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Motorcycle ride in the rain
A few of us are riding up to the caves tomorrow, why don’t you hop on the back and tag along? Suggests James. He had jumped into the conversation I was having with Louisa about malaria pills. James, from Edmonton, studies birds, and had applied for a masters program at a university in Holland. Half Thai with long shaggy hair, he talks a bit like a surfer/street kid. Later, when I ask him if the caves impressed him, he says “yah, they’re dec”. So I tagged along on the back of James motorbike. We rode up to the Phong Nha caves with two Kiwi boys, Max and Oscar. We meet…
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Cave Explorers
It was pitch black. The only light to illuminate anything was coming from our headlamps. We had walked quite far into the Dark Cave and had reached the edge of a pond/lake. This is as far as we can go, I thought. But I was wrong. The two Dutch guys and Leland, the American started to wade into the pond and swim, with only their headlights to shine the way. I looked at the Vietnamese guide who had sold us the tickets to the Dark Cave…”are you going in too?” I ask. Not going to be a good sign if the local refuses to swim in this lake in this…
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The local bus to Phong Nha
Go to the North Bus Station, find the red bus with the sign that says “Phu Vuc”, rego plate 73L9790. It leaves at 10:30am. You pay the driver 80,000 – 120,000 VND depending on his mood. Those were the directions from the owners of the farmstay I was heading to. Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park was were I was headed. Recently opened up to tourists, the park has a series of massive caves and I wanted to check them out. I also wanted to get away from the busy cities for a while and see rural Vietnam. Where was the North bus stop and what if the bus…
