Phong Nha Farmstayin' it up!

6:47 AM |

Dong Hoi was great, peaceful, and quaint. Phong Nha is greater, peacefuller, and quainter. Not too far inland from good ol' Dong Hoi are the endless plains of rice paddies nestled in between towering jungle-covered karsts in this unreal Unesco world heritage site. There seem to be a bunch of those around these parts. This lil' farmstay, the new hot stop on the backpacker's highway through Vietnam, sits overlooking the aforementioned landscape, with oxen lethargically grazing about and wind sweeping across the rice paddies like an immense crowd of well-organized sports fans. Or like a body of water. My similes are off today.

The powerlines are way less noticeable in person. I swear.

I've been sitting on my ass long enough, so I figured it's time to explore the craggy underworld of Vietnam. Caves, man, caves. Big caves too. And dark caves. Big caves first, then dark caves, though the dark caves were also pretty big. Oh and I went swimming in the dark cave. Actually I went swimming a lot. Alright, caves first.

This wasn't the dark cave.

To start the day off, we drove around Phong Nha park and checked out the various overwhelming mountainous formations and Vietnam War-era (or American War, as they call it) points of interest. This area happened to be a key part of the Ho Chi Minh trail and was bombed like a slow kid in dodgeball. Bomb craters are currently used as watering holes and fish farms. Ordinance, primarily unexploded cluster munitions, litter the country side. Marvelous stuff. But the caves! Ah, the caves. Largest system in the world, and I saw a kilometer of it! The first cave was actually super touristy, something of an Asian Howe Cavern I figure, though pretty darn big. The second cave was accessed via kayak and was pitch-darned-black. Did some good ol' cave swimming and hung out in the serene darkness (really dumb band name). This one was called "dark cave," a title given by somebody who didn't understand what the concept of a cave involves, I figure. Anyway, we also stopped at some other spots along the river to go for a dip, beers and all.

Not pictured: beers and swimming, but rest assured they existed.

Afterwards, we got back to the farmstay and were treated to free drinks, with another free round of shooters in celebration of a birthday. So, to recap: rice paddies, karsts, bombs, cave, swimming, kayaks, cave, caveswimming, swimming, drinks, drinks, etc. This is a nice place.