Hello everyone.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the new year 2022. Today I'd like to share with you my eight-year journey of caving exploration.
After graduating from university, I, like many others, had to look for work to build a stable future for myself, and I only spent a month gap travelling down to the south of Vietnam. I'd been to Hue, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Da Lat, Ho Chi Minh City, Vung Tau, the Mekong Delta, and Ca Mau, Vietnam's southernmost point. This trip made my life more meaningful, and I discovered that Vietnam is a wonderful country with many interesting things to discover.
I then returned to where I had studied and decided to work and live here because the people of Quang Binh are extremely friendly and the scenery is breathtaking. Getting a job as a professional tour guide was my dream many years ago. I was fortunate enough to find a great job after a trip to the south. In August 2013 I had applied for a local company called Paradise Cave Eco Tourist Site located in Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park which offers a tour daily to discover 1 km and 7 km adventure. The cave has become one of the most favourite destinations for both Vietnamese and international tourists, especially in the summer. After 2 months working here, I met up with Howard Limbert who introduced me to Oxalis. I decided to leave my first job and get a new job at Oxalis as an adventure tour guide. This is also the second chapter of my career path.
Oxalis (Situated in Phong Nha and Tan Hoa, Quang Binh, Vietnam) is the company running many kinds of outdoor activities mainly caving and trekking in the heart of the jungle and surrounded by the most spectacular and oldest limestone mountains in Southeast Asia with 350-400 million-year-old.
What did I learn after 8 years of working at the area's leading professional tour company?
This type of unique job assisted me in overcoming my fears and becoming more confident. I was born in Ha Tinh Province, about 150 kilometres north of Quang Binh, and I had no idea how to swim; in fact, I was terrified of water. To be able to cave and guide my customers, I had to swim in underground rivers. I eventually did it after a week of training by a safety expert and numerous opportunities to swim with a life jacket, always having to swim against the current. Not only did I have to know how to swim, but I also had to be a rescuer for my guests.
I gain confidence, especially when giving presentations in both English and Vietnamese. I discovered that public speaking was not as difficult as I had previously thought. Since I've had 8 years to guide my customers from all over the world, I can now stand in front of thousands of people and talk and talk.
My knowledge has greatly expanded as I continue to learn and broaden my skills in many areas of the world, including people, cultures, languages, and, in particular, geology and morphology. I learned about the formation of limestone mountains, caves, and cave formations.
Limestone:
- Limestone is a sedimentary rock formed at the seafloor from the shells and bones of dead sea creatures.
- Limestone in the PNKB ranges in age from 350 to 450 million years.
- Limestone accounts for more than 90% of all rock types (depends on the limestone area)
- Chert is a sedimentary rock that is almost entirely composed of SILICA (SiO2).
- Gypsum is a type of calcium sulfate ( CaSO4).
Dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) is a calcium magnesium carbonate (CaMg(CO3)2). Limestone is a grey stone that ranges from almost white to almost black because of mineral or organic matter contamination. The chemicals in limestone caused all of the other colours of the rocks to appear.
Cave
Caves are formed in Limestone which is soluble in acidic water. So it can be dissolved by rainfall, rivers or streams, with dissolved carbon dioxide. Due to the movement of the earth’s crust, cracks which we call faults are created in Limestone. Faults may make it easier for the water to get into the limestone, then the rocks dissolve easily along the faults.
The direction of the faults affects the direction of the cave passages. The size of the faults can affect the size of the cave passages.
Cracks in the Limestone may cause a collapse of the cave passages and wall, and make the caves passage bigger. A river in a cave will erode the floor that it runs across, so make the cave passage grow downwards. There are three main reasons why the cave in Quang Binh is so large:
- High quality of limestone in the thick beds
- Huge river and heavy rainfall
- Large faults
Cave Formations
Most cave formations are formed by drips. Rainwater on the surface passes through the soil on the top of the mountain, becoming acidic. This water then works its way slowly through the limestone to emerge in the roof of the cave passage. It dissolves limestone on its way. As it drips down from the cave roof, it leaves behind a small amount of calcium carbonate which will form all kinds of cave formations such as straws, stalagmites, stalactites, columns...
More importantly, I had so many opportunities to meet and make friends with people from all over the world. We became good friends and kept in touch. They truly inspired me to keep up the good work and to think positively in any situation. I can also improve my English because I have to talk to them almost every day because I usually go on trips that last up to four or six days in the jungle.
I'm overjoyed because being an adventure tour guide is one of the best decisions I've ever made. I've been to Son Doong, the world's largest natural cave, hundreds of times. I also discovered many cave systems in this beautiful area, such as the Tu Lan Cave System and the Phong Nha Cave System, on a regular basis. I also have the chance to work with very talented and lovely co-workers and learn a lot of things from my boss's great mind. My eight-year caving expedition with my amazing teammates and customers was incredible, memorable, and challenging. I will close the year 2021, as well as this chapter, and open the door to new opportunities and challenges in the coming chapters.
Thank you for reading and for your continued support!