Thursday, January 16, 2014

The Phong Nha Cave in Vietnam

   Staying in a small town near the Phong Nha National Park proved to be just the place to see the sights. I am not a cave guy but when I heard you ride a boat through the cave, I was all in.
The boat ride to the cave was cool just seeing all the sights along the way even without the cave tour. The  fee was 15 dollars for the boat ride but that was divided up between the number of passengers ( up to 14)
They had hundreds of these tour boats. They looked like old wooden boats when in fact they were all made out of steel but dressed up with colorful painted wood accents.
They were very similar to these stripped down models that they used for ferrying people, bicycles and even motorcycles.
Anticipation mounted as we approached the cave entrance.
There is easily enough room for boats to pass the entire length of the tour
Once inside the cave you could see it was a large chamber with very high ceilings and seeing the dock to the side, one would think this is where the boat stops but if you look ahead you see the opening that is just barely high enough for these boats to fit through.
This is a blurry picture but this is what the opening looks like right before you go through the 50 foot long  but only a few feet high opening.

Once through though and the ceiling immediately opens up with high ceilings and spectacular beauty everywhere.
They also rolled the top of the boats roof back so you can see the ceilings too
 
I know nothing about caves but these pictures show you just some of the beauty that I saw that day.

Everywhere you looked including the ceilings.....
Then they pull up to one one the beaches inside ( there are several sand beaches) and let you walk you way out through a part that isn't on the water.
On the beach with Joe Sparrow,  myself  and other tourists from America, Germany and Denmark. O have seen tourists from all around the world here.
You could really get up close and personal with everything
I was disappointed when I realized I had walked back to the entrance and the tour was about over. I didn't want it to end....
But then we did have the scenic boat ride back into town
 Here is a small video of the tour that I took.













5 comments:

  1. beautiful Bean,thanks for sharing

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  2. Great Pix Bean're! And rockin' video's! Enjoy the Ride!

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  3. It's so different than what I thought it would be. Absolutely beautiful!

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  4. regards from Argentina, i cross you arround phang nha, vietnam.-
    still have your sticker lol.

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