Phong Nha-Ke Bang NP

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 16 Jan 2018 23:37
Scenery On the Way to Paradise Cave and Beyond
 
 
 
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We set off early for the forty five kilometre journey to Paradise Cave. No sooner than we had left Dong Hoi than we were in the all too familiar scenery of endless paddy fields.
 
 
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Eight or nine miles from the cave and all of a sudden the topography changed, karst mountains and high mist.
 
 
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Along the way.
 
We enjoyed the ride, got out at the cave car park and had to walk a steep, zig-zag path (built by a local) up to the cave entrance. Along the way we passed many limestone plugs and surprisingly big trees and of course views out to more mountains.
The core zone of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, covers over eight hundred square kilometres and a buffer zone of nearly two thousand square kilometres. The park was created to protect one of the world's two largest karst regions with three hundred caves and grottoes and also protects the ecosystem of limestone forest of the Annamite Range region in North Central Coast of Vietnam.
 
 
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We enjoyed more scenery until our lunch stop. The best pork stew we have ever tasted, succulent chunks of pork served with rice and vegetables.
 
 
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More paddies, lots of rivers and through a small town - lovely building going up,  on the way to the coast. Laughed at a man dragging his rebar behind him.
 

 

 

 

ALL IN ALL SURPRISING TOPOGRAPHY

                     STUNNING, NOT WHAT I HAD EXPECTED