When a Vietnamese Airbnb guest had arrived in my humble unit three months ago, we had a long talk about their home country, he encouraged me to travel there as he said that I miss a lot of what to see on the great scenic destinations of their country. I found myself listening to his story, he started to ask me if I have seen a musical play from Ms. Saigon by Lea Salonga, the conversation kept going on until I have finally become curious how to travel there.
I told him that I am not a fan of paper works, I would never want to pressured by processing applications, he recommended that I get a Vietnam visa on arrival from airport, he said that I would only be needing an approval letter which Vietnam-visa.com can provide through email, I just need to fill in an application form and bring a passport size I.D and have this processed on airport arrival in Vietnam. It was a definite music to my ears hearing that it would be that easy to get a Vietnam visa for traveling without all the hassles! I was thankful for this information as this saved me a lot from the difficulty of the processing papers for travel.
Our conversation had circled around the great caves that I would want to visit in Vietnam, he is, after all, a cave explorer and his interest in the study have extended throughout his travels in Asia, as well as in the Philippines.
He boasts of the Hang Soon Doong Cave, the largest cave in the world. He said that I would want to try camping in the cave, if I prefer a taste of exotic experience and since I have mentioned that I loved swimming, he said that I can take a dip to their bluish water pools inside the cave, but a jungle trekking experience which lasts for 2 days to get to the cave might be a challenge but rewarding, he says.
When it comes to relaxed boating experience, he recommends that I visit Phong Nha Caves, he said that I can just sit back, relax while taking pictures of the rock formations. He said that locals call it ”Lion” because of the stalagmites and stalactites forming a teeth-like appearance thus the cave was named Phong Nha meaning “teeth and winds”.
Another cave exploring site is Halong Bay’s Trinh Nu Cave, in English Virgin cave, he said that I should bring my partner on this cave because the cave is said to be a romantic place for taking an oath of love. He mentioned of the legend that comes with the cave of a fisherman’s daughter betrothed to wed a wealthy man due to poverty, but she refused because she already had a lover, the angered wealthy man had exiled the girl to an island where she turned into stone inside a cave, making the cave a sacred place for lovers.
I have asked him the differences of the caves that they have in comparison with the caved in the Philippines. He answered that each of these heritage sites is unique and could not be compared with others similar to each human’s attributes, the beauty of discovering and witness nature’s works of art none can compare.