After the first day, I told myself "this's an arduous journey so better take a good care", I wished nothing bad happened during my trekking, like injure myself by falling down, or twisting my ankle, or even getting a cold as I kept wearing the wet clothes all the times. Our hiking always across very rough, rocky ground, underground river, some of my toes covered in blisters, one nail has been hurt, that's why I preferred climbing over the rocks, going uphill was extremely tiring but at least I won't torture my toes while trekking steep downhill.
The other challenge for me was wearing the wet dirty clothes, wet shoes, wet shocks...in the next morning for another long day of trekking. I probably was not well-prepared, carried not enough light clothes, and it was almost impossible to dry up over night even we hung up our clothes next to the fireplace, bearing in mind that I would be wet again and again during hiking, I had to accept. But the feeling to wear the dirty wet clothes early in the morning in the cave was really discomforting.
I remember after the 1st night in Son Doong we continued our hiking to the next campsite through the very steep uphill jungle, while resting at the pit stop, I looked up to that steep hill - I goggled at the path and really obsessed with the thought of trekking back in this same route again, I felt desperate. Luckily we took another way back...
Deep inside was the passage to the Great Wall of Vietnam - the end of Son Doong cave.
This section was most relaxing but not less impressive as we trekked in mud.
The second day in Son Doong continued with the next morning trek to the last part of the cave. I would say it was the most relaxing section in our journey but could be the most impressive, we first experienced the total darkness, we saw the cave pearls, unusual water baskets which formed millions millions years ago... and my indescribable feeling while trekking through a very tiny muddy passage, along both sides were very high, wet hills look like the pyramids in the darkness, one after another. From time to time some members tried to write either their name or initials on that wet soft pyramids. I was told this part from Nov to Feb - always full of water, so they need a boat to get in. This part of Son Doong has been named "Passchendaele"(!?).
The side of the basket was thin but hard as rock.
We couldn't take the camera with us as in this section was muddy and very slippery so we were recommended to leave our camera outside and continued our trail to the Great Wall of Vietnam. The Great Wall of Vietnam, that how they call the huge eighty meter high stalagmite which blocked the exit or another entrance to Son Doong, when we turned off all our headlamps, we could see some dim daylight from the outside on the top of the wall.
If Oxalis, the only adventure tour agent organised the trip to Son Doong, wants to create the trek through this wall for visitors, they may need to invest some facilities which could cost them one million US dollars. And if it happens in the future the visitors won't need to go back to the same campsite or Hang Én, there will be another new exciting but very challenging trek - climb over the Great Wall of Vietnam!
My friends never asked what I ate during the adventure, but as I shared that we had almost 20 porters with us, one of them was the chef with another two "sous-chefs". Three of them were responsible for our meals, but always more than 3 in the kitchen.
Our breakfast before long hiking was light - sometime instant noodles, fried rice, even we got pancakes with banana, mango and chocolate sauce. Victor - one of our members enjoyed his pancake with mixed sauces: chilli and chocolate. I didn't try it.
Coffee or tea was available at all times. Lunch always at the pit stop so it was quick and simple : mostly cookies (Orion that I never touched!), La vache qui rit, spring rolls, fruits (mandarin, watermelon, banana, mango...But dinner was a heaven, living in the cave, with 4 or 5 different dishes: beef, pork, egg, veggies. People in Central of Vietnam love spicy taste so all our dishes were quite spicy, the funny thing to me was the omelette even with a lot of chillies and pepper. The porters took water from caving water basket, or underground river but it has been filtered so we had no problem at all.
People didn't ask what I ate but they did ask how we did the toilet things here in the cave - we had actually a sitting western toilet, not very far from the campsite, very well-located - either near to the abyss or just behind a rock with a size of a car...we had no water to flush, instead we used the rice husk (trấu!) and wet tissues to clean up! Everything was cleaned perfectly, after we left the campsite, by our porters, no any waste material left in the cave. Some comment in my blog about this issue after what happened in Himalayas, so that could be one of many reasons they limit the number of visitors to Son Doong, only 220 people per year.
The blue tent was our secret place - the toile with a fascinating view!
I just wonder how people with bigger size manage to squeeze through, when Đức - our guide from Oxalis, told me there will be one Vietnamese girl going to the trip next July, her weigh is about 90kg, her height -150cm. It's very impressive for Vietnamese girl, so it would be a big task for Đức or any guide to accompany this guest, or it could be his joke. I don't know but I wish she's an athlete.
In the cave, there was time I really wished to end it, the adventure, the sooner the better due to my legs, my toes problem. I was glad when the last day came, I even left the last campsite earliest, partly to avoid the heat, partly I didn't want to be left far behind in the trek, partly I wanted to have more time to wander around... But now sitting back home I truly regretted it and realised how much I miss many things out there - the atmosphere, the sceneries and all the people that I happened to make friends. I may not go back to Son Doong but I would love to try another cave - Tú Làn, and to experience the flooding season in Phong Nha.
Your Trip is totally amazing. all the photos are gorgeous, they took my breath away. Thank you for sharing, I was totally impressed
ReplyDelete