We got up at 07.00 and hired bikes from our hotel, just after 10.00 we arrived in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. We had breakfast when we arrived, at a little cafe, and this random bloke came up to our table asking for money, he didn't understand the words 'no' and 'go away' it was just a pain and kinda ruined the meal for me. Rob and I had iced coffees, coffee with ice, strange, strong and rather nice. The reason for being in the national park was to visit a cave, we were told it was the biggest in the world but it actually wasn't, the largest is Son Doong Cave and is in the same national park as us but is yet to be open to the public. Our cave, Phong Nha Cave, a UNESCO world heritage site, was 7,729m long and the second largest in Vietnam but not even close to being the largest in the world. It contains 14 grottoes and has a 13,969m underground river, it's passages add up to another 44.5km. At the ticket office we were affered 2 different prices, 380,000 dong (£12) to get a boat downstream and go inside the cave about 600m or pay 700,000 dong (£21) to go 1.5km inside the cave (as far as tourists can go) and wander about. We said that it was too expensive so they randomly made this other deal, 300,000 dong, 1.5km in as long as we found 4 other people to go with, this we did with ease so grabbed ourselves a super deal. After nearly 2 hours inside we arrived back on terra ferma. We hit the road and drove down the river till the road ran out, near the end we met a canadian couple, travelling on a motorbike, we had previously met them 3 days ago at the monkey sanctuary, small world! before leaving we got a drink at a cafe then averaged 60kmph the whole 50+km home, an awesome ride. After we got back George went back to the hotel whilst Rob and I carried on ridding, we hit the coastal road for a few miles and came across some massive dunes, we walked up them but whilst at the top we saw some locals hanging around our bikes so we ran down, jumped on them, were followed, turned round and sped home. We then went out for dinner (on the bikes), had calamari at one restaurant, then couldn't afford anything else there so went to another restaurant for rice.
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