Spending either New Year's or my birthday, which is in May when we travel due to extensive Russian holidays, in the most obscure places has now become a running joke with Ivan. And this year did not disappoint. So on a very rainy New Year's Eve 2019 we found ourselves getting off the train at Dong Hoi and driving to Phong Nha. It's mostly homestays, we chose the Ecolodge on the border of the town. There are two hostels more central for the young crowd if you're in for some partying before or after the sightseeing, but we were fine with our choice. The town itself is nothing to write home about, but has some watering holes and even a very nice French restaurant (Villas) with a decent wine list.

We booked a day tour with our lodge and next morning at 9 a.m. sharp the bus came to pick us up. It was raining the whole day. First stop were the botanic gardens with a waterfall. There's a small museum with some stuffed local wildlife. We had a very crazy guide who I believe was making stories on spot and as for the waterfall, instead of the signposted route, made those who felt especially suicidal cross the river and then walk down slippery stones to see it. Ivan did, I passed. It was okay.

Second stop was the Paradise cave, which was beautiful. I was surprised by the size of it and the decorations were beautiful. You take an electric car, then walk uphill for another 600 metres. The cave can be explored further with headlights on - the walkway reaches about a kilometre, next six can be walked with a day tour and you enjoy your pack lunch in the middle of it under a small skylight. I have to give it to Vietnamese karsts - hailing from Slovakia with our fair share of caves, they don't surprise or impress me anymore, but this one did. The last one that managed to do so was the cave under New Athos in Abkhazia and this was even more impressive, especially with the stalagmite and stalactite formations. It was a delight, the cave was not very crowded, which was great. 

We stopped for a lunch at the restaurant by the Dark Cave and there our tour group split - half went to the Dark Cave and another one to the Phong Nha Cave, which, unfortunately, turned out to be closed due to heavy rain. The Dark Cave is a wet cave, so you don your bathing suit, put on a swimming vest, a helmet and a headlight and either zipline down to the entrance, or, if you're over 90 kilos, take a raft through the river. I passed on that one too as it was about 20 degrees outside, raining and I was coming down with a cold, feeling cold even in my clothes. But Ivan says it was a great experience - exploring the cave illuminated only by the torch light, then enjoying a mud bath and after that turning the light down and walking to a small crack with natural light from it indicating the way. After that there are more opportunities to swim, or take another, smaller zipline into the water. It's a fun thing to do I guess. I believe for the day we had, we enjoyed the natural beauty of the Phong Nha, it's a nice stop along the way down from Hanoi.