Phong Nha Caves

We decided early on in our planning to do some sort of trekking in Vietnam. I found a 2 night caving trip in Phong Nha, a national park in the middle of the country using the tour company, Oxalis. Over the course of two days we hiked, swam, and explored four of the area’s caves deep in the jungle. When we swam, we were fully-clothed with life jacket, helmet, boots, head lamp, and sometimes backpack through dark cave rivers. We also climbed up three pretty big (in my opinion) jungle hills in hot, humid weather. To be honest this was the most strenuous hiking we’ve ever done. It was all worth it though because we saw amazing nature and met amazing people.

Here we are as intrepid explorers! Garett’s picture is pre-swimming and mine is post-swimming. You can see a little of the tents in the background of the last picture. The accommodations were great!

Here was the beautiful view from our campsite. You can see one of the caves that we explored in the picture.

It’s actually pretty difficult to convey the wonder of the caves–it’s like when you take a picture inside a beautiful church; unless it’s a very good picture, the picture can’t convey the feeling it gives you. And the sensory inputs can’t really be captured either–the bats and dripping water echoing through the caves, the smell of petrichor, the squishy wetness of your clothes, the total absence of light. All of it is just something that needs to be experienced to be understood. With that said, here are some attempts. Our tour guide, Quyen, was really good at taking fun photos. When he told us we were going to do an “evolution” photo, I was pretty skeptical but it definitely turned out.

Here are some pre-caving photos of us and the group. These were taken before we all submerged ourselves in a river. Everyone in the group was so amazing and our trip would not have been so memorable without them! They were just the best.

And some pictures of us post-submersion. Here’s Wesley, Debesh, me, Garett, Thai, Khanh, and Ming.

Quyen, our tour guide, is the one in orange. In the bottom photo, we are all doing the “Ming.” He often did the Thinker pose in his pictures.

And a miscellaneous picture by a beautiful set of waterfalls. Garett was coerced into doing heart-hands with me.

Here’s a couple food photos. I honestly did not think camping food could ever be this good, especially for a vegetarian. I really am living my best food life here in Vietnam.