Phong Nha

Map of Vietnam, A = Hanoi and B = Dong Hoi

8/16/2012--
    After the 10 hour overnight train from Hanoi to Dong Hoi, we hopped in a cab provided by the farmstay and drove 45 sleepy minutes to the Phong Nha Farmstay.  Upon arrival we immediately ordered Vietnamese pancakes, which were delicious and unlike and pancakes I've had so far.  They were more like a pastry- thin and fluffy but rolled almost like a burrito.  I got pineapple and lemon which proved to be a delicious combination.

    

    MK and I spent the day lounging around the pool and reading, and eating Memento ice cream bars (for less than a dollar!)

8/17/2012--

    Today was another chill day in Phong Nha.  MK and I rented bikes and biked the area around the farmstay, which is mostly acres and acres of green rice paddies and small old houses.  At one point while stopping to take pictures two old ladies (with about four teeth combined) came up to us and started jabbering away in Vietnamese.  After trying to get across that we didn't understand, we quickly pedaled away.  Kids lined up the dirt path as we biked by shouting "HALO HALO" and "money? money?" while sometimes stepping in our way and putting their hands out for high fives.  

    After an extensive bike ride, we again sat around the pool and read, only getting up to relocate to hammocks and take a quick nap before dinner (tough life, I know).  Eating a delicious dinner of fried rice and vegetables with egg, surviving another bout of food poisoning (from this delicious dinner), it was time for bed.  

8/18/2012--

   Today was our final day in Vietnam, and the busiest at the farmstay.  We woke up early to head out for a 6 km bike ride to the nearby national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site- Phong Nha- Ke Bang, composed of one of the world's "two largest karst regions with 300 caves and grottos with a total length of 70 km" (thank you Wikipedia).  We specifically toured the Phong Nha cave, to which you get in a long boat and ride through the cave on the Son River (which flows through the entire cave system).  

     The Phong Nha cave is 7729 m long and has 14 grottos, with a 13,969 m long underground river.  As two older Vietnamese ladies paddled our boat through the cave, we got off at two different places to walk around and observe the stalacites and stalagmites up close and personal.  At the first grotto we walked around, there was ancient hieroglyphic script from the Cham ethnic minority. I took a couple pictures and it's hard to see, but the first picture the script is in black on the left hand side, and in the second picture the script is in red and towards the center. 

      A bit more history that hits a little closer to home is that this cave was used by the Northern Vietnamese as a hospital and ammunition depot during the war with the US.  The man running our hostel told us the Americans attempted bombing this cave everyday for a year, and never succeeded (luckily for tourism purposes now).  

     After a full day of exploring and biking, we headed back to the farmstay to pack up and wait for our cab back to the train station, playing with the farmstay's puppies while we waited.