Though we'd thoroughly enjoy our expedition through Paradise Cave, most of our adventure would play out in the journey from Hanoi to Phong Nha, not in the park itself. We were due to leave Hanoi by way of train at 10:00 pm on a Saturday night. Our destination was Dong Hoi, a small coastal town about an hour away from Phong Nha and Paradise Cave. Our train was due to arrive in Dong Hoi at 6:30 in the morning. From there, we'd booked a guesthouse in Son Trach, a village adjacent to the park's boundaries. Our guesthouse, whose name has unfortunately been lost to history, was supposed to provide transport from the train station. When we arrived, however, at 6:30 in the morning, no such transport awaited us.
Frustrated and exhausted, we pondered out options as taxi drivers swarmed us, offering overpriced service to wherever it was that we wanted to go. Without phone service, or internet, we'd no way of contacting our prospective guesthouse. We'd been abandoned. The cabbies converged like a circling pack of buzzards, each crowing prices that, according to our research, were much too far north of the acceptable border. Then, from the back emerged a man named Kien, (I'm sure I've butchered his name, but this is the best I can do). He spoke better than passable English and offered us his house, where he assured us we could use his internet, or his phone, to contact our so-called guesthouse.
We sat down and explored our options. At this point, even if the guesthouse sent a transport, we'd probably lose two hours. Annoyed, we debated whether it made sense to just board the next train, and make our way further south, towards Hue.
"What if we just find a place here in town?" we thought aloud.
Kien offered us a room in his house for 5 USD. After a quick glance, our bags were stowed and we were inbound, heading for Paradise Cave in Phong Nha National Park.
After a quick hike, we found ourselves at the cave's entrance--a tiny crack in the side of a mountain.
The cave itself was massive in size--100 meters high in some places and 150 meters wide in others--and sprawl, (Paradise Cave stretches on for 31 km).
The stalactites were otherworldly and looked like bouquets of squids, (the ones from the Mario games).
If they didn't resemble bunches o' squid, they just looked weird.
Some melted from the ceiling.
While most simply reminded me of something I'd seen in a medical journal.
And then there was a random chicken silhouette...
...Foghorn Leghorn maybe?
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