If you ask me which cave in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is the most beautiful dry cave, I will undoubtedly say Paradise Cave. In 2005, a local man names Ho Phong living in Phong Nha-Ke Bang guided the British Caving Research Association from the UK to look for a new cave, and the Cave was first discovered as a result. Because of the magnificent beauty of this cave, a group of cave experts named it Paradise cave. The cave is a part of the Vom cave system with more than 30 km long.
We started exploring the cave from Dong Hoi city by 7 am. We, a group of six, decided to travel by motorcycle because we could stop whenever we wanted. It took us about two hours to get from our city to the cave.
We reserved a private Paradise 7km Adventure. It took us about two hours to get from our city to the cave, where our guide, Loc gave us a tour safety briefing and gave us safety equipment such as caving lights, helmets, and trekking boots. He also gave us a release form in which we agreed to accept full responsibility for our safety on the tour. Safety is paramount!
After this, we walked about 200m on the path and took the 8 seats of golf carts from the main gate to the beautiful jungle. It was about 1.5km on the cart and enjoyed the views of both sides.
The first challenge was climbing about 500m of stone steps from the valley to the cave entrance. It was a bit hot for us on the way up, and we had to stop for serval times to drink water. When we reached the cave entrance, Loc stated that the temperature between inside and outside the cave will be 5 to 6 degrees Celsius difference, so we should take a break and stabilize our body temperature before exploring the cave. The first sensation upon entering the cave entrance is extremely cool, as the wind blew through the cave to the small entrance; it is an absolutely wonderful experience. Thanks to that, all previous feelings of fatigue were completely eliminated. Heaven!
We continued our journey on the wooden stair system for the first kilometre. They put the white lights along with the system, and the cave formations appeared in front of us overwhelmingly and spectacularly. We occasionally saw sparkles in the calcite formation. These unusual formations are caused by crystals of calcium carbonate that have grown large enough to be seen with the naked eye. The light from our headlight is then reflected by the crystal's flat surface.
Around 10:15 a.m., we moved to the darker location, and Loc asked us to turn on the lights. We stopped further into the cave's darkness, keeping silence and turning off the light; all we could hear were drips from the cave's ceiling. For 30 seconds, everyone held their breath and moved forward. "Light on please," suddenly yelled Loc as the first person to break the silence. We opened our eyes and turned the lights on. The team thought if the guide left us behind we would get lost in the cave as It is extremely difficult to find our way around in the dark. What a thrilling adventure!
We kept going in the first 3.5 km of the cave where we saw thousands of bats from the cave ceiling, and plenty of time for photography could be organized right here.
The group kayaked about 100 meters down the stream to the rocky section. We had to walk for an hour to get to the skylight where we had lunch. Because of the T-junction between Paradise Cave and Hang Vom Cave, the rock collapsed from the top cave ceiling thousands of years ago. It allowed the sun and natural lights to shine through, resulting in spectacular sunbeams and, of course, the best lunch spot ever. We had 30 minutes after lunch to swim at the pool next to where we had lunch. During the flooding season, the water current from this pool was a major cause of flooding throughout the cave.
We returned to the cave entrance and the park where we had left our motorcycles around. On the way back, we stopped in Phong Nha town for some noodle soup and sunset photos before returning to Dong Hoi. By 6 p.m., the tour had come to an end in Dong Hoi.
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