Phong Nha

We arrived at the Nguyen Shack early morning after being picked up from the train station.

We were greeted by Hoang who explained everything and proposed that we have breakfast while waiting for our room to become available. 

Nice boat shaped pool

The Nguyen shack was a newly built eco-resort with all comforts including an enormous swimming pool in the form of a boat. 

We dropped our things and went out for our first visit. Phong Nha earned a spot on the map because of some of the biggest caves in the world. The rest is a usual story of a small village making leaps and bounds in the direction of super exploitation for tourists. There are cayak, bike, motorbike, cave tours, ziplining, buffalo riding, duck feeding outings...everything attentive tourists willing to immerse themselves in the Vietnamese culture could want, against a steep fee.

First day cave

We did our lot, visiting caves on our first day on a boat. We met a nice French couple, Perrine and Kevin who live in Australia and shared the morning visit with them.

The following day we went to another bigger cave to admire the enormous stalagmites and stalactites within its belly. It was truly impressive. It was the biggest cave that I have ever visited, by far.

One of the huge galleries

We usually began early, partly to escape the midday heat that can soar to 38°C and partly because Lea wakes up at 6 anyway!

The afternoons usually revolved around a lunch followed by a nap and a nice swimming pool session. Speaking of swimming pool we’re desperately trying to convince Lea to put her face and head in the water. The reason is that she will have to do this when she starts swimming lessons in September.

On our last day we went to a duck farm where the idea is to feed them and and play with them, against a fee of course. It was a new experience and the girls had a lot of fun although they were a little scared of the flocking ducks. 

Roxana expertly feeding the ducks

Then we rode a buffalo called Donald Trump. These Vietnamese not only have a sense of humour but also a astute sense of business. I mean who would not want to pay to ride a buffalo called Donald Trump. I did, and for a brief moment I felt like the most powerful man on Earth, and it set me back only a couple of bucks!

Afterwards we went to a pub called “The Pub with Cold Beer”. Now this should be the case of every pub in the world, granted, but when a pub advertises such a claim in a region where the daily high is 38°C, it gets my attention.

And so we went. The pub had beers and BBQ chicken on the menu. We ordered both. The lady of the house invited me to chose my chicken which would be weighed live and then chopped and BBQ’ed. I obliged and then I asked if I could chop its head off.

So I held the chicken’s leg and grabbed the cleaver. I lay it on the chopping board and down the cleaver went.

I did not have any feeling of power or superiority or anything like that but neither did I feel upset or grieved for my lunch to be. 

After a 45 min wait, here it came, crispy skin, yellow fat streaks and tough meat like one would expect from a free range chicken

Relaxing after a nice lunch

Great food, cold beer, and a lie down in the hammocks overlooking the beautiful valley. That’s what I call holidays!

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