End of Laos, beginning of Vietnam

We got a chance to spend two nights in an eco-lodge deep in Phu Hin Bun National Park: we were supposed to be camping but this proved to be impossible for various reasons. I was not particularly looking forward to this, but how wrong I was.

The place we stayed in was two hours drive from the main road, so it was rural enough already, but then we had to take boats for 40 minutes as well! The boats were small wooden things which seated three plus the pilot, who also had to periodically bail out the water which flooded the bottom of the boat. This adventure out of the way, we arrived, and found our accommodation. This varied in standard somewhat, mine was a bamboo hut containing two hard beds with mosquito nets, a light, and nothing else. Even by the standards of this journey this was very basic accommodation!

The national Park was apparently most known for its huge cave system which the river flowed through, so we all booked on a trip through the caves for the following day. This made the whole journey worthwhile: this cave was vast. It is accessible by boat, and is 7.5km long! It is big enough for a cathedral to fit inside in maybe half a dozen different places, and a church almost everywhere else. It really is astonishing, the sheer size of it is barely believable, the rock formations inside are fantastic and we even met fishermen inside in the dark. If this cave was in Europe it would be a national treasure, famous around the world, but because it is in a remote part of a remote country, it is virtually unknown.

The house speciality of the eco-lodge restaurant where we were staying was whole roast pig, so we had to order it for the last night, it would be rude not to. It was in fact roast piglet rather than pig, and the two piglets needed for our meal made a lot of noise in the morning, which was slightly unnerving to us Westerners used to pre-dead food. In any event, the food was excellent once cooked over an open fire for the whole day.

To get to Hue in Vietnam we went via Savannakhet in Laos, which is a fairly uninteresting town. We had to leave the truck here, because Vietnam wouldn't let it over the border. So we bussed it to Hue, which is a great place to spend a few days. Nothing ever goes completely smoothly though, our bus had a blown tyre on route.

Unfortunately we only had one full day in Hue, which I used to visit the beautiful Imperial palace. It was bombed heavily in the Vietnam war, and so is in the process of being restored, but until all the work is finished it is possible to see the bullet holes and shell damage.

One more bus took us to Hoi An, where I am writing this. I really enjoyed Hoi An, the old town was mostly pleasant to wander around: the two downsides being annoying street sellers and the fierce heat. The highlight however was definitely the nearby beach, where the sea breeze made the heat much more bearable. There were jetskis available for hire there too, they were so good I hired one twice, fell in once and got sunburnt into the bargain!

We're off to a beach resort near Nha Trang now, 11 hours on a minibus. Pics of Denis helping out with the blown tyre on our bus, and the beach at Hoi An.