Rural rides. Cool Caves, The hills and Hanoi. See below haha. Another exciting prospect of Vietnam was the prospect of rural reclusivity for us.
Described to us as one horse town, and deliciously remote. The caves speak for themselves, not only the location of the biggest cave in the world, San Doong, but a sprawling network of subterranean spectacle to crawl and swim and squeeze around. It seems that the town has become more and more popular as a result.
We caught a bus easily from Dong Ha to Phong Nha direct, with a bunch of other cave seekers and arriving there in it was clear that things had developed, the main street stuffed with hostels and cafes and caving gear shops. But in fact it still was only one street and a 5min ride out in any direction and you were quickly on the country tracks and green lush lanes of the picture postcard Vietnam.
Though the ride took us more than 5mins actually as we played moped jenga with the bags and wobbled our way to the farm stay. Laughing, Helen even forgot her helmet. The truth is people come here for the caves, and so had we. In fact my friends dad had been part of an original British expedition here exploring and discovering a large part of the network that the town now holds as its economic lifeblood.
It felt like a nice nod to him to be here and interesting to see how the tourist draw had grown here over the years. Staying in a beautiful horseshoe shape dip in between some fluffy green hump backed hills I start to soften from the bus ride and slide into a countryside vibe. Nature nurturing and excitedly expectant for the cave trek tomorrow.
