Vietnam: Phong Nha
- Will Boddington
- Feb 25, 2018
- 3 min read
We had been debating stopping at Phong Nha for a while, but in the end only decided to visit as we had a few spare days before our flight out of Hanoi. We're so glad we did! Phong Nha national park is full of caves and beautiful scenery and our hostel offered so many different trekking tours too. We stayed here over Tet (Vietnamese/Chinese new year) so quite a lot of the small town was closed, but we really enjoyed having a few days to explore the countryside.
Our first day here consisted of sunbathing by the hostel pool followed by a walk down the river to Bomb Crater bar, which unfortunately was closed.
The next day we signed up to the hostel's self-guided tour of Phong Nha cave. This turned into quite a mission, as there were about 22 of us and each boat only held 10 or 12 people, so by the time we had all bought our tickets and figured out which boat we were going in it was over an hour later.
Finally in our boats, we took a 20 minute trip down the river before arriving at the cave. Turning off the engine, our guide then paddled us quietly through the cave, before dropping us off at the side of the river and letting us explore on foot the way back out of the cave.
Later that day, we borrowed a bike and joined a group who were going to the nearby duck farm and 'Pub with Cold Beer'. Sadly due to Tet, the duck farm was closed, but we spent a while at the pub playing volleyball and having a late lunch. A couple of the group ordered chicken, which they were very excited that they got to catch and kill themselves... We stuck to fried rice.
On our final day in Phong Nha, we went for a bicycle ride down the river and around the surrounding back roads. As it was the first day of Tet, the roads were really quiet, but those who were out greeted us with a 'happy new year' as they drove past.
We still had some time until our overnight bus to Hanoi, so we went for a walk the opposite direction down the river, where we had walked a few days before. We thought we could do a circle back around some side roads to town instead of just walking down the river and back as we'd done previously, but somehow we found ourselves having to scramble up a bank to get back onto the main road!
Finally back at the hostel, we played a few games of cards while waiting for our last night bus in Vietnam to take us up to Hanoi.
Accommodation:
Easy Tiger Hostel, 2 nights, 180,000 VND per night for a bed in a dorm room.
We had been recommended this hostel by someone we met in Cambodia who had stayed here, and it didn't disappoint. We arrived late in the evening to a very relaxed atmosphere; everyone sat around with a beer and some live music going on. We managed to get a four bed dorm to ourselves for the two nights we stayed, which was clean and had a hot shower. The staff were really helpful and offered various trips to do while here. 9/10.
Shambaala Hostel, 1 night, 180,000 VND for a bed in a dorm room.
As Easy Tiger closed early for Tet, we transferred across to their sister hostel for our last night. It was a similar standard hostel, although we did have to share the dorm this time! An added perk was the amount of dogs running around the hostel - we had to kick two out of our room so we could go to sleep! 8/10.
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