Monthly Archives: December 2016

Daily tours

Hang Tien Discovery 1 day

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Safety briefing – Hang Tien 1
Between 07:00 – 07:30 you will be picked up at your accommodation in the Phong Nha area, and taken to the Tan Hoa office. There will be a safety briefing, and you will collect safety equipment and sign the release form. After the briefing a short drive will bring you to the start of your one day adventure. This Hang Tien exploration trek will begin by ascending a hill into the forest. The first 15 minutes will be mainly uphill but you will soon reach the top and start to descend to the river valley. You will then stop to have a quick snack here down the valley to get some more energy before exploring Hang Tien 1 Cave.

Reaching the valley floor, the group will hike over the dry rocky riverbed, with the spectacular entrance of Hang Tien enticing you. Trekking into the cave, you will be surrounded by calcite formations cloaked in green plant life. The striped limestone layers are clearly visible on the walls and roof. As you go further inside guests will see more amazing sites. A swirling dome high in the roof and layers of calcite resembling terraced fields. Keep on going deep inside the cave and discover the mysterious attraction and impressive cave formations that Mother Nature created in Hang Tien.

Tan Hoa – Phong Nha
Returning from your Hang Tien exploration, you have time to swim, take pictures, and enjoy lunch next to the natural pool in the heart of the mountains. After the enjoyable time at the campsite on the Vietnam cave discovery trip, you will trek back over the hill and down to the road to board the bus and return to the Oxalis Tan Hoa office.

Upon returning to the Tan Hoa office, the group will be picked up and taken to check in at the accommodation – River Bungalow Tu Lan Lodge. There, guests can freshen up and rest.

River Bungalow – Tu Lan Lodge
Around 06:00 PM, the group will have dinner at a local house. Here, guests will have the opportunity to enjoy traditional dishes that are closely associated with the local people’s way of life and engage in conversations with them about their daily lives.

The group will return to River Bungalow to rest after dinner.

Early the next morning, guests can admire the beautiful sunrise over the picturesque fields of Tan Hoa or enjoy the serene scenery towards the Rao Nan River from the River Bungalow. Alternatively, guests can explore the countryside of Tan Hoa by bicycle and learn more about the local way of life. Afterwards, they can enjoy breakfast prepared by the chefs of Tu Lan Lodge Restaurant.

Please inform the consultants of the departure time of your plane/train/car at least one day in advance so that they can conveniently arrange the transfer. Hotel check-out time will be 12:00 noon back to 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 CAVE
You need to come to Phong Nha before 6:00am on the morning of the cave adventure departure. Please avoid being late for the departure time of this adventure trip to Hang En.

On the morning of the departure, the car will come to pick you up at your hotel in Phong Nha from 7:30 to 8:00 am, and bring you to the headoffice. There you will listen to the safety briefing, sign the release form, pack your bag and receive the necessary safety equipment.

After departing from Phong Nha office, the group starts with a jungle trek, hiking down a steep hill to reach a branch of the Rao Thuong Stream leading to the only village located in the core zone of Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park.

After about 1 and a half hours of walking and wading through streams, the group will arrive at Doong Village – the home of the minority ethnic community living deep in the jungle. The group will stop for lunch at the village and learn about the life of the people here before continuing the trek to Hang En camp. Continuing walking through the jungle, crossing the river many times, the group will reach Hang En after about 3 hours. There everyone will be equipped with helmets, turn on the headlamps and start climbing the rocky section to explore the cave. Standing on the top of the rocky slope, you will see the entire Hang En Cave camp and the mesmerizing surrounding scenery. After receiving your tent, you can enjoy swimming in the turquoise lake next to the camp, before enjoying delicious food right in the cave. That’s the first camping day!

DAY 2: HANG EN – PHONG NHA
After breakfast, the group continues, climbing up the rocks behind the camp in a cave, exploring and learning more interesting facts of nature’s masterpiece in Quang Binh Province, and admiring the stalagmites and stalactites. At the back of the cave, a new view of the Hang En campsite opens up. Save some precious memories of this unique place.

After wading through the underground streams you will reach the large sandy floor of the gigantic cave exit. The group will return through the cave to the underground camp to have lunch and a short break. The group will then leave the cave, for the final challenge of wading through many streams and climbing a steep hill around 450m high. At the top of the hill is the road and a bus with cold beverages ready to welcome you back after all the challenges in your caving adventure to discover the wonderful Hang En.

The bus will take the group back to Phong Nha at about 18:00.

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.