Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City Motorbike Trip: Day 3 - Phong Nha

I woke up at 7:15 and ate a bowl of phở bo (beef phở) and drank ca phe sua da (coffee with milk and ice). I called Ben and told him that I was interested in taking a tour around the area. He said it cost $60 but he was willing to give me a discount because I agreed to play guitar at Easy Tiger hostel at night.

At 8:15am I was picked up by a van. Inside the van were 7 other adventurous people from the USA, Canada, Australia, and Europe.

Our guide, Hung, drove us around the area and periodically stopped to let us out and told stories about the Ho Chi Minh Trail. We saw a mountain that was blown up by an American bomb. We saw a cave where 8 Vietnamese people were trapped inside by a rock that collapsed during the US bombing. The people inside could be heard for 9 days crying for help as they died.

Hung also told us the story of the blood and diesel river, which is so named because Vietnamese soldiers used to go along the Ho Chi Minh trail carrying small containers of diesel. Diesel that was carried in trucks made an easy target for US aircraft. So instead, Vietnamese soldiers carried containers of diesel that they contributed as needed. When the soldiers were killed, blood and diesel would spill into the river.

After we toured in the van we went to Paradise Cave, which was a big limestone cave with a lot of stalagmites and stalagmites. Inside caves I like to look for shapes. For example, a rock may look like a monkey, a boulder may look like a horse, or the ceiling may look like a dragon. It’s like cloud gazing but the forms are permanent. I asked Hung to show me some shapes and he obliged.

We walked 1 kilometer down into the cave and then walked back out. For lunch we ate rice, chicken, pork, vegetables, and soup. A standard Vietnamese meal.

We headed back to the van and drove to a river where there were inflatable kayaks waiting for us. We climbed into the kayaks and paddled across the river to a cave. Inside the cave it was dark but we each had headlamps. We walked through a narrow passageway with mud on in the bottom. It was only wide enough for one foot to touch the ground. Our feet got all muddy.

We went through the passage and came into a room that was a mud pit. We rolled in the mud and threw mud at each other. At first people were hesitant to get muddy. We all had to ‘let go’ and allow ourselves to be covered in mud. It was freeing and fun.

When we left the muddy area, we swam in the dark in clear water to get cleaned off. Our guide showed us some bats, insects, and other features of the cave. Then we went back to the kayaks and crossed the river to our original starting point. There we all went swimming, jumped off rocks into the water, and played.

While we were swimming in the river, a Vietnamese woman accidentally dropped her shoe in the water. I had brought 2 pairs of goggles so gave one pair to another guy and we dove underwater to look for the shoe. The water was cold and it was difficult to dive deep enough to find the shoe. Then another guy came and took my extra goggles and started diving. None of us could find it though. The other guys gave up and I kept diving. Eventually, when I dove really deep I saw a glimpse of reddish color so I thought that might be it. I came back up for air and on the next dive I went deep again and saw the shoe. I swam down and grabbed in and then came to the surface. I was a hero!

We dried off and drank some hot soup from a thermos and everyone had a shot of rice rum. Then we went back to our hotels. It was about 5:30pm when we got back. I took a rest for 30 minutes and then shared my banh chung with the family at Pepper Mill Farm Stay for dinner. The let me have some of their pork.

I headed over to Easy Tiger Hostel to get ready to perform on guitar. Coincidentally, Scott Holland, a guy who I used to go skiing with in High School back in Anchorage, Alaska, was working at the front desk of the hostel in Phong Nha. It was a bit stunning to spontaneously see a familiar face from back home in the middle of the countryside in Vietnam. We were both shocked for a minute, but then we gave each other a big hug. We chatted while we set up the guitar and microphone. He said he wanted to play a song with me too.

I started playing songs. I had about 30 songs written down that I wanted to play. Over the course of several hours I played all the songs and everyone listening seemed to have a good time. Scott and I played “Wagon Wheel” and it went well. Then I drove back to the farm stay on my motorbike and went to bed. It was about 1 am when I got back. Overall it was a really fun day.