We stayed at Easy Tiger hostel - some of the other people in the car were staying at the Phng Nha farmstay, however they don't have dorm rooms anymore and the $35 a night room price was a bit out of our budget.
Easy Tiger it was then. With the snugly fleece blankets in a leopard print (mix up on the order for Tiger print) the big beds were super comfy, even if the top bunk was a struggle to get in after a few happy hour beers!
The next day we decided to bike to Paradise cave - inspired by an English couple who had done the 50km round trip the day before.
We knew if would be strenuous - some of the mountain roads had an incline greater than 10%, but we turned it epic!!
So we set off on single speed bikes with baskets - just what you need for mountains...
After one wrong turn to Phong Nha cave we eventually ended up on the right road to the park. Unfortunately by this stage my sadle had reverted to Vietnamese levels (4 inches below what I had raised it to) and one pedal was alarmingly wobbly.
Entrance to the park - the guard lifted the barrier so we could slip under with the bikes
In the national park the road went up - and up, the start of the 10% inclines requiring us to push the bikes instead of ride them!
It was weird to see this combination of mountains and jungle given that Phong Nha was about 18 degrees temperature!
We were the only people on the road except for some park workers doing maintenance, so we had these views to ourselves. We even heard monkeys in the trees - you couldn't see them in the dense foliage but the noise and shaking branches gave them away!
Lachie was very gentlemanly a took my short bike. After having fun freewheeling down the 10% inclines with both brakes fully depressed in order to not come off the road, the pedal fell off my bike, which Lachie had. So Cat towed Lachie on the flat bits and we pushed the bikes the rest of the way to the cave.
We finally made it to Paradise cave and after a quick lunch headed on the golf buggies in true Jurassic park style to the cave entrance. We then had 518 steps to climb before going down the equivalent inside the cave!
We were reminded of an alien movie - this looks like alien legs!
The full extent of the cave is 7km - but we could only access the first km - you can do treks that go through the whole thing, unlit with just head torches - a bit like exploring a new planet!
Close ups of some of the structures
So the story doesn't stop there - the epic bike continued, at least for me and Cat. We tried to fix the pedal on Lachie's bike, but it fell off before we were out of the parking lot. So he caught a ride with a nice family from HCM in a large van - they fed him sandwiches and beers - so not all bad!
Cat and I were racing sunset as we headed the 25km back - we went through the steep mountain valleys - this time freewheeling without the brakes (much!) - the river was really pretty.
Next we went through small villages with a selection of churches and many many children excited to see us and some buffalo who were unexcited... The kids were yelling hello and waving and some on bikes were cycling up towards us for high fives!
We ended up completing our bike ride in the dark - getting back 5 minutes before the minivan from Easy Tiger headed to Phong Nha farmstay for their 3rd birthday party.
We washed up quick and changed out of our dusty clothes and jumped into the van - it was worth it for the fantastic spread they put on for the party & the rice wine - tasty!
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