We booked onto the abandoned valley jungle trekking which is a rock climb in a cave, a cave swim and 12.5km trek through jungle. We got picked up at 745am from the hotel in a ex Soviet war vehicle. There were 10 of us in total. The tour guide, Zara, had a crazy amount of enthusiasm and just laughed all the time. We headed to the jungle boss head quarters to sign our lives away with a disclaimer and change into the shoes that they provided for the trek in an attempt to save our shoes getting soaked and muddy again!
40minutes later we were dropped in the national park at the side of the road and off we went, up a very steep rocky incline.
Once again the mud was deep, we started off trying to avoid it but in the end it was just unavoidable and wet feet were inevitable. Zara was tiny, she did it in the jelly shoes and socks and I swear she was too light to sink in because she barely got muddy throughout the entire trek. She was also super speedy through the rocks, she used to go hunting with her dad as a teenager so it was second nature to her whereas us westerners were like a herd of elephants.
It was a VERY good job we didn’t wear our own boots. The long pants we bought the day before were also very necessary.
After walking for just over an hour’s, over trees crossing rivers, wading thigh deep in the rivers we reached the back entrance of the dark cave. The main entrance is very commercial used with kayak’s, zip lines and mudbaths. We went rock scrambling in the smaller entrance not easily accessible to the public.
This wasn’t for the faint hearted! With hats and gloves we scrambled across huge huge boulders which had fallen from the cave walls and roof. I was genuinely concerned that these could fall at my time but Zara didn’t seem concerned saying it only really happens in the wet season or after earthquakes. Once the rocks became wet it was really slippy and the cravases between the boulders were huge. We went 700m in and stood on the beach inside. We were told bout the spiders, scorpions, fish and shrimp that inhabit the cave, good job she didn’t say this before we went in! Sure enough on the way back I saw a Spider with long antennae because they don’t have any eyes, and a large shrimp in a pool. On the way back out the tour guide gave a route for the men on one bit and a route for the ladies. You would never get away with this back home, but sure enough one of the American ladies attempted the harder route, fell into the water and ripped the crotch out of her pants!
There were 3 local men who are employed to carry the luggage throughout the trek, each of their bags weighed 45kg including life jackets and helmets for everyone. I don’t know how they did it!!!
The next stop was the e cave which was an hour’s walk away following the river. This wasn’t easy either, the banks were sandy and collapsed as you walked on it. I got abrightly coloured caterpillar on my pants, I was reluctant to get it off incase it was poisonous but managed to find a safe leaf and get it off that way. Once we got to the base near e cave lunch was ready, it was just the same as the last trip, make your own spring rolls. The guide noticed the time,3pm it was very late and she wanted to go swimming quickly or else we would be trekking in the dark. This time I had a better fitting helmet so helmet head didn’t make a reappearance much to David’s disappointment. He took the camera with him anyway just in case!! And no surprises, when I’ve gone through the photos to write this, he couldn’t help himself but take a photo of his legs
This cave was much narrower, the water was 7m deep, in the rainy season it’s completely full with water. As we saw in we had to go under a very small opening within the cave, again I started to think about the Thai football team understanding how they got stuck- I couldn’t wait to get out of this one! The water was also freezing cold and I’m getting a cold for sure!!! I couldn’t stop sneezing and Zara offered me flu meds.
The walk back to the bus was about 90minutes in thick mud and up hill, it was really difficult and we had to pick up the pace to be out of the jungle before dark. I’ve been quite disappointed about the lack of wildlife we’ve seen but the path we walked is part of the ho chi Minh trail which is walked every day so the animals tend to avoid it. The only thing we saw as dusk serving were bats which flew so low they touched our heads.
The tour guide says that in the deeper jungle there are still a few leopards, sunbears and monkey. She’s seen leopard once from a distance. My life would be made if I could go home say I’ve seen leopard and orangutan in the wild!!!
We got back to the van just before dusk to an ice cold beer. It was well deserved and welcomed!! The journey back was slow in the old vehicle.
It was closing in on 7pm and people were being so slow and getting themselves sorted at headquarters before our drop off back to the hostel. We had a night bus to catch at 9pm and wanted to get showered, changed and head into town for a meal before we got on the bus. We were both getting a little impatient.
We managed to get back for 7pm and we rushed to the shower before the other people did on the trip. They were eating at the hostel so weren’t in such a rush. We made it into town for 730pm as we managed to get a lift from the hostel. We got sat down in bamboo cafe, the place we had eaten the day before. The food here is great and they are very eco conscious, filling your water up with safe water for a fraction of the cost of buying a new bottle to try and reduce plastic in the area.
We ordered almost everything on the menu except the penis banana we were so hungry!
The bus never turned up on time, it was an hour late, even then it came and then left again without letting people on, and then rocked up 15minutes later to let us on. Whilst waiting for the bus we got talking to 2 German sisters who were planning to stay at our next hostel too, we agreed we could all share a taxi at the other end.
The sleeper bus was an experience, it was 3 rows of ‘beds’ with two aisleways and top and bottom bunks, everyone had a blanket and a foot well where if you were shorter than 5foot5 you would be quite comfortable. In our case, once we had a backpacks next to our feet there wasn’t much room for moving. We both got as settled as we could, on the top bunks one behind eachother, when we realised we had pitched up next to the group of rowdy teenage travellers that had shared our boat the previous day. They were all drinking beer, screaming and swearing ….great start to the 7hours. Plus they recognised us! To be fair once the lights went off they weren’t so bad. I slept really well for being on a bus, David didn’t at all. When we got off he told me the driver stopped to get out twice, David had got out to go to the loo twice, the first time changing his mind because it was filthy and the second time out of desperation. He had also accidentally flung his leather pillow/head rest from his bed, hitting the guy in the top bunk of the central beds, and then both guys underneath him. Instead of sleeping he watched 4episodes on Netflix. I didn’t realise how well I had slept until he told me all of this that I’d slept through. The only thing that bothered me was the heat and the stuffiness of the bus despite air-conditioning, and the fact that I was sleeping cuddling a loo roll because of my streaming cold.
The bus driver must have put his foot down, we got picked up over an hour late and we arrived 40minutes early. Half way through I had decided to put my seatbelt on in my bed because I kept waking up to my feet being squashed into the footwell with his harsh breaking and the sound of the horn( whenever they overtake anyone here they beep the horn first to let them know).
South East Asia 2019 