18th-21st April 2017
After arriving back in Hanoi after our trip to Halong Bay, we had a couple of hours to kill before our train to Dong Hoi, so we dropped our stuff at the Culture Hostel and went to grab a cup of coffee and some supplies for the journey. When we got back, the super friendly staff paid for our taxi to the station, and one of the doormen even came with us to ensure we got on the right train. The station didn’t seem the easiest to navigate, so we were glad that he did, especially after the fiasco with the ferry in Myanmar.
We had decided to take the overnight train rather than a coach; we’d done coaches before, so we thought it would be a nice change. Emma was a bit nervous about it. Always thorough in her preparation, Em had done some research on the trains and read a few horror stories online. If there’s a horror story out there, Em will find it. Em will admit she can be a bit of a worrier; she always reads the ‘dangers and annoyances’ section of the Lonely Planet books in great detail, and always checks the government travel advice for a country. It makes a nice counterbalance to myself; I’m probably a bit too relaxed and naive about things at times.
However, the journey went well and we enjoyed the experience. We ended up sharing a cabin with a couple from Essex, who were probably just as relieved as us not have to share a cabin with any weirdos or drunkards (I am assuming they didn’t consider us weirdos). We chatted to them for a while, before going to sleep. I will confess I didn’t sleep that well; it wasn’t the most comfortable and I was worried we might miss our stop. However, we woke up in plenty of time and got to see the sunrise over the rice paddies as the train rolled past. It was quite a sight and definitely one of the most memorable moments on our trip so far.
Our destination, Dong Hoi, was completely flattened in the Vietnam War; everything had to be built from scratch after 1975. Pretty much off the tourist trail, we enjoyed spending the day wondering around the town and went to the beach for a while too.
The next morning, we were picked up by our tour company to take us to the Phong Na National Park. It contains a network of caves that were discovered over the last 20 years, and now draw lots of tourists. There is one cave you can trek to over the course of 5 days, assuming you can afford the $3000 and remembered to book a year in advance (we didn’t).
Our trip was a little cheaper, and took us to two caves; Paradise Cave and the Dark Cave. We were in a tour group of roughly 20 people, including an Australian couple Em recognised from a bar in Kuala Lumpur 2 months ago. Em really does have an amazing memory with faces; at lunch she told them that she remembered them, which must have freaked them out a bit.
Paradise Cave is one of the longest caves in the world; you get to walk along the first 1km of it. I quite enjoyed it looking at all the weird and wonderful rock formations, and its size was certainly impressive. Em was less enthusiastic.
“Once you have seen one cave you’ve seen them all” she said. I thought it was a bit harsh, but I do sometimes feel that about the temples we go to.
The second cave, Dark Cave, is accessed by ziplines. Em went first. Her nerves weren’t helped by the instructor making some alterations to her harness and helmet just before she stepped off; he didn’t seem to worry about this for anyone else. I followed straight after. I managed to capture it on my sister’s GoPro, the video for which is below. Note the super smooth landing at the end… (and no, I can’t explain why I decided to pull stupid faces on the way down)
Dark Cave is, unsurprisingly, very dark. We needed helmets with head torches to go inside. Deep in the cave, there are a series of mud pools to bathe in; apparently the mud is good for your skin.
The mud pools were the like the Dead Sea; you can lie back and float in them without having to do anything! I’ve never experienced this before, and it is a weird sensation. It’s also a little difficult to get back on your feet once you lie back.
Covered in mud, we all climbed out the cave and washed it off before canoeing back down the river. There were more ziplines here, and an obstacle course over the river that was reminiscent of the Eliminator on TV show ‘Gladiators’. I had a go, but the monkey bar rings were way too tricky for me and I ended up plummeting 15 foot into the river at this point. Thankfully, Em decided not to have a go, which would have left me in the awkward position of cheering her on whilst also secretly hoping she wouldn’t embarrass me beat my effort. We returned to Dong Hoi exhausted, and had an early night as we had to be up early to get the bus to Hue.
The driver arrived just before 8am. We could have got a bus straight to Hue, but decided to pay a bit more for one that would take us to see some of the old DMZ, which used to mark the border between the North and South Vietnam. The first stop was to the Vinh Moc Tunnels, that were made by the Vietnamese at the start of the Vietnam War to hide from the Americans. Several hundred people lived in these tunnels over the years. People were born here and died here. What we found most astonishing was how clever the construction was; the tunnels all sloped slightly down to the sea to provide drainage, smoke from cooking was funnelled away to prevent revealing the location and vegetation was used to make the tunnel virtually invisible from the air. There were notice boards, meeting rooms and wells to collect water. It was very impressive.
The second stop was a border post on the river which made the DMZ line. We had a quick tour around the museum with a local guide, who did her best to explain the significance of everything we saw. Interestingly, this was the moment we first heard any kind of dissent against the ruling communist party. The guide (almost whispering at this point) suggested not everyone was happy with the government and having to live in a communist state. She also insinuated that the government was too heavily influenced by China. Unlike the war with the USA, very little is mentioned of the war with the Chinese in 1979, for fear of upsetting their neighbours.
After leaving the museum, we walked across the bridge to take us over the old borderline into what would have been South Vietnam, and onwards towards Hue.
( Posted by Ben)
Emma & Ben... Far From Home 