Phong Nha-Ba National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site which thankfully remains relatively undiscovered on the backpacker trail. It is just across the DMZ (demilitarised zone) in northern Vietnam only 40km from the Laos border. It has numorous marble karsts coated in wildlife and hidden within them are some of the most amazing caves in the world. So of course it's home to the world's largest cave, discovered in 2009. However you're not allowed in that, unless you want to wait for the one trek a year costing $3000 per person. Our guide said it's booked out until 2016!
We opted for Paradise Cave, apparently the most spectacular cave in the world. We arrived and took a golf buggy to the base and then walked 500 metres up the jungle covered mountain to the opening. We walked down into the cave and it opened up to be a vast 100metre tall space and everywhere you looked you saw huge stalagmites and even bigger stalactites! Apparently it takes 100 years for one to grow 2cm and these were tens of metres tall and still growing! The cave was certainly something we would never forget. We walked 1km into the cave and then back but it goes on for another 30km more! It was mind blowing!
That day we were dropped at a local hotel in Dong Hoi (Nam Long Hotel) and rested for another cave the next day! How could it beat this one?
We were picked up by minivan in the morning and taken back to the National Park, and after sampling some Vietnamese home cooking we were ready. This cave is called Phong Nha cave and is accessible along the green milky river by boat. We traveled down the river passing local fishermen and families living next to the river, only passing 1 other tourist boat. As we entered the cave in engine was turned off and we were paddled into the cave. This cave was different, less stalactites but the walls looked like the moon! It was so beautiful and there were small sandy beaches inside where the Viet-Cong soldiers hid during the war. After 45 minutes we got out of the boat and explored another part of the cave. It was all incredible!
We were very lucky to experience these caves before they become too touristy and I'm sure that any cave we see in the future will not match these two!
Five stars!!!