling stalactites and vaulting stalagmites. We continued to float downstream, through a tiny opening with a low overhang that would only fit our boat, and entered another open airy cavern also filled with massive structures all dripping with groundwater, fully functional, doing nature's work. Different colored lights illuminated the room offering views of the diverse textures of the geological formations. The air in there was pure, breathing was like drinking fresh, cold, purified mountain spring water. The indoor temperature was cool and refreshing. We entered and exited distinct individual caverns over water, each cavern separated by dark margins, which reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney. The river would extend for another 70 miles! But we stopped at a beach within the cave and started hiking! So on foot, we spelunked past glittering pillars, towering braided hair like structures, dripping stalactites, etc. It was magnificent and breathtaking.

Pillars coated with liquid minerals.

Organ pipe structures. The cavern formations, not us.

While we hiked back upstream, our boat turned back to meet us at the cavern entrance. As we left the caves, I saw huts built within the jungles on the side of the mountain and I really wanted to live there. Vietnam has some pretty caves. As sis said, "the best system of caverns I have ever seen." Phong Nha cannot be missed.

Hue

Vinh

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