The Phong Nha-Ke Bang National park tour is quite costly at £35 for a one day trip, however it is worth every penny. In fact, if you only do one thing in Vietnam, I would highly suggest that this is the activity you choose.

It involves visiting two caves in the national park, Paradise Cave and Dark cave, as well as a temple. The guides are very knowledgeable about the area, and the free lunch is excellent!

Our tour had two guides, Josh from Cornwall and a Vietnamese guy. The minibus stopped at several points on the windy road through the park so Josh could tell us more about the area. The road had been built to keep supplies running from North to South Vietnam during the war. In order to break the supply chain the Americans bombed the life out of the area. It is said that on average one bomb was dropped every 8 minutes on the road over a ten year period. 30% of these didn’t explode, and the legacy of this is still being felt today. The Vietnamese were determined to keep the route open, and recruited young locals to keep rebuilding it. Their average age was 20 years old, and when they arrived they were given two days of supplies as this was all they would probably need. As the road was built, repaired and fixed, a canopy was erected above to camouflage the work and to deter the US bombers.

We also learned a little about the dense jungle, and the wildlife living there. We were lucky enough to see some of the resident primates swinging through the trees. Apparently there were also 35 tigers living in the jungle, although some of the locals claimed that they had moved across the border to Laos where the people are ‘too lazy to hunt them’!!

Our first proper stop was a small temple which had been built to commemorate 8 ladies who had risked their lives to live in one of the many caves and offer medical aid to soldiers using the supply route. People leave all sorts of offerings to the spirits here, and on this particular day there was a selection of biscuits and juices. There are also paper offerings left, of things the spirits might want in their world. These can include motorbikes, mobile phones, clothes, army uniforms and even houses.

After this we headed to Paradise Cave. The locals chose this name due to the temperature inside the cave which is lovely and cool in the hot months, and pleasantly warm in the winter. However, the name could also describe the stunning beauty of the space. The cave is enormous (we only explored the first of the 31 kilometers) and it is like being on some sort of sci-fi film set. It was only discovered in 2005, and opened to tourists in 2010.

After this we headed to the Dark Cave. For this one we only needed to wear swimming stuff, and we were given life jackets, a helmet and head torch and a paddle. The itinerary for this cave was quite mysterious, but we all got into canoes and followed the guide. After a short paddle for us (and a longer one for the clueless people who kept going round in circles) we found the entrance to the cave. Just inside the entrance, the cave split into a tunnel to the right and a larger area to the left. We took the right tunnel and were immediately knee deep in muddy water. The mud got thicker and thicker and eventually was like chocolatey cake batter. We followed each other in the pitch black, with only our head torches for light. It was slippery and slidey, and the path was quite narrow in places. At certain points we had to negotiate over rocks, or pull our feet out of deep mud. It was a full body work out! At the end of the tunnel there was a slope which looked tricky to navigate. The guides told us to use it as a slide, and as we whizzed down the slope we splashed into a deep puddle of squelchy mud. It was AMAZING! We then sat or lay in the mud for ten minutes, had a mud fight and generally got covered from head to toe. It felt so nice on the skin – it is the same stuff they use in spa treatments.

After making some mud angels and ensuring everyone was covered in a healthy coating, we retraced our steps to the entrance. We then followed the path to the right and swam along a different route. After hearing about the creatures which inhabited the cave,, we headed back to the kayaks. We kayaked back towards the minibus, still covered in mud despite the swim. In a valiant effort to remove it, we all had a go at zip lining into the river. Sadly we don’t have any photographs from the second half of this tour as thick, gloopy mud and cameras don’t mix!