Phong Nha-Ke Bang NP
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 16 Jan 2018 23:37
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Scenery On the Way to Paradise
Cave and Beyond
 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.
  Eight or nine miles from the cave
and all of a sudden the topography changed, karst
mountains and high
mist.
           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.
            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.
          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 |