This is my second time visiting Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. And I expect the third time.
Phong Nha is where the movie《Kong: Skull Island》filmed. Designated a Unesco World Heritage site in 2003, the remarkable Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park contains the oldest karst mountains in Asia, formed approximately 400 million years ago. Riddled with hundreds of cave systems – many of extraordinary scale and length – and spectacular underground rivers, Phong Nha is a speleologists’ heaven on earth.
Serious exploration only began in the 1990s, led by the British Cave Research Association and Hanoi University. In 2009 a team found the world’s largest cave – Son Doong. Huge caverns and unknown cave networks are being discovered each year.
I joined the Hang En Cave Adventure in 2017, this time I chose Hang Va Expedition, which is more challenging than 2 years ago. The entrance of Hang Va is actually a collapse in the floor of a steep valley, and requires a descent of about 15m down to a small stream passage that averages 5m high and wide to reach the cave. At the end of the cave, there are fascinating wet and dry gours (pools) with numerous conical calcite formations that have been named as the Tower Cones.
Q: How to get in?
A: I signed up for Oxalis’ HANG VA EXPEDITION. Highly recommend this agency, they provide professional guidance into the jungle and really take care of your safety and stomach. Check out their informative website (https://oxalis.com.vn/). Not sponsored, haha.
Q: What I experienced?
A: Official info as below, copied from website. But what I really experienced was beyond that. I met wonderful humans, blood sucked by leeches, fireflies were my night lights, met alien insects in the caves, first time heard how chameleon tweet……
- 10km jungle and mountain trekking, rocky terrain
- 3 km caving in river caves (cold water, 17 degree Celsius, waist deep)
- 100m swimming (using life-jacket and rope) and 30m crawling
- Elevation gain is 150m (between road and mountain top)
- 20m traverse using rope and harness
- 2 days and 1 night in jungle and caves
Q: Son Doong Cave?
A: Son Doong Cave is definitely a life-must-go destination for me. I’ll keep it with my significant other who hasn’t show up. LOL
