Dong Hoi and the caves!

Transport

We took the night train from Ninh Bình to Dong Hoi. We booked 'hard sleeper' beds at (357,000vnd) which were in a cabin of 4 beds and included bed linen etc. It was incredibly comfortable despite the train being a little bumpy! So if you went for soft sleeper I can only imagine it would be very nice! We were shocked by the quality in comparison to the Indian and thai sleeper trains. Another thing we learnt is that they are very good at time keeping and we arrived in Dong Hoi 30mins early; sending us into a blind panic before we realised that the train would stop at the platform and wait until it's scheduled departure time.

 So we arrived at 5.30 and we're able to get a taxi to our hotel (Than Loi Hostel) for 50,000. Thankfully the hotel owners were already up and we're kind enough to let us into our room early so we could catch up on a few hours sleep and take hot showers. The hotel owners didn't speak English but we're proficient with Google translate and we're excellent hosts.

After a strong coffee and some ban mui (egg sandwich) we decided to take a walk around despite the persistant spitting rain. 

We found a small market selling local fruits, vegetables, meat and flowers. We kept walking along the coast but didn't see an awful lot and it began raining quite heavy, so we headed back to the hotel for a change of footwear!

Thankfully the rain subsided and we rented a motorcycle from our hotel in order to drive to Paradise caves. Initially having typed it into Google maps we thought it was a 40minute journey but soon discovered it had taken us to the wrong place and we arrived at Phong Nha Farmstay. A beautiful looking homestay ontheedge of the national park. We took a break for a hot drink and some chips next to an open fire to defrost our fingers and toes ready to continue our journey. The staff here were great and gave us a map and lots of info on the best direction to go although we were incredibly disheartened to discover we had the same distance again to travel!

Normally we enjoyed motorbiking and this wouldn't be a problem, but it was very cold and windy on the bike with some rain showers.

Finally we arrived at Paradise Cave 2 hrs prior to closing. It was empty as all of the tour buses had left and it was amazing to practically have the cave to ourselves! The cave is 250,000 vnd, expensive but definately worth it! We loved it, it was almost unbelievable everytime you thought you must be nearly at the end you turned the corner and there was more cave as far as your eyes could see.

After this we had to face the realisty of the drive home..while it stayed dry for the first 15 mins it soon began to hammer it down and we were both soaked through!! We were so thankful when we arrived back to the hotel and were able to take hot showers! we then just nipped to a street stall for some cheeky noodles before bed!

The following morning we were still struggling with a plan and couldnt work out how best to go to dong hoi and see the vin moc tunnels and then head to hue. We were both cold and defeated by the rain and outside the window wasnt looking any kinder. In the end our hotel was able to book a privat taxi to hue with a break at the vin moc tunnels en route (it cost 1,240,000) the best $50 we could have spent as it saved us staying in dong ha and struggling with the non existant public transport and got us to hue at our hotel doorway a night earlier than expected!

The vin moc tunnels were so interesting.We couldnt belive that the people had lived down there for almost 6 years! It was incredibly informative although the museam and video playing room could do with a little updating!