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Attractions

Mooc Spring Eco Trail

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Mooc Spring Eco Trail

The Mooc Spring Eco-Trail was built in 2011 to cover the higher demand for tourism in the area. It was also built as a site to relax and embrace the tranquillity of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. The spring is located about 2 kilometers up river from Dark Cave. The Mooc Spring Eco-Trail is home to many exotic animals like Gibbons, colorful birds, snakes, many fresh water fish and butterflies. Our National Park Tour includes a visit to the Mooc Spring Eco-Trail and this is where the participants of this tour will have lunch. The lunch is prepared in the Mooc Spring Eco-Restaurant, it’s a traditional Vietnamese lunch served on banana leafs.

 

Mooc Spring Eco Trail
Mooc Spring Eco Trail

In the Vietnamese language Mooc means unknown and the spring was called Mooc Spring due to the little knowledge there is about its origin. The spring surfaces at the bottom of a karst cliff. Due to the huge amount of water that sometimes erupts from this area, researchers believe that this may be the next biggest cave system to be found in the world and that it could lead all the way to Laos. The cool water here has a unique blue colour and is incredibly fresh.

 

Mooc Spring Eco Trail
Mooc Spring Eco Trail

The hike takes you along the spring, on stone paths and bamboo bridges, through the orchid garden, where it eventually meets with the Chay river. It is a safe and relatively easy walk through the Park where visitors are encouraged to relax and swim in its pristine clear waters. If you are more of an adventurous type don’t hesitate to visit the Mooc Spring either, there is an adventurous bridge above the water that can be crossed, kayaking and much more fun!

 

Opening: Every day from 8 AM- 4 PM
Recommended Duration: 2-3 hours
Tickets: 180.000 VND

Attractions

The Duck Stop

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Duck stop located in Bong Lai Valley is a great place to interact with and support the locals. The duck games are silly and fun, great experience and well worth it.

 

The Duck Stop
The Duck Stop

But perhaps without making all the beer stops, maybe just pick one or two choices to check out. Bong Lai Valley is home to several families who cater to travelers in search of good food and a cold beer. The original Pub with Cold Beer is perhaps the most well-known, but these days Moi Moi, The Duck Stop, and Wild Boar Eco Farm give them a run for their money on great views, fresh food, and incredible hospitality. Food is all fresh from the garden/farm and served family style.

 

The Duck Stop
The Duck Stop

If you are in Phong Nha you cannot miss the duck stop! Heaps of cute ducks, a friendly water buffalo, lovely staff and a delicious Vietnamese snack – what more could you want!

 

Opening: Every day from 8 AM- 8 PM
Recommended Duration: 3 hours

Attractions

The Pub With Cold Beer

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The Pub With Cold Beer

The Pub With Cold Beer is situated In the buffer zone of Phong Nha National Park, off the legendary Ho Chi Minh Highway, 12 km from Phong Nha tourist center.

Amongst the karst mountains that make up the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park – home to the world’s largest cave, Hang Son Doong – the Pub With Cold Beer has been forging a name for itself as the alternative ‘must-do’ attraction in the region.

 

The Pub With Cold Beer
The Pub With Cold Beer

The Pub With Cold Beer is famous for their farm-to-table methods. Everything served is grown on their property, with the possible exception of the chickens – these are also sourced from neighbouring families when demand is high.

The morning glory cooked in garlic comes directly from their backyard. As does the peanuts, which are crushed to make the most incredible peanut sauce you will ever taste.

 

The Pub With Cold Beer
The Pub With Cold Beer

It is not very often you arrive at a restaurant and are given the option of catching, killing, cleaning and cooking your own chicken. But if that is what you seek, it is possible at the Pub With Cold Beer.

This is hardly a requirement however, as just about everyone is more than happy to let the family expertly prepare the meal.

It may seem a tad gruesome, but this is ethical farming at its best. All the chickens are free range and well-cared for. The actual killing is done swiftly with a quick slice to the throat.

 

There are no “headless chooks” running around the place. If you feel uneasy about this, then consider the bigger issues in buying mass-farmed chicken from a supermarket.

The atmosphere at the Pub With Cold Beer is relaxed and welcoming. Hammocks swing gently next to the pool table and chairs are peppered around the property; many with uninterrupted views over the Bong Lai Valley.

 

Bong Lai valley
Bong Lai valley

Your food can take up to 2 hours to prepare, so most people while away the time by tubing down the river or sipping on a beer Huda. Music plays on the speakers and puppies run around the farm. It truly is a bucolic paradise.

 

Whether the sun is shining or rain is falling, lunch and drinks at the Pub With Cold Beer is by far one of the most enjoyable days out to be had in Phong Nha.

 

While the list of things to do in town constantly grows, one thing that will hopefully never fade is this iconic establishment. At the very least, you will never look at a chicken meal in the same way again.

Travel news

Bong Lai Valley

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Phong Nha is more than just caves. Tourists come to visit countryside, mountains, jungle and a chill-out place called the Bong Lai Valley. Cycling or takes motorbike along mud paths and across rivers to get a taste of this rural idyll

Bong Lai valley
Bong Lai valley

The Bong Lai Valley is defiantly isolated and yet integral to Phong Nha’s tourist trail. The area is poor, but as tourism develops a number of local entrepreneurs are bringing new wealth to its hard-working people. There are now a number of attractions in the Valley making it a great relaxing day or half day out in the countryside.

 

Three Hundred Ducks

“The crop decides if you will have a rich farm or a poor farm,” says Quynh, owner of The Duck Stop. “Our main crop is pepper and if we have a bad year the trees only produce a little, so we sell other things, too — cows, buffalo, ducks and some fruit and vegetables.”

 

Pub with Cold Beer

The “Pub with Cold Beer” is the original watering spot in the valley for thirsty tourists. The beer is, as advertised, cold, and everything you eat there is grown in the village. Chicken is the specialty of this farm to table experience, with chicken so fresh that when you arrive it will still be scratching around the veggie patch! While you wait for your lunch to cook you can rent a tube off them and float down the river, just lie in a hammock with a cold beer or you can get as involved as you like with the preparation of your chicken. The “Pub with Cold Beer” has been praised by the Huffington Post and the New York Times travel sections.

 

Wild Boar Eco Farm

Along the River At the other end of the valley lies the Wild Boar Eco Farm. “We own about 2km of land along the river,” says owner, Cuong. “We grow rubber and acacia trees to sell, and other, cheaper crops to serve to our guests.” He also brews rice wine and sells rice from his fields nearby.

The farm has a small menu using ingredients grown onsite, from hot toasted peanuts and freshly cut sweet potato fries, to rice with vegetables and wild boar meat. The boars are caught in the jungle nearby and raised in a wide, brick-lined pen next to the house. “We have to feed one boar for 10 months to a year before it is big enough to eat,” says Cuong. “You can’t sell them for much, but people love to come here to try the meat.”

Visitors can also sleep at the Eco Farm, but because the road there is so bad, Cuong is struggling to get the business on its feet. He has two clean, wooden rooms set up for visitors and a massive bathroom.

Attractions, Phong Nha Caves

Dark cave

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Dark cave ( Hang Toi)  is a branch of Phong Nha cave system with 5,558m long and 80m high; the entry of cave is 30m high and 10m wide with heavy forest around the cave mouth. Dark Cave was discovered in the years of anti-America resistance war by local people and used as a bomb shelter.

Dark Cave is the most popular tourism site in the area. It was first discovered in 1990 and opened up not long after that. The Dark Cave is the smaller version of the Son Doong Cave. The reason for the name is that there is no artificial light installed inside the cave and with its total length of 6 kilometers it’s nothing but darkness!

 

Phong Nha Tour from Hue City
Phong Nha Tour from Hue City

Moreover, the rocks inside the cave are dark, some gray some black.
First discovered in 1990, Toi Cave had about 400 meters from its entrance opened to tourists nearly four years ago. It is currently part of a route connected with the Chay River and can be reached by a 400-meter zip-line from a wildlife observation deck.

 

Dark cave zipline
Dark cave zipline

In a service area nearby, tourists can explore with lights, swim in a pond where the water temperature is less than 20 degrees Celsius or take a mud bath.

A real adventure cave, newly on the map here in Phong Nha, and still without the lights and large tourist groups to spoil the experience. You can explore this spectacular cave on our National Park tour or independently, and after kayaking across the river, enjoy swimming through the cave with your head torch leading the way, then explore a side passage. Hang Toi is a wonderful and very accessible example of the beautiful caves that are found throughout this region.

 

Tour to Dark cave click here

 

Attractions, Phong Nha Caves

Tu Lan Cave System

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The system lies 70 km away from Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, next to the minority village of Tan Hoa, just past the fields of grazing buffalo and rapidly growing peanut and cornfields. After the fields, it’s a splash through the river until the first ascent is reached. An ascent over the rocky slope is followed by a descent into the jungle valley below. The first cave on the horizon from there is Hung Ton cave, accessed through its dry entrance.

Tu lan cave tour
Tu lan cave tour

Tu Lan Cave System is comprised of over 10 caves in all, some of which were originally discovered and explored in 1992, and some of which were just found in the past couple years. Hang Ton, first found in 1992 and explored more in depth in 2012, appears first on the horizon on a trek to this intricate cave system. Its dry entrance provides an outstanding view of the valley below, and promises many more adventures inside. A ladder inside leads to the floor of the cave, and from there the journey truly begins, where one must swim through the cave to reach the exit on the other side

 

Giant stalactites in Fairy Cave

The 3km-long Tien (Fairy) Cave is one of the largest in the Tu Lan cave system, located in Cao Quang commune, Tuyen Hoa district of Quang Binh province, in central Vietnam.

Hidden away in the woods and giant limestone mountains of ‘the land of caves’ in Quang Binh, Tien Cave is an almost ‘anonymous’ destination that has yet to be featured on tourist maps.

With wild and magnificent beauty, the underground work of nature is a priceless treasure that Mother Nature has bestowed on Cao Quang. Locals often refer to it as ‘the second Heaven’.

The cave is about 70km to the northwest of well-known Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park with the famous Son Doong and En Caves. Tien Cave has been examined by experts of the British Caving Association and is recognised as one of the largest caves in the Tu Lan cave system.

Tu lan cave tour
Tu lan cave tour

The name ‘the Cave of Fairies’ is tinged with mystery. Legend has it that the cave was named after a myth: fairies from heaven descended to this land, and were so busy sightseeing they forgot their way back to heaven. Local people discovered this place hundreds of years ago and consider it a sacred place to carry out important rituals in their spiritual life, including praying for rain and for peace. The sacred and mysterious factors retain this scenic beauty’s ancient and wild characteristics.