This is a rewritten review of my trip to Quang Binh this summer.
Quang
Binh
This
was totally a spontaneous decision. I was in Hanoi, visiting the old town and
meeting with relatives by tagging along grandma. I haven't bought tickets back
to Ho Chi Minh city with my sister yet. I thought, why not extend this trip for
a bit?
As I
pondered around two choices of either Nha Trang or Quang Binh, I chose Quang
Binh, heading to Dong Hoi city because incidentally, Minh - my all time favourite
photo-hunter-backpacking buddy was there with his father. Searching in frantic
for a night bus ticket from Hanoi to Dong Hoi city, I finally found the ticket
to my first experience with a bus with beds.
I said
goodbye to grandma and my uncle's family, set off on the bus and slept
comfortably through the night. Who ever thought of this idea is a genius!
Perfect for travellers on budget like me!
It
must be two years now since I was in Quang Binh last. 5.30 am, the bus dropped
me off in Dong Hoi city. One call and Minh rode his bike to pick me up. We
headed to Nhat Le river where he and his father - both photographers were
hunting for good photos in the sunrise rays. I joined them too!
Happy
hunting, we went back to the office, where Minh's father - QL works and live
with his lovely wife and little cheeky daughter. I met the people who work here
two years ago and still here, it was good to catch up with them. I left my
backpack here and prepared for our trip to Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park
just an hour a way by car. The office's driver drove us there, just me and
Minh.
The driver - L, took us through on the Ho Chi Minh highway that crossed the outside and north of the park - the Truong Son's West road to Phong Nha - Ke Bang, passing over rice fields, corn, water buffalo bathing themselves, chicken ... all very much "Que"- meaning countryside. The concrete road lead through small hills that evidently have been cut through to make ways for us.. Silver grey rocks just piles up on the side, tall and straight like giant walls.
The scenery changed when we enter the Truong Son mountain, trees here are encouraged to grow and managed, bringing fresh air through our car windows. Oh the smell of the forest!
Come down to the tourist spot of Dong Thien Duong (Heaven cave), L stayed outside with his car (he has been here 7 times?). Minh and I carried our tripods and cameras, headed to inside to harvest some pictures.
For the first part of the walk, we took the shuttle golf cart ride and then walked the 500 steps stair up to the cave entrance. We climbed and climbed in the fragrant of the forests and singing of birds. Good exercise eh!
As I approach the entrance, I was absolutely certain this was the cave because of the cooling air that it was giving out, welcoming guests to enjoy the beauty with in. We came here with one purpose, to harvest photos of extraordinary natural architecture of the karst.
The Heaven cave, apart from the cooling atmosphere possesses a beauty sparkling in the light. I have came here two years ago yet I was still overwhelmed by the massiveness of the cave upon entrance. I climbed down the wooden stair in excitement.
Minh and I have chosen the correct approximate time around 12 o’clock at lunch on a weekday so that we can avoid having people in our photographs. For the next three hours, I kept on snapping pictures using the tripod to aid with gathering enough lights in our lenses…
A little
introduction of Phong Nha – Ke Bang NP and UNESCO World Heritage site in Quang
Binh. The limestone karst formed here has evolved some 400 million years ago in
Palaeozonic time and is considered to be the oldest karst in Asia. The
complexity of the park’s karst landscape is probably due to the site being
subject to huge tectonic changes. Many geomorphic features vary significantly.
The total area is vast 85, 754 ha with extreme formations – 65 km of caves and
underground rivers, terrestrial and aquatic habitats, primary and secondary
forest, sites of natural regeneration, tropical dense forests and savanna.
The
karst formation over millions of years created rivers and various cave types
from dry, terraced, suspended to dendritic caves. *Ref. to whc.unesco.org/en/list/951
In the
end, after three fastly gone by hours, we had to put our camera away to ensure
that we would actually get out of this place. We climbed out of the cave and
walked through the forest path down to exit.
L was
waiting for us outside already and we headed off on the Ho Chi Minh highway but
now heading to the East road. As we got to the top, we stopped for a while to
enjoy the vastly green view of the mountain collective. It was astonishingly
beautiful!
Back to
the office, Minh and I came over to pick up the little girl and I enjoyed a
nice home cooked dinner with the family. I sat, writing in my diary and slept
sound fully through the night.
Early
morning, I have climbed through the door of the office to walk to the Nhat Le
river, taking a few shots of this beautiful place in the morning. Here is the
fishing nets being soaked, ready to catch some seafood. It's so relaxing just
walking alongside the water and catching the sunrise.
Today,
marked my first ever road trip on motorbike with Minh. Minh’s father – an
amateur photographer himself, helped us plan our routes and stops for photographs,
driving along North of Quang Binh province. Minh will be the driver since I do
not know how to ride a motorbike…
We
stocked up water and some food for the day, wear sunscreen and helmets and head
off to a good start!
It was
sunny but Minh drove quickly through the road alongside Nhat Le river, allowing the nice breeze to
cool us down. Nhat Le river in Dong Hoi city pour its water out to the South
China Sea. As we drove, the scenery changes. We passed through the port of Nhat
Le river, approaching the road that cut across white sand dunes by the side.
Oddly enough, learning about ecology and deserts at school, I kept thinking
about the primary vegetation that appears here…
On the
sides of the road, there are only few houses in the middle of drove passed
several Yule forests. The convenient of travelling on motorbike meant that you
can stop at any one time on the side of the road to take photographs. We drove
through many, many rice paddy, cornfields, water buffalo at work, cows eating
grasses… All captured in our cameras.
An hour
passed and we have approached a smaller town. Finding the right route was
getting difficult. This was the one time, Google map on my phone actually prove
the have greater use than walking distance. However, despite our best effort
collectively, to find our way to this particular lake on our plan, we got lost
and arrived at an abandoned train station. 3G connection here is no good, I
have given up.
Minh and
I decided after a few wrong turns to continue on with the trip. We came into
quite a remote part of Quang Binh province that we have seen so far with the
view of Truong Son’s mountain in the distance.
It is
truly “Que” as we would have said in Vietnam. What this means was the way that
farmers here apply their cultivation method. It is almost completely very
traditional. I could see the importance of agriculture in the local economy as
there is little else around except vast amount of land covered in young green
rice crops. There were cows laying on
the grass with their young ones, water buffalo having a good bath to cool down
under the boiling heat and ducks clan being fed on the little ponds in the back
yard.
Most wet
rice agriculture around the country has been “modernized” with better use of
machinery and techniques. However, in certain areas like here in Quang Binh,
still use traditional method requiring intensive labour with uneven demands for
labour input. (There is only two harvests a year). The Vietnamese through
histories solved this by having large families working as their labour forces.
Agriculture
plays a vital role in the social and cultural of the local community. Wet rice
paddy agriculture is one of the biggest source of income for Vietnam and it is
carried out across the country in various ways, often rotated with other crops
such as sweet potatoes ad corns.
Households
grew other products too and sold most of the extras, locally in exchange for
others. For example, there were banana trees in one backyard, a watermelon rows
in another or longans bunch being sold just down the highway.
We made
a long pit stop here before driving back towards the Giang river…
In the
afternoon, Minh’s father on his way to working with another company, dropped me
off at the fishing port to have a look. It wasn't suprising that there was a strong stench of fish smell at the fish port but here showcase a long stretch of rubbish
left by human washed up along the beach. It really makes me think of the impact we make everyday, even in the smallest action of dropping a plastic straws on the ocean.
After,
we discovered a sandhill being exploited for sand behind a cover of Yule trees
up front. We made a short trekked inside to uncover an absolute heaven inside –
the hidden secret was this magnificent lake here.
Near
sunset, we drove to a different sandhill next to the river to capture a few
snaps of the sun on sanddunes.
What a beautiful way to end what has to be another fantastic trip!
I left in the morning, the family and the office packed food for me to bring back home for mum. I tried to catch the last glimp of Nhat Le river at Sunrise.
Photos of Nhat Le river early morning.
Also view photos of Quang Binh from above
here!
