Phong Nha is a small village.
Yesterday, while walking, I thought that there really is nothing in the village.
Then the night showed me again that something is always here.
About the village
Phong Nha is a popular place among travelers. Not because of the village, but because of the countless caves available around the village.
Near Phong Nha is the Sơn Đoòng Cave, which is considered the largest cave in the world by volume, according to current knowledge.
I read and can’t stop myself from telling you a few things about it.
Its dimensions are impressive: It is about 9 km long. It is 200 meters high in places, 150 meters wide. It is so huge that it has its own microclimate, clouds and two separate rainforests. A 40-story skyscraper could fit in its largest hall. You can’t just walk into Sơn Đoòng. The number of visitors per year is strictly limited. The tour is 4 days long and requires serious physical preparation.
I immediately decided that I had to see it for myself. Not because of the record or the size, but because I was curious about what I would feel there.
There’s just one problem. You can get in on a waiting list and it’s full three years in advance.
So now I’m looking for another cave.
My walks in the streets
The village is so small that I can walk from one end to the other and back within 5 km.
I got to know the whole place on my first night.
An interesting thing happened to me on my first night. I was talking to a friend of mine around midnight. I was sitting on the steps of a shop on a deserted street. And then a rat just ran right through my outstretched legs.
I admit, I was a bit of a mess. It was the size of a cat. But I immediately started laughing to myself, it was so funny as I jumped up. The rat’s friend was watching the scene from the other side of the stairs. I think he was laughing too.
I took a longer walk last night, my goal was to reach a third of the village.
Walking at night in Asia is not without danger. Usually the reason for this is dogs. So yesterday I prepared myself. I broke a large bamboo stick for myself and started walking with it.
I didn’t reach the end of the village.
After the smaller, more nervous dogs, I suddenly came across a calm German shepherd dog the size of a small ox.
When we noticed each other, we stopped and watched. I really liked this scene. We stood a good 20 meters apart. We watched each other motionlessly. For me, the stick and my height were the signals. In addition, I tried to inflate myself like a frog to look bigger. For him, the signals were calmness, speed, teeth and mass.
We stared at each other for a minute, then at one of us’s signal we turned. When I turned back a few meters later, I saw that he had done the same. So we had a second quiet circle. Then we agreed. The dog didn’t go towards the village, I didn’t reach the end.
A dinner
I got back to my accommodation after midnight, which is a real pub on the ground floor.
I sat down among the people I had already met. To chat a bit and have a beer together.
The beer and the early hours became two.
By then, it was just the two of us there with the manager of the place and we were having a good conversation.
Then the question came, whether I didn’t feel like eating a good local chicken soup before bed. Of course I did. We quickly packed up the furniture on the small terrace and went to one of the street cafes not far away.
There we met another guy, and from then on we had dinner as a threesome. And we drank beer.
The number of beers was endless. The last one was followed by about five more on the street, and then we went to the third guy’s bar together, where we continued talking and drinking beer.
The hours flew by, because I finally went to bed at six in the morning. Full bellies were an understatement this morning.
We ate the delicious soup.
Then I ate 60-day-old duck eggs. They put them in front of me with a lot of curiosity, of course they asked me if I wanted some. Even the owner of the place and his wife came over to see what the strange guy was doing with this dish.
I don’t think I disappointed them. You have to eat this egg by cracking the top like you would a soft-boiled egg. Then you drink the liquid juice of the egg first. I swear it tastes good. Then you peel off the remaining shell and sprinkle the hard part with seasoned salt and eat it bite by bite. It’s true that I eat a little duck at a time, but this one tastes and smells exactly like a boiled egg.
Of course, I told them that I had already eaten this in Laos, so I knew what to expect.
At the end of the dinner, we had dried squid for dessert. I was the oldest and the guest at the same time. So they considered it an honor to spend this evening with them. And I felt honored that they were preparing the dessert. The squid was torn into small strips and placed in front of the three of us. We ate it with my favorite Vietnamese sauce, which I have known and loved in Hungary for about 25 years.
We talked a lot. Today, I learned a lot about the lives of the local people, their history, their thinking, and their friendship.
I already formulated the thoughts of this article while sitting at the street table.
Duck eggs and dried squid are a huge experience.
But every experience is preceded by those who put these things in front of me.
Kindness, respect and friendship are my true dinner. My belly was full. But my soul can never be filled with what I get from life.
Because there is as much space in it as in the Sơn Đoòng cave.
Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
Buy a coffee for Steve
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