Vietnam's largest-cave

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Caves marred by Graffiti in Ha Long Bay

As one of the most beautiful grottoes in Vietnam, Dau Go cave maintains the vestiges of the people of over 2 million years ago. But the cave is marred by the youth.

LookAtVietnam - As one of the most beautiful grottoes in Vietnam, Dau Go cave in Ha Long Bay, Quang Ninh province maintains the vestiges of the people of over 2 million years ago. But the cave is marred by the youth.

Touring Halong Bay in one day and more

Travelling Ha Long Bay to… collect rubbish

“For A Green Ha Long” program starts

Tunnel of Love-Vietnam

A mysterious network of caves by Chua Tien in Hoa Binh province have proved to be a popular spot for tourism

According to legend it was Lac Long Quan who fathered Vietnam. He was said to be descended from the dragons and possessed superhuman strength. One day, he made a trip out onto the water and there he met Au Co, a fairy princess. The couple married and Au Co gave birth to a sac with 100 yolks which turned into 100 infants.

The children were born at Chua Tien (Fairy’s Pagoda) in Hoa Binh province’s Lac Thuy district, an area also linked to Bac Son culture which dates some 10,000 years. Archeology digs have unearthed human bones and assorted stone tools.

The pagoda is in a limestone valley, home to beautiful caves and grottos, the most remarkable of which is Tien gottto (Fairy’s Grotto). However, most tourists head for Tam Toa grotto, the largest cave in the tourism complex.

You have to climb steps 300 metres up into the cave and crawl under the climbing liana. From just inside, the cave seems small and narrow. However, the further you venture in the more the cave opens up. As the full splendour of the cave is revealed, our travelling party is bowled over by this mysterious wonder of nature.

The artificial lights add to the magical mystery of the cave. On the walls and ceiling we can see giant bas-reliefs of strange figures that we have never imagined. The stalagmites have been transformed into an intricate, ornate body of work – I can see a kneeing elephant and a galloping horse. Looking to the ceiling, we are amazed by the living figures of the Heavenly court such as the Emperor of Jade and the God of Thunder, surrounded by fairies in gorgeous clothes. Each wall of the grotto is a wonder.

Each compartment of the grotto is a sculptural masterpiece. We wonder whether it is a work of the Creator or a being from another planet!

An old legend

The Tien grotto also has its own story. Legend has it that in days of yore, a young man named Din lived in such poverty that he could not find a wife, though he worked hard around the clock. Knowing Din’s plight, the Emperor of Jade sent his third daughter named Ba down to the earth to marry Din. For three years the couple lived in happiness but they could not conceive a child. As a deity Ba was not destined to stay forever. After three years she had to return to Heaven, leaving her husband as sad and as sorrowful as ever.

The Emperor of Jade felt sorry for Din and allowed Ba to return. But when she descended from Heaven she found that her husband had already left his home and died of sorrow on the mountain. Ba remained on earth, spending her days in a grotto and weaving cloth. This is now the Fairy’s Grotto.

It was said that any couple wanting to have children should visit the grotto and place a piece of cloth before Ba’s chamber. In the next morning, they would receive a perfect suit or dress. If it was a suit they’d have a son, if it was a dress they’d have a girl.

Growing tourism

In honour of the couple, the Tien pagoda festival is held from the fifth day of the first lunar month to the last day of the fourth lunar month. Each year, the complex is visited by some 200,000 people, mostly from the locality.

Over the past few years, tourism activities have begun to take shape here and the complex is managed by a private-owned company which was granted permission by the former Ministry of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism).

Not that everyone is happy about growing tourism in the area. “I think that the site is being commercialised and losing its sacredness,” says Ho Minh Van, a 55-year old from Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem district.

“It’s good for local socio-economic development but altars dedicated to Budda and saints are improperly erected every where. Many shrines are nothing but boxes temporarily made of steel pillars and plastic sheets.”

“When I ask those working at the grottos, they say that they don’t know what the statues are but keep asking me to put some money into hom cong duc (donation boxes) placed in front of the altars, though I have already put my money into at least 15-20 boxes placed every where at the site!”

With growing numbers of visitors, the site is also under threat from pollution. “Rubbish can be seen all over the place and you can’t find a toilet anywhere,” moans Pham Thi Bich, a 60-year old visitor from Haiphong city.

VietNamNet - The quiet caves

The caverns of Tam Coc (three caves) and Bich Dong (emerald grotto) in northern Vietnam have been known for centuries as the inland Ha Long Bay.

It took millions of years for nature to hollow out the country’s second most beautiful caves by the Ngo Dong River in Ninh Binh Province. Huong Tich Cave in the former Ha Tay Province, now a part of Hanoi, is still considered the most beautiful.

The only way to visit the caves in Ninh Hai Commune, Hoa Lu District is by taking a three-hour cruise in a sampan rowed by one or two local women who also sell embroidery.

All is one

“It’s so peaceful and quiet, you can hear the sound of butterflies beating their wings,” says boatwoman Chu Van as the first morning sunbeams illuminate the placid countryside where creeks tumble down between huge rock formations.

The boat journey begins at the village of Van Lam and proceeds through a scenic landscape dominated by rice paddies and karst towers.

Edwen Bell from Britain is spellbound by the chain of sheer limestone peaks rising out of the verdant paddy fields and sees no boundary between land and water.The two seem to merge into one.

The first underground excursion is through Ca Cave, the largest and longest of the caverns. It was created when the sea occupied the area, long ago, and is 127 meters long with a ceiling about two meters above the water.

In the morning light, the cliff above the cave entrance is vividly reflected in the water as it sparkles in the sunshine.

The longer we travel in the row boat, the more beautiful, fanciful and poetic the scenery becomes.

“The air is so fresh. It’s a far cry from the bustling, dusty streets of the city,” says Nguyen Thu Oanh from Hanoi.

Charmed by the interspersed peaks and water, she finds the name “Inland Ha Long Bay” very apt.

We duck as the boat scrapes under a low bridge and feel ourselves lost in a paradise of never-ending lotus ponds and their distinctive aroma.

Farther along the meandering river we come to the shady entrance of Hai Cave, which is 60 meters long and 18 meters wide.

The roof of the cavern is studded with magnificent stalactites that reach nearly to the water and makes us feel like we are floating in a cloud of dripping limestone.

After Hai Cave, we travel along the river through scenery even more imposing than before.

The entrance of Ba Cave looms ahead like a fracture in the mountain. It is the smallest of the three caves and is the coolest thanks to the pleasant breeze.

We duck inside for a spell, say goodbye to Ba Cave, and go along the river a bit more to relax, enjoy the scenery, and smell the perfume from the lotus ponds.

Soon after leaving the spectacular vista of Tam Coc, we alight from the boat and climb a pretty mountainside to visit the tiered temples of Bich Dong Pagoda. The view from the top temple is spectacular.

The French actress Catherine Deneuve left her footprints here when they filmed the final scenes of the film Indochine in 1991. It sparked a rush of French-speaking tourists to Tam Coc-Bich Dong.

From the pagoda, we have the option of traveling farther along the Ngo Dong River before returning to the village, or visiting a brook called the Fairy Stream.

Our journey back is broken with a visit to the centuries-old temple of Thai Vi, which is only a short walk from the river through lush fields of green.

VietNamNet/TN

World’s largest grotto unveiled in Vietnam

– British explorers have discovered a new cave in Phong Nha-Ke Bang, which is thought to be the largest in the world.
The Son Doong Cave.
The cave is named Son Doong and was found by a local man named Khanh in 2008. However, it was not explored and assessed by experts until a group of explorers from the UK, led by Howard Limbirt, made a survey in Phong Nha-Ke Bang from April 10-14, 2009

According to explorers, the way to this cave is very difficult. From the HCM City Highway, they had to walk for six hours and pass 8-10km of forest to reach the cave.

Howard Limbirt said that this cave is five times larger than the current Phong Nha cave, the biggest cave in Vietnam, and even bigger than Malaysia’s Deer, the current greatest cave in the world (2km length, 100m height, and 90m width).
The Son Doong Cave, therefore, has been proclaimed the largest in the world (over 5km length, 200m height, 150m width).
On April 22, the British Royal exploration group reported the exploration results in the western mountainous area of the central province of Quang Binh to the local authorities.
Howard Limbrit said within one month, his group had discovered an additional 20 caves, raising the total number of grottoes in Phong Nha-Ke Bang to 150.
He said each grotto has its own beauty, but he is impressed by Ca Xai. This cave is near the Vietnam-Laos border. It is very deep and has a big lake inside. Explorers measured the depth of this lake, but they had only 200m of rope and the end didn’t reach the lake bed.
Howard Limbirt warned that this cave is not ready for tourism at present. After returning to the UK, the group will finalize the file and release a program me to introduce their discoveries.
The British explorer said that they will return to Quang Binh in 2011 to continue their promising adventure there.
Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is located in Bo Trach and Minh Hoa districts in the center of Quang Binh province. The park is bordered by Laos to the west. The road distances are about 500 km south of the capital Hanoi and 260 km north of the port city of Da Nang. It protects one of the world’s two largest karts regions with several hundred caves and grottoes.

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park was first nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. It was recognized as a world natural heritage site at UNESCO’s 27th general assembly session in Paris from June 30-July 5, 2003.

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is one of the world’s two largest limestone regions. In comparison with 41 other world heritage sites which have karsts, Phong Nha has dissimilar geomorphic, geologic and biotic conditions. The karsts of Phong Nha can be traced back to the Palaeozoic era, 400 million years ago. This makes Phong Nha the oldest major karst in Asia. If the Hin Namno, bordering Phong Nha on the west (in Laotian territory), was to be combined with the national park in a continuous reserve, the combined reserve would be the largest surviving karst forest in Southeast Asia (317,754 ha).

The area has numerous grottoes and caves. Vietnamese and British scientists have so far surveyed a total of 20 caves with a total length of 70km. Of these surveyed caves, 17 are in the Phong Nha area and three in the Ke Bang area.

The Phong Nha cave from which the name of the whole system and the park is derived is famous for its rock formations which have been given names such as the "Lion", the "Fairy Caves", the "Royal Court", and the "Buddha".

Besides the grotto and cave systems, Phong Nha has the longest underground river, the largest caverns and passageways. Phong Nha-Ke Bang also contains two dozen mountain peaks of over 1,000 meters in height. Noteworthy peaks are the Peak Co Rilata with a height of 1,128 m and Peak Co Preu with a height of 1,213 m.

Mekong cruise launches in Luang Prabang-17 February, 2009

LUANG PRABANG - Villa Maly has launched Nava Mekong, a dinner cruise along the river in Luang Prabong..

The cruise embarks daily at 5:30 pm, motors downstream to moor near a traditional village for dinner and music, and returns at 9 pm.

The traditional Lao river boat also embarks at 10:30 am for a four-hour lunch cruise that takes in the Pak Ou Caves.

During the afternoon cruise, the Nava stops at the Pak Ou Caves where 5,000 sacred Buddhist statues and images are scattered among two limestone grottoes.

On the evening cruise, traditional Lao dancers from nearby villages perform age-old sets.

Through April, the Nava charges US$30 for dinner and $35 for lunch.

Stay two nights at the Villa Maly and the cruise is complimentary.

Villa Maly, the former residence of a Lao prince and princess, opened in October with 28 superior rooms and five deluxe rooms.