We made it to an appointment made months in advance for a 2 day adventure to explore 2 cave complexes – Hang Va and Nuoc Nut connected by a river. Only a company called Oxalis is authorized to run the tours on this well preserved and protected caves. We started off with getting oriented with safety and getting to know other six people we would spend the next 2 days.
Tha – lead guide – an energetic Vietnamese local with a mix of British Vietnames English accent. I guess the English accent got infused by his Caving instructors from England. Sin – second in line of command to Tha – Vietnamese girl in her twenties who grew up in Seattle US. She had so many things going on and seem to be in soul searching phase of her life – rebel in her physically exhibited by tattoos and piercings, repugnance against modern culture, penchant for yoga and serenity. Van – A petite young lady from Hanoi who is pursuing her Ph.D. in Spain. She had to lie to her parents to sneak out for caving. Iulian – A Bulgarian software professional based out of Germany. He seems to have a sweat arrangement with his employer to remotely work for a year while he travels around the world exploring caves and places. Paula and Maurizio – A lovebirds who recently graduated from an UK university. Two complementary personalities as a pair but quite contradictory to their national stereotypes – Paula, a feisty and affable Spaniard. Maurizio – a soft-spoken and composed Italian with a naughty smile.
After the orientation, we drove for a couple of hours, followed by about an hour of hike to get to the cave opening (a.k.a., ‘base camp’). A nice lunch spread was just put together by the crew who were stationed at the base camp. After lunch, we got familiarized with mounting the gear, and hit the ‘world under’. I guess the enormity and uniqueness of the ‘world under’ transposes one – a pleasant weather at ~17C with its own ecosystem, the pitch darkness, the stillness sometimes broken with the sound of falling dribs and drabs of water from above, active formations originating from millions of years ago, small navigational passages leading to enormous openings, different sections with different characteristics of stalactites and stalagmites.
The previous year all three of us had caved at Sonara caves in Austin, USA where we had negotiated extremely narrow passages. But in Vietnam, the caves offer a variety of additional standout characteristics such as internally flowing rivers, mini waterfalls, and clear pools. The first one we encountered had a combination of all three – a forceful mini water fall jutting out of small rock opening, water dumping to a mini pool with ~7ft depth at deepest point before joining the river stream. Iulian jumped into the pool with no inhibitions and everyone else followed his suit. Sin with limited swimming skills, perhaps overpowered by the beauty of the sight, managed to cross the pool to get a dip under the water fall.
After wrapping for the day, we climbed back to the ground to our base camp. The crew were in full swing preparing for dinner. The camp tents neatly arranged on a mini mound. The dining table was set up with a huge spread of dishes. The eco toilet set apart from the camp side was decent with ample saw dust to cover any dump. We hung up our wet clothes, refreshed to dry clothes, and huddled around the dining table for a long chat and series of games till mid night. By now, we got quite comfortable with each other, taking liberty to poke and make fun at each other. It is interesting how activities quickly bring people together in a natural setting. It was endearing to watch the love birds being competitive to win the rounds. The feisty Paula and bubbly Tha prevailed mostly in the games. The crew in parallel had their own ‘pow wow’ over multiple rounds of beer and wine on a mat spread on the ground while the Burgeoisies feasted from a table.
We woke up to the sound of crew preparing for the morning breakfast. Sin doing her morning Yoga and exercise and slowly one-by-one walked out of the tent. Tha, with constant adrenaline pump, was flexing his stout frame muscles with body exercise routines. We continued to the finer moments of enjoying coffee/tea over chit chats. After the morning rituals, we geared up and went down under.
The highlight of the day was more focused on traversing moving water bodies – some shallow long passages of tranquil water flow while some were deeper and had to negotiate with the help of life jackets. Often we would take a photo break at interesting formations with water bodies. Tha would place the LED flash light at an angle, creating cinematic shades and reflections.
Given the exclusive rights Oxalis has as the operating company and owing to strict access policies, we were the only human habitants of the cave over the last 2 days. Some sections of the caves with vibrant activities were so well preserved in that we were allowed to walk only on an established iron grid foot path. Each section has its own unique landscape and offerings – vaulted ceiling with boulders, shallow ceiling with formation, mixed with moving water fall, etc. Some transitioning from one to another sections required getting tethered on to the rope fastened on the wall to negotiate narrow slippery cliff passages.
We wrapped up the caving and got back to the sultry upper atmosphere, changed over to dry clothes, and trekked (physically a demanding one indeed) for about an hour to get back to the van waiting for us to take to the city. We were physically exhausted after the trek. It was interesting to note that over the last couple of days, Tha had survived with flimsy plastic sandals over the last two days. Apparently, those ‘red sandals‘ gained notoriety during the VietCong days as they proved resilient in moving around in jungles and Cu Chi tunnels. We changed to lighter wear and hydrated plenty. We were at the final hours of bidding farewell to each other. The group had become quite friendly over the two days, reminding one of how people get friendly over long train journeys in India, departing with a somber mood.
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