8. Phong Nha: breathtaking caves, cool ducks, cat-crazy kids

Cosmo in the window on a rainy day in Phong Nha

Phong Nha has great hiking and amazing giant caves. Right now it's a bit rainy so no hiking, but still caves. Our hotel/homestay Phong Nha Coco Riverside Homestay, was in touch with me on WhatsApp and arranged a car to pick us up at our hotel in Hue and drive us almost 4 hours to Phong Nha for about $100. The place had a beautiful view of the river and while the whole city was pretty damp (it rained the day we arrived) the room was not musty, though my wet shoes from our rainy day in Hue might have gotten more damp just sitting in the room as their scent went from smelly shoe to slightly moldy smelling. The shower was another of the whole bathroom shower types but the floor never really dried out that well. The great breakfast and view from the dining room made up for that though.

Breakfast overlooking the Phong Nha River

waterfall at the Botanical garden

We found ourselves wishing we knew how to ride motorcycles as everyone here rents motorbikes. Instead we booked a tour of Paradise Cave which included the Phong Nha cave (accessed by boat) and the botanical gardens which is really a walk to a waterfall. The walk was nice. Cosmo stayed home since they didn't allow pets on the tour but I think he would have liked it. Paradise Cave was insane! None of the pictures can every do it justice, just like being in Yosemite you can't really get the feel for how expansive it is. They use regular lights and have removed all the colored lights so you can see the natural yellows, oranges, and greens. When you walk down it is this giant cavern but then at the bottom you realize that it also goes on forever and ever. Paradise Cave is 31km long though the part most tourists walk on the walkway is "only" 1 km. Pictures are below.

Entrance into Paradise Cave

The long expanse of Paradise Cave

About halfway through Paradise Cave

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one of the most popular sights in the cave

the boat in Phong Nha Cave

I'm glad we did Paradise Cave first because by comparison Phone Nga Cave is not as pretty so I didn't have to take as many pictures there as I would have if it were first. You board a long metal boat with 6 seats on each side. One person in front helps guide the boat and the person in the back steers and handles the motor. Both of our crew were women which is common. I think that is because they don't get paid that much so a lot of men choose to fish. Anyways, they all seem to know each other and chat as they pass each other. Near the cave, they turn off the loud motor and row from there through the cave. Our front person seemed new. She kept bumping into walls and struggled to row. It reminded me of trying to return to shore in Cabo against the wind/tide with me flailing in the front and my friend Michele doing most of the work. My summary: the boat ride was cool for the first 10-15 minutes but it's 25 minutes each way. The cave is nice though again not as nice as Paradise Cave.

Phong Nha Cave in a boat

Exiting the boat to walk a bit through Phong Nha Cave

Dawne holding a duck

Also we were a little late coming back and the tour guides arranged for us to take a mini tour via car to The Duck Stop. The couple from Australia was waiting for us and the driver took us to the farm, 15 minutes away. We got there at about 5:30 just as another tour was about to finish up. They usually close at 6 and we had to talk them into letting us do the tour. It was will worth it! The ducks and the duck man who started it all were hilarious! He did a dance with them getting them to raise their heads as he raised his fist of food and tossed it up then their necks went down to eat it as his hand went down. We each got the ducks to follow us with the pail of food to the end of the room , fed them, then had them race back to the opposite side where we threw food as the feet of our friends. Then do a little duck dance.

Little duck bills coming up between my legs to get duck food

He had us sit and put our feet together then poured food between them so the ducks were nibbling, giving us a "foot massage" and then had us put our knees together and put food in our lap so we had ducks pushing their bills up between our legs as well as eating out of our lap. It was really a great experience, well worth the 100k. After that they washed our feet and hands with soap and hose, and fed us these amazing crunchy rice cakes that we rolled into rice paper with some carrots and greens, then dipped into peanut sauce. Delicious!

feeding the ducks

After the ducks they gave us the best crispy pancake that you top with veggies and sauce and roll in rice paper

Lots of orange trees for the new year

For dinner the first night we went to a highly recommended restaurant Bamboo Chopsticks. Our waitress loves cats and Cosmo had other adorers that night. Two girls from the Netherlands were much to us and one fed him some of his treat. He spent more time sitting under her chair than mine I think! So much for loyalty! The dinner was very good as well. On the way we took some pictures of these orange trees. They had rows and rows of them and flowering plants in preparation for the Tet new year (lunar new year).

Kids captivated by Cosmo

The next night Cosmo was again a celebrity. Walking back from the ATM some very cute, very small kids on bikes spotted him. I left them feed him some dry treats since I hadn't stocked up on his favorite. They fed and petted him. He was quite a sport but eventually got really tired of it so I let him run away. Unfortunately they chased him so I had to pop him into my backpack and tell them he was tired. Bye bye! That usually does it but they followed us, miniature stalkers on wheels. Eventually they turned around but then Cosmo jumped out and they were back out of nowhere in a flash! This time I foolishly let one of them pry his leash from my hands and they dropped it letting him run off around the corner deep into a bush. I was able to extract him and firmly put him into his backpack and kept him there until we got back to our hotel.

feeding and petting Cosmo

getting more confident feeding Cosmo

stalking Cosmo on bikes

cute little girls

cute little boy