We definitely wanted to visit the
main sites of the Vietnam, but we chose the road less traveled when we stopped
in Phong Nha. That, and it was a practical pit stop between the midlands and
northern Vietnam. Not only is it a national park, it’s also a Unesco World
Heritage Site. The main attractions are its caves and grottoes.
We had to take a train from Hue
(on hard, wooden seats) in coaches packed with locals who ate funky smelling
snack and smoked cigarettes. Some elderly people actually laid-down on the floor
underneath the seats to rest during the journey. Luckily, the ride to Dong Hoi
was only 4 hours. We then intended to transfer from the train to a local bus
which would have taken us to Son Trach village in two hours (100 km). Unfortunately,
there was no train running that day, but as things often work out, we had
befriended the only two other tourists on the train and found out we were both heading
to Phong Nha. We were then able to afford a private taxi ride which was affordable enough and avoided an overnight stay in the port town.
When we arrived in Son Trach
Village, we were quite surprised to be dropped off on a highway looking street,
lined with a few shops and couple of hotels. It was literally a ghost town. We settled in the hotel which had the best
value and looked for somewhere to eat... only one restaurant was opened! We
later found out that every restaurant in town had the exact same menu printed
in English. We ended up eating at the same place every day as it all looked a bit dodgy.
We had been warned by our Lonely
Planet that Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park could be hard to access as
information is very limited on the ground and some officials can be less than
helpful to independent travellers. Indeed, we witnessed first hand that the main income comes from organised
tours which arrive in big buses and head straight to the caves. This explains why
the village was deserted. The next day, we would set to explore the park with
our new acquaintances.
