After a few days in Hoi An recovering from whirlwind travel, I headed to Phong Na, Vietnam's cave park boasting the largest cave in the world.
At Phong Na I quickly befriended Ian, who hails from north England and sports a Scottish-esque accent. On our first day we took a boat on a river through Phong Na cave, one of the biggest caves I've ever seen. The stalagtites and mites were amazing, and we learned how Vietnamese hid in the caves during the Vietnam war, when supposedly planes flew low over the water to try to shoot directly into the cave mouth. After the cave we climbed uphill to see a view of the land, pitted by craters from bombing during the war. Phong Na is not far from the DMZ, and this aspect of the place added to my continued education about America's military behavior from the receiving end.
After our morning cave boat ride, we rented rusty beach cruisers aka "local" bikes and headed 10 km to the "pub with cold beer". The way to the pub meandered down dirt roads past rice fields, a cemetery, kids playing Asia's most popular game volleyball, and eventually to a family's home outfitted with hammocks, tubes, and beer. Ian and I bought a beer, grabbed a tube, and plopped into the river, where local kids laughed at our slow progress down what I eventually dubbed the "rubbish river" after the flow forced me into piles of trash. Oh, adventure!
The day wasn't over, however, and as the sun set and we pedaled away, both of our chains managed to break within 5 minutes of each other. Light grew dim as we walked and coasted our bikes for over an hour before deciding to hail a passing vehicle for a lift. Within a few minutes, we flagged a vehicle, charaded our problem and, yes, got a lift, rusty bikes and all, in a Vietnamese ambulance. This lift definitely fell into the category of, "this would never happen in my country, and that's perhaps for good reason, but I'm sure happy it happened for me in this one!"
Day two of Phong Na found us renting motos to visit two other popular caves in the park, paradise (it's beautiful and big) and dark cave (it's, well...). My favorite part of the day, however, was riding the deserted lush green mountainous twisties of the park on my manual scooter, shifting the gears and channeling my father's spirit as I climbed to 30, no, 40...km/h.
I left Phong Na on a night bus to Hanoi, sad to leave such a laid-back hostel, such an adventurous pal, such a nice family as the one who ran the "best BBQ shop in Vietnam and possibly the world," and such beautiful country.
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