Hang Va

Friday 13th March

'Flowers' at the entrance

While Ruth was in Hang Son Doong I had a quick day trip into Hang Va, the purpose was to rig the traverse in the cave and to mark a route through the delicate formations prior to a visit by a Spanish film company producing a reality TV show featuring Andres Velencoso. In addition to preparing the cave, we had several porters with us who were to prepare a campsite by the entrance.

Cones and Gours

We were stopped near to the Hang Son Doong Exit drop off and then walked down a stream before going steeply up hill, and then a descent to the cave entrance.

Stream Passage

On route I spotted a large white lizard which was clinging to the ruins of an old tree, before I could get my camera out to take a picture, the porters, who were clearing the path, chopped a tree down which fell onto the old tree and lizard, they both disappeared in a fraction of a second!

Stream Passage

We left the porters to prepare the campsite while we entered the cave. The entrance was a steep descent down boulders into a streamway which was then followed upstream by squeezing through boulders at stream level, although the water was waist deep at times, it was a really pleasant passage and the water was comparatively warm. After a few hundred metres the passage enlarged with a massive bank of calcite on the left.

Cone Formations

Although the stream continued, our route was up the calcite to a traverse, which was easy but as there was a large drop we rigged a rope which we left in place ready for the film crew. From here on the cave is stunning, massive Gours, sometimes over two metres high, and the unique Cone formations which the cave is famous for.

Cone Formations

We marked a route through this part of the cave using metal rods with a piece of bright green tape attached to the top, each of these looked like a little plant trying to grow in the dark, the bundle we were pulling them from resembled a bunch of flowers (if you squinted a bit!).

Metal Plant

Beyond the Gours and Cones (where the film crew will stop), the cave continues but it is much lower with formations on the roof. The formations in this part are Stalactites and Helectites but there are also large numbers of Anthodites which are a very rare and beautiful formation. The cave ends soon after at a calcite blockage.

Anthodites

We returned to the entrance, gaining the surface after three hours of very enjoyable caving. After a quick bite of lunch we set off back to the road via a different route, which was a bit of a rocky scramble, to pick up the Hang Son Doong Exit path back to the road. After five minutes of walking down the road we were back to where we had been dropped off and the van which was waiting to take us back to Phong Nha.

Anthodites

Hang Son Doong tour 8 and Composting Toilets'

SD8 - Friday 6th March to Tuesday 10th March

The Garden of Edam

A fairly standard tour (I was with Watto), with five Vietnamese, four Americans (two couples) and a Russian (who lives in Oman). All nice people but because of the language differences the tour tended to split into two groups, so at times it was a bit like herding cats. Once again it was very misty as we approached Camp One so the 'Hand of Dog' viewpoint was not as impressive as it could be, the only other real points of note were that on the last night (in the Hang En Camp) we were provided with Vietnamese Vodka instead of the usual rice wine, tasty, but a bit stronger, we think this was provided because drinking too much of the rice wine can cause unpleasant side effects (swift filling of the red buckets) in addition to the expected hangovers. The Hang En Camp is now populated with thousands of Ens (or Swifts as you might know them) which means that some areas are subject to a constant rain of poo. The weather is not too hot at the moment so the walk out was comfortable.

Swarm of Bees spotted on the way out from Hang En

You may wonder (or maybe not!), with all these people going to the cave, what happens to all the waste. Rubbish is either burned, carried out or composted along with human waste. At each camp, there are three composting toilets, two for customers and one for the porters, although sometimes the porters also use the customers toilets. One of the toilets at each camp is a 'loo with a view'.

View from Hang En 'Loo with View'

The toilet is a simple wooden framed building which is covered by tarpaulin, sometimes with a door or a roof depending on location.

Toilet 'Building'

Inside the building is a metal frame with a toilet seat attached, nails on the frame provide convenient toilet roll holders.

Inside view

Underneath the frame is a red bucket, which hopefully (if your aim is correct!) catches the waste.

Inside view

Having finished your business, you use toilet paper as normal before 'flushing'.

Rice Husks and Scoop

At each toilet is a large sack of rice husks, this is the 'flushing' and is done by covering everything with a large scoopful of the husks.

View from Camp One 'Loo with a view'

The rice husks absorb any moisture and smell and also accelerate the decomposition into compost. When the bucket is full it is emptied into a large container where it turns into compost (significantly reducing in volume) before being carried out at the end of the season.

Out and about around Phong Nha

Dave and I took a bike ride from our house around Phong Nha and another ride from our house to the pub with cold beer.
Here are some of the sights from our rides.

                                                    The statue at the Phong Nha museum

There are lots of hazards on the road, including buses, many children, piles of sand, piles of large stones, wandering buffaloes, chickens and chicks, the occasional snake(they have been known to get wrapped up in passing bicycle wheels) and cows.

                        Cows on the road. Fortunately for me cows are much smaller than at home!

Buffalo often walk up and down the road to and from the fields. These buffalo were cooling off in the river watched from the road by their owner.

At the start of the road that leads into Phong Nha and the national park is a huge Hollywood style sing that cannot be missed. At night it is lit up and can be seen for miles around.

Rice fields dominate the area. When we first arrived there was just a hint of green across the fields. Now they are vibrant green.

Working in the rice fields.

In amongst the rice fields are hundreds of graves. These are very ornate. 

Graves

The rice fields are irrigated using water pumped from the river. These pumping stations are all over the area.

Pumping station

To get to the pub with cold beer you would usually have to cross the river, either by boat or fording the river on foot. There is now a smart looking suspension bridge that has very recently been constructed and opened for public use. There is still much work going on to make good the ways on and off the bridge. 

Construction worker on the bridge.

The building in the distance is the pub with cold beer. The beer is served cold and the food is really good too. The chicken is caught and killed as you order. Very fresh!

Pub with cold beer in the distance.

Whilst I was waiting for Dave just before we left the pub with cold beer I spotted a snake chasing a frog down the road. The frog didn't make it!

I identified the snake after we got back. It is a red necked keel back. Deadly poisonous. 

On to Bamboo cafe for.....

iced coffee, iced lemon tea, roast peanuts and .....

...wonderballs!

It's a hard life.

The Wedding Party

We got an Invite!

The Invite

Binh is one of the Oxalis Guides and he was getting married, so all of us Cavers, the Oxalis Guides and some of the office staff received an invite to his wedding party for a four O’clock sitting. There were so many of us that Oxalis hired a small bus for the journey to the reception which was about forty minutes’ drive away at a place called Hai Trach.

The Bride and Groom

The venue was a giant marquee beside the river bank and when we arrived it was absolutely full of people and the only place to sit (fortunately, because of the loud (and not always good) singing that’s going on) was right by the entrance door. On arrival we all put our envelopes, containing money into a large model house, while six or seven tables were put together so we could all sit together. The first thing to arrive at the tables was beer, ice and glasses so we started to drink to the happy couple. Then the food started to arrive, a lot of it was raw and on each table there was a sort of cooker/hexamine stove so that you could cook the food yourselves. Every table also got a chicken, a whole cooked chicken which someone had to dismantle, Watto volunteered to do ours.

Watto, preparing for the Chicken

At the same time that all this was happening, as well as the constant background noise from the karaoke, the couple turned up and you shake hands, share food and drink to their health and happiness with them, also various relatives turn up and you drink with them. After about an hour or an hour and a half everything was packed up, photos taken with the couple and you leave. In Vietnam, the main wedding photos of the couple are taken prior to the event and these are then ‘PhotoShopped’ onto various backgrounds of the couples choosing, mostly pretty places that they have never been to.

The Chicken, preparing for Watto

Unfortunately, we weren’t going home, but onto the next venue, which is a karaoke bar. This was dark, damp and seedy and we couldn’t wait to leave, the Vietnamese loved it and stayed much longer!

Hang Son Doong Tours 5 & 6

SD5 – Saturday 21^st to Wednesday 25^th February – Ruth & Howard

SD6 – Wednesday 25^th February to Sunday 1^st March – Dave & Deb

Setting up for breakfast

This was the first trip of the Vietnamese New Year, so it started with a special celebratory breakfast at Khanh’s. Having spent the previous day and night eating and drinking the last thing needed was yet another full Vietnamese feast, but we got one anyway, complete with whiskey. And very good it  was too with a particularly nice fish dish and a speech from both Chau (owner of Oxalis) and Khanh.

Cheers

Most of the porter team had gone up to the drop off point the previous night rather than the usual practice of packing at Khanh's on the morning of departure. Last year on the first trip in the New Year, the porter bus was involved in a head on collision with a truck. They believed it would be inviting bad luck to travel on the same route on the equivalent day this year, hence the packing at the drop off point.

Packing up at the drop off point

At the Doong village small gifts were given for Tet and we stopped for the usual chat and rest. As we neared Hang En we were lucky enough to glimpse Languor monkeys high up on the tree covered cliffs.

No sunbeams on our first morning in Hang En so no frantic photography before we set off. The swifts are beginning to come back so the whole time in En we were accompanied by the high pitched noise of the constantly flying birds and the occasional poop on the head!

There were quite a few very keen photographers in the group and once into Son Doong much photography was done on the way to the first camp. There was a clear view towards the Hand of Dog so l was volunteered to stand on it. It is difficult to stand still for twenty minutes or so on a small space when you are aware of the steep drops around you! But funnily enough one manages it quite well.

Sunbeams and Waterfalls at Doline One

We were once again treated to sunbeams in Doline One. During this sunbeam display Jaryd proposed to his girlfriend Alesha. Very romantic. Sadly l am unable to put down what Dave thought about this as the blog would be taken off line.

The trip to the Great Wall of Vietnam was different again. There was no lake but we donned life jackets and set off walking through the steep mud walled channel in water thigh deep. It gradually became increasingly deeper and deeper until we had to swim the last four hundred metres to the end.

On the way back through the Doline Two jungle l managed to pick up a leech which was spotted on my neck by eagle eyed Jim. I had been told they don’t hurt, but they do. It felt as if l had been bitten by an insect and it continued to hurt for a while.

The Garden of Edam

On our return into En everybody managed a full immersion into the lakes for a wash and l had my first swim in the colder lake.  The last morning saw the appearance of those sunbeams again so more frantic photography. Soon the sun will be too high in the sky for sunbeams in En. Shame.

The temperature was much hotter on our walk back to the road and by the time l got to the top of the hill l was as red as a beetroot. A good trip with a great bunch of people who all got on well together.

 

Footprints in the sand of Camp One

My trip had a slightly more normal start, somewhat delayed by the late arrival of the group (of six wealthy Americans) that we had met the previous nights briefing. They were all known to one another, two families, linked by business partnerships and long friendships.  From the start I could tell that this was going to be an enjoyable trip, they were all very nice and easy-going, and also, they had given me and Deb each a bottle of tequila to carry in for them, each bottle was worth about £100.

Tasty Tequila

Despite the late start and the knee injury sustained by one of our party within half an hour, we all made it to the Hang En Camp at about the normal time and the first bottle of tequila was duly opened, I’m no tequila expert but I will say it was very pleasant indeed! Day two started as normal for this time of year, with limited sunbeams at Hang En, and then, as the water levels had dropped since my last visit, we walked along and through the river from Hang En Exit to a point where a short steep climb led up to the entrance of Hang Son Doong. The walk to Camp one passed without incident, although when we got to the Hand of Dog viewpoint (The Witches Hat) it was very misty, so much so, that within ten minutes of our arrival it was no longer possible to see the hat at all! That evening first bottle finished, second opened.

Witch in the mist

The third day was still a little cloudy in the cave (although obviously sunny outside) but we were still treated to sunbeams in Doline One. After arrival at Camp two we went down to the Great Wall of Vietnam, this time it was walking all the way in a narrow trench, knee deep in water and mud. Before the night was over, the second bottle was finished.  The next day steady progress was made back to Hang En, and the group were still loving every moment of the trip, no more tequila tonight but we had been re-stocked with rice wine, too much for some as two of the party spent most of the night being sick! A steady walk back up the hill for the final day, all in all, they were a fantastic group to be with, mega rich but not in the least spoiled by their financial status, for me, probably the best group of the year (including all those yet to come).

The Cook, Tu, at Doline One

All I wanted was water in the house!

The water tank in our house is supplied via a link to our landladies house, occasionally we run out and have to go round and communicate that we have no water (khong nùoc) so that she can turn the switch. That happened this lunchtime.

So, I called round at her house, just to ask for water, but was invited in. As well as some of her family, there was Nhia (a Son Doong porter who spent Tet guarding the entrance and equipment,  playing cards along with others I didn't know.

I was invited in for a beer and the next thing I know I'm involved in a drinking session of beer and rice wine, and English/Vietnamese lessons using an I-phone translation app.

Where did the afternoon go? I need food, fortunately it's now tea time and we're off to the Vung Hue (the only restaurant open at the moment).

Tet, the Lunar New Year

Tet - Wednesday 18th to Friday 20th and beyond.

Tet is the Lunar New Year, it's a really big thing in this part of the world and as you might expect, the celebrations start before the New Year and go on for at least six days afterwards. 

We had already been to the Oxalis new year bash before we left for Tu Lan and had been shopping to get supplies for any visits made as it is tradition to give gifts to the owners of any houses that you visit, including ‘Lucky Money’ to any children (this year the agreed amount for us to give was 50 000 VND).

Dave, Ruth, Chrissy and Watto at Nguyen's house

At each house that you visit, food is provided, mostly a complete meal but occasionally just snacks, it would be considered rude not to eat so a degree of pacing is required. Beer is also provided and it is really difficult to drink any less than two at each venue as your hosts are very generous, also you should strictly drink an odd number as even numbers are bad luck! Apparently, this year, we were fortunate as we were not offered too much rice wine.

Snacks at Ky's house

Typical snacks on offer were Nuts and Seeds, Sweets and Crystallised Ginger and Carrot and as these appeared before any meal, you had to eat a few to soak up the beers! Typical food on offer at each venue was Spring Rolls, Rice, Beef and/or Pork stir Fry, Stewed Pork, Sticky Rice, Barbequed Pork, Spare Ribs and sometimes fish.

On New Year’s Eve, at around Midnight, a lot of fireworks are set off, these are pretty standard but in addition a number of ‘Bombs’ are set off, these are anything but standard and I can now imagine just how awful it would be to live in a war zone, the noise is incredibly loud and reverberates around the valley. The ‘Bombs’ are left over from the war, I think the locals (some of them, although the sensible ones contact the Mines Advisory Group), when they find an unexploded bomb in the jungle, remove the explosive, portion it up and insert a crude fuse. The fuse is set off, the ‘Bomb’ is thrown and then they run like crazy! All very dodgy and occasionally it goes wrong and somebody is injured or killed.

Some of the Oxalis Guides at Howard and Deb's House

Below is our itinerary, as you can see we were very busy as once you have an invite it is also bad form to refuse unless you have a prior arrangement, in which case it is generally rearranged for a more convenient time.

Wednesday, after our return from Tu Lan;

Dung’s for a swift rice wine (Dung has his own homestay and helps to manage two others including Khanh’s, he speaks excellent English and used to work for Oxalis).

Oxalis with Cho (the Oxalis owner) simply whiskey drinking.

Khanh’s until midnight to see in the New Year and to watch the fireworks and bombs set of around the village (Khanh is the man who found Hang Son Doong, is in charge of all three Son Doong Porter teams and together with his wife Nghia, owns the homestay where we have breakfast).

Dave and Ruth at the Thahn Dat Hotel

Thursday

11.00 - Vung Hue (One of the restaurants where we often eat, all very odd as they opened up just for us and cooked all the things we normally order, but they didn’t actually sit with us!).

16.00 – Landlady (mine and Ruth’s, she lives next door, has two Sons and a Daughter and two Grandsons).

17.00 - Nguyen’s (one of the porter team leaders, Khanh’s brother).

Watto, Luyen, Howard and Adam at the Thahn Dat Hotel

Friday

11.00 - Ky’s (one of the porter team leaders, I think he is Khanh’s Cousin, his wife is one of Nghia’s Sisters).

13.00 - Thahn Dat (the Hotel where the expedition is based).

14.00 - Tu’s (one of the porter team cooks).

15.00 - Uy’s (Assistant Guide at Tu Lan, all-round nice guy, I think his Mother is also one of Nghia’s Sisters).

16.00 - Howard and Deb’s with Oxalis Guides.

17.00 - Ha’s (one of the porter team cooks, married to Nghien (the hairdresser) who is also Nghia’s Sister).

20.00 - Tuan’s (drives the trucks with all the equipment and gear up to the Son Doong drop off point, another all-round nice guy).

Mr Tu and Family

Saturday

7.30 - Special breakfast at Mr Khanh’s which included Whiskey and Sake. Ruth then departs with Howard for her Son Doong Tour, the first of the Lunar new year.

11.00 - Duc’s (the Operations Manager at Oxalis).

11.30 - Bac’s (one of the Oxalis drivers).

17.00 - Nguyen’s (a different one to last time, Howard and Deb’s neighbour).

Watto with Mr Tu's Son

Sunday

Things are beginning to return to normal, no invites and some of the shops are open, a rest day for my bloated stomach!

The pictures were all taken on someones 'phone so the quality may or may not be as good as normal.

Next up for me is a Song Doong tour with six Americans (all related) starting on the 25th, passing Ruth on her way out.