We have decided to indulge and kick back for a couple of nights at a farmstay in Phong Nha. For the first time since leaving Hanoi, we have run into the tourist horde - mostly European and Australian students, renting scooters and running amok. We look absurd in our armoured gear and DOT approved helmets, but I do feel smugly safer.
We agonized at the gas station on the edge of town whether to pony up for the $30 USD/night room rate at the farmstay but have been delighted that we did. The Phong Nha Eco Mountain Farmstay is a short ride from town, but all the more pleasant for being away from the hustle and the hostels. It's the off season now so they're out of ice cream, but otherwise we can get food at the canteen here any time of day and this saves us a dark ride home from dinner in town.
We rode through the north end of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park yesterday and passed through the most uninhabited part of the country we've yet encountered. We are into the area now that was overlaid with the intertwining strands of the Ho Chi Minh trail during the war years. We are reminded not to wander off the trafficked portion of the roadway as this province was heavily bombed, and immeasurable quantities of unexploded ordinance remain undisturbed beneath the carpet of green foliage.
The scenery today was even more stunning as we turned back into the park and travelled to the Paradise Cave. Adam was of course resentful at having to pay to park our bikes. And grumbled even further at the $25 admission fee for both of us. So needless to say, he would not countenance paying for the golf cart shuttle from the parking to the 'entrance.' And so, off we hiked through the jungle on a humid morning. I'll confess that the 1km initial hike wasn't so bad, but I think even Adam's spirits flagged when we reached the end of the walk only to discover it was a staging area for a 570m vertical climb to reach the mouth of the cave. I wasn't feeling so smug about my gore-tex riding suit by the time we got into the cave and the steam pouring forth from the top of my jacket was obscuring my glasses.
Paradise Cave is a large cavern into which a kilometre of wooden walkways and stairs have been extended, and here the baroque comes to life in nature. The variety of textures of the calcium deposits is extraordinary. And even Adam grudgingly confessed to enjoying the excursion and though he would not agree to 'giving in' and paying for the shuttle back to the bike parking, he did buy us a couple of ice creams to fortify us for the walk.
And with our circle through the park complete, we can now park the bikes, open a beer, and enjoy the magnificence of the countryside view.
