14.03 Day 59 Phong Nha
Thursday 14th March - Phong Nha (Day 59)
More pancakes, fruit and scrambled eggs for breakfast, the ever smiling Dat producing a Chupa Chup and unknown sachet sweet for the kids. We’re up relatively early as we’ve planned a trip to Paradise Cave and Botanical Gardens, for which I’ve “hired” a shopkeeper up the road in the role of taxi. Every shop, cafe, homestay has sandwich boards, posters and decals offering Tours, Buses, Taxi and Laundry. All of them just booking on your behalf, taking their cut.
But our lady arrives at 7:30am in a white car with black racing lines down the side and a large 86 on the side. Off to Paradise Cave first and it seems this lady is taking on the role of racing driver - we’re glad Seb has had his travel sickness tablet even though it’s only a 20 minute drive.
We’re here early to beat the tour groups and an empty vast car park indicates success on this front. Sienna doesn’t qualify for a child ticket - over 1.3 metres - which has her taller than local kids several years older. There is a mist in the air yet to clear from overnight and we’re surrounded by thick forest on the flat 10 minute walk to the base of, not the entrance of the cave but a long steep walk up to the cave entrance. With some cajoling and distracting - specifically the kids reminiscing about the women's football world cup last year we’d attended and Australia beating France on penalties - we arrive at a very unassuming entrance to Paradise Cave.
As soon as you enter, once you’ve got past enjoying the cool air, you start to appreciate the cavernous nature of this place opening out before you. There’s a well kept (ish) boardwalk leading the way and around each corner this cave keeps on growing and growing. The limestone rocks above through which water has seeped over millions of years to create these fantastical shapes. A geography teacher’s dream. Even the kids appreciate it, especially Sienna when elements are pointed out to her, like minerals glistening in the light and using imagination to convert rock shapes into people or animals.
As hoped we are ahead of the tour groups and there’s only a handful of others in the 1km walk each way. It doesn’t sound far, but there’s sights every step of the way. In reality we’ve barely scratched the surface; the cave is just over 31 km long. I could come up with more adjectives for the cave, but in the end it was big and good.
500 steps to the bottom but sadly no sight of our taxi, who must have ducked off to run errands hoping to be back before we got out. After standing looking uncertain a souvenir shop lady comes over with our driver on video call saying she’d be 10 minutes, sure enough she zooms into the car park and we’re off. I can’t decide if I’m more worried that we will crash around a bend or hit one of the dogs, stray or otherwise mooching on the road. Thankfully neither transpired. What does transpire is that we’re back in Phong Nha and not at the entrance to the Botanical Gardens. She asks for more money to take us there. I say No, we agreed a price for both places. She says otherwise. All this through google translate. Kate and the kids head into the Homestay, whilst I stay and go back and forth with the lady. After a standoff we both leave unhappy - she that I only paid 60% of the agreed price, me that we don’t get to go to the Botanical Gardens. Going independent doesn’t always pay off.
But we have the pool and games of cards to keep us entertained for the latter part of the afternoon. For dinner I suggest one of the nearby places which has meat on a spit above charcoal filled barrels which is only 100 metres away.
Our starter comes enroute at a small cart that seems to always have a customer or two at its small plastic tables and chairs on the pavement. We get Grilled Rice Paper and a Cheese Coin uncertain what either are. The former is a very tasty taco type snack, the letter a fluffy pancake filled with stretchy cheese embossed to look like a coin. Seb is already asking to come back tomorrow as we walk 20 metres to our actual dinner place specialising in crispy pork belly.
Back in the room, after some clue finding games using the invisible ink pens Kate got the kids and it’s off to bed.
