Step 11: Mud Bath in a cave in Phong Nah Ke National Park

Breaking the law actually standing on the caves floor

Phong Na Keh National Park is famous for it's huge and amazing caves and the countryside itself which is beautiful. The area just started to get know by tourist who before that only came on bus tours to the caves for a day and then left back to Hue again, so the first Hostel in the village we stayed in was only open for three years at that time.
We rented motorbikes and saw the two caves that are most famous, in one day. First Paradise Cave which is build out for tourists which means, a boardwalk through the whole cave and spotlights on the drip-stones but that is both needed because the cave is to big and at parts to steep and would be pitch black dark without any light.
We were quit lucky because usually the cave is really crowded but we just arrived at noon time when the people had just left and the second group that starts at the second cave hadn't arrived yet.
The second cave called Dark Cave is not accessible without a guide and much more of a fun activity than taking pictures and walking on boardwalks.
They give you climbing gear and a live-jacket and then you sip line over a lake into the cave, get of swim through a lake in the cave and end up in really muddy and narrow hallways leading to a chamber completely filled with mud. All of it is extremely fun and the group of people was awesome so we were covered in mud even before we reached the mud-bath because we had a constant mud-fight.
On the way back you kayak over the lake and try to wash of the mud (I still had mud in my ears days after). Here too we were lucky being the last group in the cave so we were alone with our guide who was using the great acoustics to sing Vietnamese songs.
All in all an expensive day but also one of the best days in Vietnam and I would already call the the drive to the cave worth it going to the National Park.