Hang En Caves – being pushed out of my comfort zone
I was looking forward to this adventure since I first read about it. I saw pictures of the Song En Cave, the biggest cave in the world, but it included serious cave diving and you can only put yourself on a waiting list – that opens at the beginning of 2017 for 2018. Hence we booked the Hang En Cave tour – and it was one fantastic, crazy, mind blowing adventure I will not forget for a long time!
We were picked up at 8 am from our little lodge, Chay Lap Farmstay, by the cave tour operator Oxalis. After a proper introduction to the adventure ahead of us, we swapped our gore-tex shoes with some of their ‘jungle boots’: basic Converse trainers with better rubber sole and holes on their insides so the water could get out faster. Best decision ever! Because I am sure our shoes would still be wet from the endless river crossings and swims :)
Our guides were great. Their main focus was our well-being and safety. We had porters who went ahead of us to build up our campsite and prepare dinner within the cave. So we only carried our must haves for during the day.
We were a group of about 16 fellow adventurers, originating from Hong Kong, Australia, US, UK and Switzerland, all fun and great people.
After a 45 min drive from the Oxalis office, we were dumped off on the side of the road and started our 7hrs walk down into the forrest. Luckily, it had not rained the day before so the path was not muddy and an easy walk down. Although we were told that we will be crossing rivers – as many as 19 – I tiptoed around the first one we crossed to keep my feet dry. Little did I know that I will be swimming through caves and rivers up to my nose, sometimes holding on tight to a rope to help me not float all the way down the valley!
Our first stop was lunch with a local family. We sat down on the floor, ate with our hands and enjoyed lots of great Vietnamese food. We needed the energy for what lay still ahead of us… A short while after lunch we faced our first deep river crossing. I was amazed how strong our rather skinny guides were. They tossed a rope over the river and positioned themselves right in the middle of it, their heads just popping out. By the looks of it, it seemed easy-peasy to cross it – until I felt the current - woah, hold on to your knickers I thought and already saw myself half way down that river! But we all made it safely over and continued our quest.
Cold Cave and the territory of the leeches
About an hour before the scheduled arrival at the entrance to Hang En Cave, our tour leader asked if we were up to explore the Cold Cave, which was a bit off our path but doable since we were ahead of schedule. He mentioned that there might be some leeches that we should check our feet and hands regularly while walking and take them off when we see them. And that the water of the cave – as the name indicates – will be cooler than the rivers we crossed so far. We were all bait and continued into the forest, now named by our group “the jungle of million leeches”…
We had to cross over some muddy forest parts, which was where the leeches crawled everywhere. Because it was a steep muddy hill to climb and ropes were needed to do so, we had to go one by one, thus had to wait for our turn. And that was when those nasty little buggers started to stick to your limbs. I never saw or experienced leeches before, and now hope I never will again. They are sticky, slimy black worms, which once on you, are extremely hard to get off. When they start feasting on your blood, you feel a burning pain on your skin. And depending on the size of the bloodsucker, the higher the pain you experience.
Both Todd and I were quite lucky in comparison to our fellow adventurers. I only had a few on my feet (yes, they go through your socks) and hands, and one up on my neck. Others were not that lucky and we got up close and personal very fast to remove leeches from each other, in ALL body parts...
Once leech-free, we started our first caving experience into the Cold Cave. We were equipped with helmets, headlamps and gloves and followed the rope into darkness. The cool water felt nice after having walked in the heat. Until I lost my foothold, dived and had to swim. It’s that moment that makes you gasp for air, your heartbeat goes faster and the adrenaline starts to rush through your body.
The Cold Cave was a great experience: once out of the water, you crawl over and under rock formations, hear bats above you, see stalagmites and stalactites, and when your headlamp shines into the darkness in front of you, you can only guess how much deeper the cave goes on.
After a leech check, we continued on to Hang En. You don’t enter the cave through its main entrance, but from underground, albeit its entrance is massive and can be seen from afar. There are three entrances to Hang En, with the largest and most famous one being over 120m tall and 140m across!!
After the last of 19 river crossings, we have equipped again with helmets, headlamps and gloves and started our climb up and over big rocks to the Hang En Cave. Had I seen the whole mountain of stone in front of me I don’t think I would have had the guts to climb it. But thanks to the limited range of the headlamp you only see that far :).
It is an impressive site that opens up in front of you, once you climb over the last boulder: a massive cave with a blue lagoon, white sandy beach and an army of tiny tents and ant-sized people which help you grasp the sheer size of the cave.
We crossed a wobbly wooden “bride” – which, under normal circumstance, I doubt I would have crossed with my vertigo – waded hip deep a last time through the water before we exhaustedly but happy grabbed our bags and changed into dry clothes. The simple things in life have all of a sudden a very different meaning :).
Over dinner, we traded travel stories, had some good laughs about our leaches experiences, enjoyed warm tea and ‘happy water’ with good Vietnamese food. An experience like that is fun to share with people who can laugh about themselves and the situations we were in.
We both slept like a log that night. It’s magical to crawl out of your tent in the morning and you look up towards the entrance of this massive cave.
After breakfast, we packed up all our belongings and handed it back to the porters.
Before leaving the cave and making our way back, we explored the caves behind Hang En for 2 hours. The view we had looking down from the opposit side where we entered the day before was stunning. It makes you feel so small…
Again, I was very happy that my headlamp only lit as far as it did… because in bright daylight I would have never climbed up and down these rocks. Especially, because you’d see all the way down to the bottom of the cave which was a looong way to go.
We saw sea fossils, by the sound of it a massive colony of bats above us, huge stalagmites and stalactites and crossed another river before we arrived at another entrance to Hang En Cave. One which is also part of the Song En Cave tour.
The size of those cave entrances are enormous, and I can try to describe it to you as many times as I want – you have to see and experience it for yourself to maybe grasp their sizes and the way you are dwarfed by them.
Todd and I had the night train to catch that eve to get us back to Hanoi. Hence we left the group after the exploration of the caves behind Hang En together with one of the porters. Unlike the day before it was raining cats and dogs on our way out. Since we were about to cross those 19 rivers again, I just kept on walking in the rain – because you will be soaked in any case, wearing your rain coat only adds another wet item to your luggage.
With that heavy rain came muddy paths and higher rivers – and we only had one porter and no ropes. I was a bit worried remembering how deep I was in the water the day before, and thinking about crossing those rivers with stronger current and just one sturdy porter creeped me out some.
But we made it out without any issues. Admittedly some river crossings made my heart stop and we almost went down the river all three of us, but at the end it was all good. I don’t know how our guide/porter schlepped his huge load on the back and got us both through the rivers. But he did. Being just the tree of us we made it out in record time: a bit more than 4hrs.
It was a fantastic experience I recommend anybody who is fit to do. And those nasty leeches add to such an adventure and make you smile when thinking back.
