I had read that Vietnam has the world’s largest cave so I went to Phong Na National Park specifically for the Son Doong cave. What I didn’t realize, however was you had to book well in advance and the cost has $3,000 USD!
There were some last minute openings but that cost would eat too much into my travel funds so I instead booked a tour of the 4th largest cave. The Phong Nha caves are exclusive to certain caving companies and Jungle Boss runs the tours for the Tiger and Pygmy caves. They had recently mapped out new dolines and changed their tour a month ago to now pass through all four discovered entrances to the Tiger cave. I was quickly sold on the idea of a new route so I was really excited to start the tour and it was super cheap in comparison to the Son Doong cave tour.
The first day was 11km of hiking through the leech-infested jungle to the first entrance of the Tiger cave. After a 400m swim through cold but refreshing cave water, we emerged into a newly discovered sinkhole called the Kong Collapse where we spent the first night.
Camping in a giant sinkhole was awesome and it was a great group of people to share the experience with. Our porters, despite not speaking English, were really fun and I think we were all impressed with how they carried such large and heavy backpacks through the jungle with us. After settling down for a big jungle buffet cooked by our porters, the Jungle Boss team broke out the happy water to spice things up. The porters had brought 9L of flavored rice wine and the second night was supposed to be a big jungle party. It seems that they underestimated the amount required so most of that was polished off the first night during the jungle buffet. Afterwards, it was time for Karaoke and Vietnamese card games.
I was impressed with how much Bien, our guide, got into singling American pop music. He knew all the lyrics and hit some pretty high notes. Maybe he’s some Vietnamese music star when he’s not out running tours in the jungle.
The second day involved another swim through a different section of the Tiger Cave and then a hike through a dry cave called Hang Over. This cave was really neat. The air was so still that your headlamp illuminated the particulates suspended in the air but that also made it difficult to sense depth. Some parts of the cave were so tall that you couldn’t see the ceiling. This cave had a lot of cool stalactites and stalagmites and even some cave pearls, a phenomenon I had never heard of before. Most impressive of all was the final cave, Hang Pygmy, the fourth largest cave in the world.
Compared to the previous caves, this cave wasn’t very long but it more than made up for it with the view you get of light peaking into these massive sinkholes. This cave was more technically challenging and we had to descend down slippery rock ledges to get lower into the cave. We reached the exit opening and it was really a WOW moment but we didn’t get much time initially to sit and appreciate the view before us because we threw the swimsuits back on and hiked to the bottom of the cave. The swim in the deep and narrow crevice was just as cold as the Tiger cave but it was again refreshing after going through multiple cycles of sweating in the sun and cooling off in the caves.
After another delicious cave meal, karaoke, and card games, we all settled in for the night a bit earlier than the previous night.
This is where things quickly went south for me. At about midnight, it felt so stuffy in my tent and the air outside the tent wasn’t much better. So much of my clothes had a damp cave water smell to it. I rapidly started sweating and I felt like I was going to throw up so I opened both vestibules and lay with my head outside of the tent. I felt much better after a bit so I went to bed.
I couldn’t sleep much the rest of the night and I started to feel uneasy again around 5am. I stuck my head outside the tent again but this time I couldn’t hold it in. I got up out of bed an hour later and vomited some more.
Maybe I swallowed some cave water or something but I felt like shit and just laid on the ground until breakfast. I had zero interest in food so I forced myself to eat just a single banana pancake bite before gathering some strength to stand up and throw on my backpack for the 9km hike out of the jungle.
I drank close to 3L of electrolyte-infused water to compensate for throwing up but I felt so dehydrated on the hike out and probably sweat the same amount. I was really struggling, especially during the steep climbs but I managed to make it out without passing out. I stayed put the next day to recover more before moving on but even when I felt like complete shit during the hike, I was still so glad I signed up for this tour.
My caving group went out for dinner and drinks the next night and we happened to speak to one of the British cavers that has helped discover these caves. He was a tour leader for the Son Doong cave and he said the tour we just finished was definitely tougher. Hopefully I can return someday to take another unforgettable tour with Jungle Boss. It was an experience well worth the price.