Vietnam 5: The Caves of Phong Nha

I am a few days delayed from making a post, so I have a bit of catching up to do.  We started the morning going to Paradise Cave.  There were absolutely tons of people here.  We had to climb a bit of the mountain before descending into the cave.  It was fairly long.  Despite the crowds, it was beautiful and we loved it.



Next, we went to Dark Cave.  Photos were not allowed here due to the circumstances of exploring the cave.  We dressed in bathing suits.  After kayaking a tiny bit, we had to swim a short distance to the mouth of the cave.  Once inside, we waded through knee high water until we found the tunnel path.  The path was muddle and narrow and went on for about 10 minutes.  At the end, there was a dead end and a mud bath.  It went up to my stomach before I turned around and waited for everyone to be done.  Stephanie greatly enjoyed this, as did almost everyone else in the group.  Apparently, you could float in the mud water.

Back at the hotel, we relaxed and watched the indie sci fi movie Moon.  It was decent enough.  It was just one actor and the voice of Kevin Spacey.

The next day, we took a taxi to the tourist office in town and shared a boat ride with an Australian family and a few others to explore Phong Nha cave.  We boated for about 20 minutes before reaching the cave.  On the way to the cave, we saw a church in a nearby village.  This area of Vietnam is part o the minority of the country that is catholic.

Once we arrived at the cave, they shut off the motor, removed the ceiling of the boat, and paddled us inside, to the end, and then back a little, depositing us to explore some of the cave by foot.  Stephanie adored the boat ride.  I was hitting cave fatigue by this point, but still enjoyed it.



Back at the hotel, we watched the indie sci fi film Coherence.  It was very different and I enjoyed it.  I did some research into the film afterwards.  The movie was largely improvised over five days by the actors, along the story line developed by the director and one of the actors.  Each day, the actors were given information about their character only and their motivations and the improvised through the mystery.  I ordered the dvd for when I return home.  I look forward to listening to the director's audio commentary.