This park has the oldest karst mountains in Asia. Above all the cave systems is an amazing tropical jungle. 90% of it is primary forest. It is so fresh smelling, green and perfect that it almost felt fake at times.
These are photos of Phong Nha Cave. We got on a boat with travelers from Israel, Ireland, Switzerland and Germany. There was a woman rower in the front of the boat that looked like she was about 18. She was incredibly strong. She first motored us down the river where we saw buffalo playing in the water and buffalo fighting (they were locking horns and the boys were pretty excited.)
Once you reach the cave, you can only explore about a kilometer of it, but the guidebook says that it will gradually open up as more tourists come. She rowed us to different caverns where we could get out and explore. This cave was amazing, but I thought Paradise Cave was much more tranquil. It had white lighting, which was pretty. The colored lighting in Phong Nha was a bit much. Paradise Cave was serene and other-worldy. We pretended like we had landed on Mars!
marschmadness 