QUANG BINH KY SU - Part 1 & only 1:)

Dear my blog buddies, esp. who have followed my "live trip report" may be a little bit surprised when u see this entry tittle,rite? Well, there are still many other interesting things of Danang should be reviewed,but as a matter of fact that I just come back from a 3 day-2 night trip to QUANG BINH,so I wanna retell it now coz it's still fresh in my mind:).

After a quick decision on Thursday night and a mini-check for available buses to DONG HOI city -QUANG BINH, I decided to depart at 12a.m. Friday afternoon. The 4-and-a-half-hour trip to QB reminded me of the time I was on the roller coaster in Damsen park with the "car racer-like" style of the bus driver. I arrived at DONGHOI bus stop at 5pm and was driven to the guesthouse far away from the bus stop only 100meter with the price of...5000VND (if u walk,it takes u abt...30s).

The first nite I hired a motobike to go around Dong Hoi city, again, if Danang area is abt 1/3 HCM city, than Dong Hoi is abt 1/3 Danang, there are only 3 main roads: Tran Hung Dao, Ly Thuong Kiet and Nguyen Huu Canh. If u go out of them,there are only darkness and darkness , most of the shops here close at...8pm so spending one nite to go around is sthg a little bit...weird, it's even worse when my motobike's tyre is flat while I went through Nhat Le bridge.

ON NHAT LE BRIDGE

But then, I also had chance to enjoy Quang Binh's speciality food - LAU DE: it's special thanks to its sauce - very strange taste,but to me...not delicious

The next morning which has been a wish of me for a long time - travelling toPHONG NHA KE BANG in BO TRACH - my grandparents' homeland - in fact the people here made me miss my granddad so much, esp.their voice was no different from my granddad's.I departed at 7 and arrived at 8h30.Well,I thought this trip was one & unique coz I never can make it again in my life. Tourirsts often come to Phong Nha KeBang by National Road I,but as suggested by the guesthouse keeper, I went to Phong Nha HO CHI MINH track which is faster and much more beautiful. Yes,it is!!! not only beautiful but also attractive, peaceful, marvellous and...well, no words can describe all its beauty and wonder. I went to PN through this way only 40km but already a little bit tired though driving motobike,then, imagine how strong,braveful and enduring Uncle Ho'soldiers are when they passed ,not across but along TRUONG SONfor abt 1000 km and no..motobike,of course.

This is also the first time I saw how long Truogn Son, well,how can I say,it's very very very long, this moutain is followed by another moutain, all are covered by a light fog though it's midday already. I was also able to see an eagle flying cross the sky (oh my god, it;s just like a pic in my dream). One thing should be learnt is how much effort the " road openers" have spent for this long long road,in some places,they even cut,yes, cut the mountains into 2 pieces and made the road pass by.

Along the road,there are some sovkhozes (or stage-managed farms or "nong truong" in VIetnamese:) named HOP TACXA "QUYET TIEN",TIEU KHU "DUNG CAM"...Well,how can I say, It reminded me of some stories I read when I was a student, of a man whose name is HOGIAO with his herd of cows (story-like or even fairy-like pic,I think:). Ohmy god, I lovethis place but not in case my tyre is flat again,hehe:)

ok, HERE i come already,well,once again, I was impressed by the beauty of PHONG NHA KE BANG - yes,it deserves for its tittle " WORLD'S NATURAL HERITAGE"

I spent a sum of money 50.000VND for the ticket (well,that worths for the tittle WORLD'S NATURAL HERITAGE ) and then waited for another 30 minutes until there's another 8 people coming to share the boat fee (if not,I needed to pay 150.000VND/boat by myself --> holy god!!!). Luckily enough, at 9am, there was a group of QUANG NAM tourists coming,they also let me on board without sharing the boat's fee,hehe.

THe boat trip from the landing stage to the PHONG NHA cave took abt...1 hour, but it doesn;t matter coz the landscape on both river sides is so nice. There was also a cement pillar which has a decoration of betel and, according tothe tour guide,this was also the original place of "Betel and areca fairy tale"()

One thing should be noticed is the color ofthe water here,it's soooooo green and soooooo clean, so green to differentiate it with other rivers in other places and so clean and clear to see the bottom (u may wonder why, but coz the depth of it is abt 6-10m --> unable to see the bottom:).Ah, sorry.its name is SON RIVER (SON = LIPSTICK) --> a lovely name,is it???.

There are 2 main caves here "KHO(DRY)" which has another name as TIEN SON (Fairy Moutain) and "UOT"(WET) which was flooded
by SON RIVER. We went up to TIEN SON cave first(actually,they don;t call it cave here but grotto)

1...2...1...2...try ur best,near to..the half way already..hahah

Well,it took me another half an hour to climb up rthis moutain,but then,it deserves my effort, maybe there is no other grottos in the world can be big as this and marvellous as this like this grotto in TIEN SON.

In front of "LONG LAN QUY PHUNG" limestone,can u imagine where are those aninals in this "messy" stones,i can't,ehhe

WET CAVE -

After one hour in DRY CAVE,we went down and visited WET CAVE - again, the view here is "undescibable", it looks like I was lost in a fairy world with many limestones of fairy's hair, Buddha, fairyman... (wait, this is not my imagination but those are described by the tour guide,i'm not that kind of so imaginable man lah,hahahah),but yes, one thing I must admit, it was so...undescribable...

FAIRY ' S HAIR LIMESTONE

Phong Nha cave's river source up to now is still a mystery to the scientists, and how long it is is also another big Question, there have been 2 discoverymen spending 24 days in PHONG NHA grotto to go up to 8km but still couldnot find its source. And we, the ordinary people can only be allowed to go for...400 meters coz if we go further,there will be no more oxygen to breath so......

Bye bye Phong Nha, I came back with a big pride of the beauty of my homeland,and once again,it made me miss my granddad while I was having my tyre fixed on the way back (damm it the motobike's tyre.... but it pleased me a bit when I heard the motobike fixer's voice of Bo TRach accent)

That evening, I spent half an hour to go around DONG HOI city again, well, it's not so boring in the eveing as it is at night.

I intended to go to Nhat Le beach but sadly, it was covered all by a big resort and unable to get enter without paying morning,but luckily enough,at the view from Nhat Le Bridge, I can see Nhat Le Rivermouth.Well, this was the first time I saw thew rivermouth where the river meets the sea...it's.... undescibable again....

DONG HOI city also has some other tourism attractive places like QUANG BINH QUAN or ME SUOT monumentary house (as I remembered, ME SUOT was a "Vietnamese heroine-mother" in TO HUU's poems - am I rite??)

Ngẫng đầu mái tóc Mẹ rung

Gió lay như sóng biển tung trắng bờ

Gan chi gan rứa Mẹ nờ

Mẹ rằng cứu nước mình chờ chi ai..."

"Giặc đến nhà đàn bà cũng đánh"; ở tuổi 60, nghe theo tiếng gọi thiêng liêng của Tổ quốc, Mẹ Suốt đã tham gia hoạt động cách mạng, xung phong nhận nhiệm vụ chèo đò đưa bộ đội qua sông và tiếp tế lương thực, vũ khí đạn dược phục vụ chiến đấu...Ngày 11/10/1968 trong lúc làm nhiệm vụ Mẹ Suốt đã anh dũng hy sinh bởi một trận bom của quân thù ngay trên dòng sông Nhật Lệ

Ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for your attention. See u in the next report