Caves and Tunnels

Phong Nha Caves and Vinh Moc Tunnels

Our long day started with an 8 am pick up at our hotel, the Sun Spa Resort. It was a typical huge beach resort with several pools, a spa, and a golf course...which we had no time to enjoy. Not that we cared, that was not why we came. Well, I guess I did get a massage out of it.

An hour and a half drive along the Ho Chi Minh trail, which is now a nicely paved two lane road, and we arrived at the place where we boarded our boat for the trip down the river to the cave. Our boat was able to enter the first opening of the cave, but the second opening that would have taken us all the way in was too short for the boat to get through, due to the recent heavy rains. So we had to get out and walk into the cave.

The river continues underground for 10 kilometers, we are told that it is the longest underground river in the world. But the tourists can only go into the first 500 meters. Scientists have explored the first 2 kilometers, but no one has ventured any farther in. The danger of flash floods filling the cavern is too high.

After touring the cave and riding the boat back to our car, we decided to have a small bite to eat before beginning our 2 hour drive back to Hue and the Vinh Moc Tunnels. I had a bowl of beef pho, but Augie's stomach was still too distressed to have anything but water.

Augie and I both dozed much of the way to Hue. We finally arrived at the tunnels. We first went to the small museum where they had a map of the area and pictures depicting life in the tunnels and various other war propaganda.

The tunnels were built to house some 2000 people of the village of Vinh Moc to protect them from the American bombs. The Viet Cong helped them to build this complex labrynth in three levels, some sections as deep as 60 ft underground. They lived there from 1965 to 1967. There was a severely physically and mentally disabled man who lives in or around the tunnels and escorted us into the caves. He was sort of a Vietnamese equivalent of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. He giggled along either in front of or in back of us, and he gave me a flashlight to help me in the dark. Our guide told us he was one of the 17 children born in the caves and is the last survivor. His birth defects were caused by Agent Orange. The rest of them all died from the war or from the affects of Agent Orange.

Augie and I had to walk with our heads down and our backs hunched in order to fit. There were square rooms where each family would live, a well, a wash room, and a big meeting room. There were several openings onto the cliffs above the sea to allow air circulation, and openings toward the land to offer protection. They were different from the Chu Chi Tunnels in Saigon in that the Chu Chi Tunnels were made for combat, these were made as shelters. It was very interesting to see, and a very sad reminder of what life in a war zone is like.

Finally, we drove the last 2 hours back into the center of Hue, where we had our dinner at a nice restaurant. Hue seems to be a nice city, it reminded us of Saigon when we were here 11 years ago. We hear that Saigon is now more crowded and more smoggy than even Hanoi. So we are worried about what we'll find when we get there.

We are now at the airport waiting for our late night flight to Saigon.