Cave info – We went with our friends, Eric and Heidi, on an amazing two-day adventure to Hang En Cave, the third largest cave in the world. The cave is in the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park, which is famous for its tropical forests, underground rivers, ancient limestone karst mountains and vast network of caves.

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Preparation – Our tour guide company required specific clothing for the trip: long sleeve shirt and long pants tucked into long socks to reduce the possibility of leeches attaching to us. Fortunately we only saw two leeches during our cave trip.  One temporarily attached to the foot of a guide while hiking in mud. He, like the other guides and porters, was wearing sandals. Heidi discovered one crawling on her hand during a brief break from hiking into the cave. Thankfully one of the guides quickly removed the leech before it firmly attached to her skin. The tour guide company provided water-draining shoes for our many river crossings, a very appreciated pair of gloves, a cave helmet, and a head lamp. Our group consisted of 4 Americans, 1 Australian, 2 Canadians originally from South America, and 4 Norwegians. And 12 support staff accompanied us, including 3 guides and 8 porters who carried each about 70 pound sacks containing our clothes, sleeping bags general supplies, and food. The porters also served as cooks, kitchen, and general camp staff. 

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Hike In – After a one hour drive into the national park, we began our 11 kilometer journey. The first part was a steep descent through the forest on a slightly muddy trail with a few river crossings. We stopped for lunch at the small Doong Village, which was hooked up to electricity about three years ago. Then the frequency of our river crossings (total of 25) drastically increased. The underwater rocks were quite slick so thankfully the guides offered some of us a helping hand so we could stay upright. Just before one of the river crossings we stopped briefly to feed the fish in a pool of water. (See video above.) We were surprised by the frenzy with which the fish attacked any bit of food thrown into the water. The final part of our journey was a climb down a tall pile of rocks and a one minute raft ride across a not-so-warm but beautiful, blue pool of water inside the cave.

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Camping at the  Cave – The camp set up at Hang En Cave was pretty impressive: cooking area, tent area for sleeping, two inch foam mattresses below each sleeping bag, clothes drying rack, and eating area. Our vegetarian food was amazing and the lead guide sat at the vegetarian table for most of the meals because he liked the food so well. Our internal clocks got a bit confused since it was fairly dark inside the cave the whole 24 hours we were there. 

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Exploring the Cave – On Saturday morning our guides had us turn on our head lamps and took us over a large mountain of rocks to see delicate cave coral and fossils as well as the pristine, natural pools of water.  We continued our exploration through the cave to see the second and much more picturesque entrance, which was featured in the 2015 film Pan during Peter Pan’s beautiful flying scenes. 

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Hike Out – As we emerged from the cave to start our 11 kilometer return trip, we discovered that the previous night’s rain had raised the river water levels about 8 inches. Hanging onto our guides for support became even more desirable during Saturday’s river crossings. A bit later we realized the rain had turned the last part of the trail (steep ascent) into a slimy, slippery, muddy mess in which our boots sank four inches with many steps. The guides, still in their sandals, did a better job than we did of staying stable and upright as they walked. And fortunately in difficult spots they offered a helping hand for balance or leverage. Our hike from the cave back to meet the bus on the main road was quite physically challenging. At the end we looked muddy and smelled sweaty, but we made it! 

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Nature Pictures – Below are a few photos of the beautiful natural features we saw during our fun and memorable adventure in Hang En Cave. 

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