Following our unsuccessful self-driven scooter excursion, we booked scooters with drivers to see two caves. We met them at the restaurant across the street at 0900 and also had breakfast there while waiting.
First we went to the Dark Cave, Hang Toi, which was the highlight of our stay and is the must-see attraction of Phong Nha for a modest budget. It's called the Dark Cave not only because they haven't installed any lights yet, but because the stone of this cave is dark basalt and limestone, which gives it a black color unlike the limestone that makes up all the other caves. I liked it because there's a lot to do around it. You get a life jacket (broken), hard hat, and headlamp (waterproof), a guide (Vietnamese-speaking) and lockers to put all your stuff in: they wouldn't even let me take my sandals. First we ziplined down over the sapphire-blue river, a lovely view, then waited on the shore for everyone else to do it. There's a short swim in the cold water into the cave, and we could admire bats chirping above the entrance and the dark basalt. The guide pointed out visible fossils of snails and fish embedded into the cave walls.
We saw less than the first 1km of a 6km cave. Tourists don't go any further but the river does. We walked along sharp and slippery rocks and pebbles, then through slippery mud in a tight brown tunnel that reminds one of a colonoscopy. The mud gets deeper and squishier until you enter a mud bath. It reaches above my hips, and most people lay down and float in it. The guide told us to turn off our headlamps but some of the Vietnamese boys were afraid of the dark and wouldn't shut up, so we didn't get to fully appreciate the darkness of the cave, but it was nice. My swim trunks were heavy with mud until we washed off in the river in the cave, then swam maybe 50 meters and back in the dark. Exiting the cave we got kayaks with short one-side paddles to kayak a short way back up the river. Then we got to enjoy a handlebar zipline which you let go of to fall into the cold river. I did it three times, upside-down and cannonballed into the river. On this tour we bumped into E and her companion from the day before, and on the way out we saw J trying to hit on a couple more German girls.
From there we were driven up to Paradise Cave, Thien Duong: one much bigger than the caves we've seen before. You can take (and pay for) an electric golf buggy up part of the way but still have to climb up a rather long trail to reach the cave mouth. The tiny entrance that you have to stoop through opens up into a series of big caverns, all lit up for tourists. We saw the first 1km of the 7km cave. We got there at lunchtime after all the tour groups had gone so were almost alone there, and we could listen quietly to the dripping inside the cavern.
Our motorcycle drivers dropped us off for a late lunch at the same place we had breakfast. We found a dish we liked here last night and had it again: pork skewers with green mango and carrot salad, all rolled up in rice paper. We also had fried spring rolls.
We'd wanted to go to Ho Khanh's for coffee, but our drivers already fulfilled their contract by taking us to the two caves and back to lunch. Therefore, we rented bicycles from our hotel to bike back through the adjacent village along the river, past some cows, and children playing in a watering hole. We reached Ho Kahn's "Mountain River Cafe" - this is the man who stumbled upon Mountain River Cave or Hang Son Doon, the world's largest cave at the time of this writing. We didn't talk to him but enjoyed his wife's chocolate coffee - the Vietnamese iced mochaccino. It's a layer of melted chocolate, a layer of condensed milk, and a phin - a Vietnamese coffee filter - filled with a blend of three types of coffee beans. Served with a bowl of crushed ice, it was delicious; well worth the bike ride.
Finally I had some really tasty BBQ pork for dinner back in town, at the Cavern bar owned by Oxalis tour company - those are the British cavers who first explored Mountain River Cave with Mr. Khanh. Leia ordered more fried spring rolls with seafood, and watermelon juice even though watermelons are basically all juice anyway.
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