Monthly Archives: December 2016

Daily tours

Hang Tien Discovery 1 day

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Phong Nha – Tan Hoa – Hang Tien 1

Pick up will take place from 7:00 – 7:30 am from your local hotel in Phong Nha. From there the tour will head an hour and a half to Tan Hoa office, located 70 km from Phong Nha. The drive is beautiful, passing alongside jungle, fields and over the historic Da Deo pass. During the drive, you’ll also listen to a safety briefing led by your experienced tour guide.

Arrive at the office around 9:00 am where you’ll sign your Release Form, and collect equipment such as jungle boots, water bottles, lights, helmets, etc. You can leave your extra luggage at our office in the storage room.

At around 9:30 am, the group will take a drive over to the drop off point and start at the trailhead by 10:00 am. The trek begins with a hike through the forest over a hill. The last kilometer before the cave is very rocky with many boulders, as if the cave terrain has spilled out onto the landscape in front of it. You’ll enter the spectacular cave and just inside, enjoy a BBQ feast, including fresh pork and traditional spring roll wraps (vegetarian option available). Around 12:30, you’ll start your exploration of the cave.

With formations rising up like a layer cake of rimstone pools and lush ferns, this cave is truly a unique specimen. As you explore, you’ll reach a small skylight in the cave, created from a shaft which overspills sunlight from the cave’s entrance. Beyond the skylight will be a ladder leading to the second section of the cave. You’ll venture through this next section of the cave, known as the high chamber. The exit of the cave lies just ahead – you have conquered Hang Tien!

You’ll make your way back, and get a chance to take a dip in the natural jungle pool you passed on the way in. You’ll have time for a coffee, a quick swim, and to take some photos before making your return journey.

You will be collected at the pickup point and head back to Tan Hoa. A shower awaits you at the office before the van ride back to Phong Nha at 6:00 pm. The tour will finish around 7:30 pm in Phong Nha.

Daily tours

Hang En Adventure Cave camp 2 days/ 1 night

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Hang En Adventure Cave camp 2 days/ 1 night

Day 1: Phong Nha – Ban Doong Village – Hang En

Start your ultimate adventure with a pickup from your hotel in Phong Nha between 7:30 am and 8:00 am and a short transfer to Headquarters. Learn all about safety collect your gear and sign our Release Form before driving 45 mins through the National Park to reach the trailhead. At 10:00 am, leave the road behind for the jungle.

A steep jungle hill starts the journey, with a refreshing river at the bottom. Hike through rich primary forest to reach the Ban Doong minority village, where a hot cup of tea welcomes you. Feast on a picnic lunch which takes place shortly afterwards at about 12:30 – 1:00 pm, near the river. Then it’s back into the jungle, through rivers and streams, and along the river valley until Hang En lays on the horizon.

Enter Hang En around 3 pm, and take a quick rest as the porter team sets up camp on the beach within the cave. For the next couple of hours, complete the adventure by preceding the rest of the way through the cave to the breathtaking exit, a scene made famous in the film Pan. Return to camp through the dry passage to the viewpoint high above camp, where 300 million year old fossils can be seen. Enjoy your downtime relaxing or swimming in the natural pool before a sizzling grilled dinner is served, complete with rice wine and the sounds of swifts overhead.

Day 2: Hang En – Hang Lanh – Phong Nha

Awake at 8:00 am for breakfast and pack up your belongings. Depart camp at 9:00 am to leave Hang En. Take one last look at the entrance, almost hidden amongst the jungle and then trek 1 km along a riverside path with several river crossings and upstream to Hang Lanh entrance. Arrive around 10 am, and spend the next two hours exploring the first km of Hang Lanh, which has earned the name “Cold Cave” for a reason! This is a 4 km long wet cave with magnificent formations, a cold river inside, and many rare fossils.

Have lunch with your group from 12:00 – 1:00 pm, and then it’s time to start the journey home. Trek for the next hour along a shady path through the river valley. And then from 2:00 – 4:00 pm, make your way up the hill to the pickup point, where our driver will be waiting to take you back to civilization. Return to Phong Nha between 4:30 – 5:30 pm.

 

Daily tours

Hang Va Expedition 2 days / 1 night

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Hang Va Expedition 2 days / 1 night

Day 1: Phong Nha – Hang Nuoc Nut – Hang Va jungle camp

For your convenience, we will pick you up at your hotel in Phong Nha between 8:00 – 8:30 AM and drive to Headquarters. At the Headquarters, you will collect your gear, listen to a tour briefing and please be noted that you need to sign our Release Form before driving 45 minutes through the National Part to the trailhead.

From the trailhead, we will enter the jungle and hike to the entrance of Hang Nuoc Nut. Here we put on our Petzl helmets and Hope Technology 1500 lumen head lamps. Once inside the low opening the cave enlarges dramatically and we explore the high level series with excellent photographic opportunities. We have a picnic lunch with ice cold drinks provided before setting off in the cave for around 2 kilometres. Enjoy the beautiful formations, enormous passage and Underground River, again with many photographic opportunities.

Leaving the cave you will trek on a jungle path which though short is on a tough and difficult terrain. The jungle campsite is located at the base of huge cliffs next to the entrance of Hang Va. Camp will be set up and tea/coffee will be supplied as well as a delicious dinner served by our local chef. This is a true jungle camp and a great experience around camp fire listening to the jungle noises.

Day 2: Hang Va – Phong Nha
Day 2 is the highlight of the expedition. Before experiencing this fantastic cave, Hang Va, you will have a delicious breakfast at around 8:00 am.

First, you will have to climb down the steep entrance of Hang Va. It can be quite slippery, so move slowly and with care. To ensure your safety, we will have a rope for you to clip into with a harness which will be provided for you. You will continue to wear the harness at all times inside Hang Va Cave.

After that, if we are early, there is a chance to swim in a downstream pool inside Hang Va before heading upstream. You will walk most of the time in water flowing through the river passage, climb up and down, and squeeze between the rocks. The water level of the river passage can be as high as chest level, so be ready to be wet for about 4 hours.

When you reach the end of the wet passage, you will need to use the harness again to carefully climb up to the high level passage. You will be amazed with this high level area because of its stunning formations, really rare throughout the world. In this area, we will have a lot of time to take beautiful images with the support of Hope technology and extra lights prepared specifically for photography in Hang Va Cave.

Finally, we will head back to the camp, enjoy lunch and at around 2:00 pm, walk back to the road by a different route to the pick up point. Our driver will take you back to your hotel in Phong Nha by about 5:00 pm.

Daily tours

Son Doong Cave Expedition

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GEOLOGY OF SON DOONG CAVE
The Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam contains the oldest karst system in Asia, between 400-450 million years old. Hang Son Doong itself is relatively young, with the analysis of sediment dating it to be only 3 million years old.

Formed on the edge of a fault zone, Hang Son Doong has been carved out by the mighty Rao Thuong River as it erodes away the limestone, forming the enormous tunnel beneath the Annamite Mountains. Giant sinkholes, known as dolines, have collapsed sometime up to 300’000 years ago, creating massive openings to the outside world. Cave pearls the size of baseballs have been formed by water dropping from the ceiling.

Hang Son Doong
HOW BIG IS SON DOONG CAVE?
The first expedition had been halted by an 80m high calcite barrier, which was jokingly dubbed the ‘Great Wall Of Vietnam’. It wasn’t until their second expedition in 2010, when the Great Wall was finally climbed and the end of the passage was found, that Hang Son Doong was determined to be the largest cave in the world.

At over 5km long, with sections reaching up to 200m tall and 150m wide, Hang Son Doong is large enough to house an entire New York City block, complete with 40 story skyscrapers. With a total measured volume of 38.5 million cubic metres, this comfortably surpasses Deer Cave in Malaysia, which was considered to be the previous record holder. Stalagmites up to 80m high have also been surveyed, the tallest ever encountered.

Tu Lan Cave
BAN DOONG ETHNIC VILLAGE
To reach Hang Son Doong, adventurers must first pass through the Ban Doong ethnic minority village. The only village located inside the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, less than 40 people makes up the population of Ban Doong.

Life is tough for the minority people here, due to their isolation from the outside world. Access is only possible by foot, and the dense jungles surrounding Ban Doong prohibit the cultivation of most crops. The discovery of Hang Son Doong and the subsequent expeditions that now pass through the village have seen new opportunities arise for the community, who now can earn extra income by working closely with Oxalis to protect the conservation of the area.

For many people, being able to visit Ban Doong and meet its welcoming villagers becomes a highlight of their trip. Ban Doong offers a view of way of life that has been unchanged for centuries.