Central Vietnam: Dong Hoi/Phong Nha

We left Saigon very early Sunday morning to fly to Dong Hoi. From there, we drove about 40 minutes to Phong Nha -- a small, sleepy, and impoverished town where cattle roam the streets and the main activity is finding ways to beat the heat.

Kyle and Ryan met us there, and the next morning, the four of us joined Oxalis Adventure Tours for an initial 70-kilometer drive to a small village. From there, we trekked 3.5km through fields and a river until reaching the mouth of the first cave where we stopped for lunch.

The rest of the day, we hiked, we swam, we explored. The depths of the caves looked like the surface of the moon, and we were Armstrong and Aldrin. The grounds seemed almost sacred with few explorers having come before us.

Camping in the jungle of Vietnam was far from glamorous. It was sweat and bug spray, hammocks that were like small coffins, and a makeshift outhouse infested with wasps and mosquitoes. We made it though! (And, as cool as it was, I think we were all glad that we hadn't opted for the two-nighter.) 

The next day, we explored one last cave before returning to civilization. Ken Cave was my favorite. Its mouth was a pool of clear freshwater. We jumped in and swam, floating on our backs on occasion to peer at the ceiling, which looked like coral at the bottom of the ocean. Once we reached darkness, our headlamps caught light of spiders and bats and formations hundreds of millions of years old. 

The trek back to town was pretty treacherous thanks to the heat, the mosquitos, and the lack of a proper trail. Although they were accompanied by a hot bowl of pho, cold beers at the finish line were much welcomed (and well deserved, I'd say).