Phong Nha National Park

Phong Nha Cave after a rough night

We arrived on the train in a town called Dong Hoi around 8am. What a surreal experience to sleep on an incredibly bumpy and loud train. The temperature was chilly as the AC blasted our small cabin. Still, we arrived in one piece and had the experience of an overnight train. We took a taxi about 45 more minutes inland to the small town of Phong Nha. We were deep into rural Vietnam! We checked into a cute place called Funny Monkeys Homestay. Our room was less than $30 per night and had a wonderful view over the river and all the dragon boats headed to Phong Nha Cave.

We had a simple breakfast at our homestay while we waited for our room to be ready. I think we snuck a stop for coffee in there too! Once we checked in, we all took short naps, cooled off, showered the train funk off, and regrouped. I loved sitting in the window seat working on this blog. We watched the dragon boats taking loads of people to Phong Nha cave but noticed traffic was slowing down considerably by 3pm. We decided to get on one of those boats ourselves! The boats are the same cost for up to twelve people. While in line, we used Google Translate to make friends to share a boat with. It worked out really well and made the cost cheaper for everyone.

So cool seeing this old-school ferry transporting motorbikes across the river!

Here we are approaching the cave. The boats took us through a cool 1 kilometer long passageway through this wet cave before dropping us off at a cave beach. Pictures never capture the enormity and impressive size of caves. This was a really great one!

After all this, it was time to eat! We started at a local seafood place for yummy calamari before moving on to a touristy but delicious restaurant called Bamboo. The passion fruit mojito was such a treat. All the dishes were delicious! Prices were a little higher in this rural area probably due to its remote location and lack of competition. We still were spending less than $20 for a meal.

On the way back, we passed some sort of Christian church that was bursting at the seems. People were on the streets singing somewhat familiar sounding hymns but in Vietnamese. It was so interesting especially since most temples we had seen so far were Taoist or Buddhist.

Good night Phong Nha.

Most Challenging Motorbike Ride, Mini Jungle Trek, and Paradise Cave

We started our day at Bamboo restaurant again. The smoothie bowl was so yummy and pretty!

We rented motorbikes and decided to challenge ourselves with a more hilly ride. Luckily the backroads were not busy because it was a challenge navigating 10% grades up and down the jungle! I was a little nervous mostly because I didn't want my motorbike to die. She was a good one and we made the journey safely.

Our first stop was the Phong Nha Botanical Garden. It was not your traditional garden, it was really just some well-organized trails through the jungle. We hiked for about an hour and found the various ropes and ladders pretty adventurous!

We drove further into the jungle to Paradise Cave. This part of the drive was extra challenging with some steep ascents and descents. The cave was beautiful, but again the pictures don't do it justice so I'll only share a couple.

No milk in the cave? Oh darn.

We headed back and took a long break cooling off in our room before ending day with dinner at an average restaurant. We had fun taking pictures of the geckos in our room. Eeek!

Bicycling to three different and random stops

We started the day with more coffee and more American things like French toast and fruit bowls with yogurt.

We rode past the Phong Nha Hollywood-style sign and challenged ourselves with at least 20 miles on some old and clunky bicycles!

The traffic on the roads was unexpected at times, to say the least.

Our first stop wasn't quite what we expected. The Duck Stop left us with some mixed feelings. It was fun feeding the ducks but it seemed a little wrong thinking of how much they eat all day long just to entertain tourists. The ducks were very cute and the staff was really friendly. I admit that the pictures are pretty entertaining but not something we'd necessarily recommend.

It was interesting to see how peppercorns are grown as well as banana flowers.

We continued on the narrow country road enjoying the view until we made it to a very pretty farm called Bong Lai Swing Nature Farm. The view was beautiful and we enjoyed their local tea, cute dogs, and DD#2 tried the giant swing.

There was also a "monkey bridge" where bicycle riders challenged themselves by riding over this crazy skinny bridge without crashing and falling into the water. There were no takers during our time here.

Check out the dump truck going across the river on this extra special "road".

Our last stop was called Pub with Cold Beer. They did have cold beer but also a nice swimming pool with more hammocks for relaxing.

We biked back to our homestay and cooled off for a while before heading out for a banh xeo appetizer. This is a crispy egg crepe stuffed with veggies and pork. It is served with fresh veggies and rice paper for you to make your own spring rolls. Delicious and fun!

We ended our evening back at Bamboo Cafe for more typical rice and noodle dishes. Tasty!

We had a great time exploring Phong Nha but were all feeling ready to back in the city.