8-10 May 2018, Dong Hoi, Vietnam

8-10 May 2018
Dong Hoi, Vietnam

By Katie

We took a van from Sapa back to the airport in Hanoi. We arrived in plenty of time for our flight to Dong Hoi, because we had not realized the airport is closer to Sapa than the city of Hanoi, plus our van driver did not need two smoking breaks like our driver to Sapa needed. We had time to eat a lunch of Pho at an airport restaurant, and then took a 45 minute flight on VietJet to Dong Hoi. The reason for going to Dong Hoi was cool caves that Brian had discovered.



Phong Nha cave. To enter this cave, we took a boat about 30 minutes up a river. Once inside the cave, the boat drivers rowed us further in. We got to land, got out and walked around to look more closely at the stalagtites and stalagmites. During the rainy season, October to March, the water level is too high to enter the cave.



Next we went to the Dark Cave, about twenty minutes from Phong Nha. Hayden and Brian zip lined across the river, and the girls and I “kayaked,” because the girls were not big enough to zip line. The kayak was actually a inflatable boat, and one of the British guys who was in our boat with us had never paddled a boat, which made for a circuitous ride.



Swimming to the dark cave after the Zipline.



We walked into the Dark Cave, with the supplied helmet and headlamps, right into a MUD BATH! This was a lake with super muddy water.



The kids LOVED the mud! I, Katie, am not so sure because my bathing suit still has tiny dirt particles in it, several days later ; ) And the bottom of the mud lake was slippery and it was hard to walk, which is probably while everyone else was swimming and floating. We were extra-buoyant because of the mud.



Happy muddy boys!



Home schooling! On the porch of our AirBnB. The view was nice and the second day, after the cave visit, was breezy so we enjoyed sitting out here. The first night was stifling hot. We had the whole second floor, with three bedrooms, but it was open to a restaurant below. And the bathroom was down the hall, so not much privacy. The AC didn’t work well in one of the rooms and the trucks on the busy street were honking at 6 AM, plus a rooster calling out back and construction hammering at 6 AM. We were happy to move on to the next place! We took a 3.5 hour van ride to Hue.
P.S. The kids did like the pizza at this place!!