We didn’t know it was going to be famous, so some names are a bit weird,” said Howard. She shouted ‘The Hand of God,’ and the lad who wrote it down wrote ‘Hand of Dog’ instead. “A woman on our original expedition asked if she could name it. This giant stalagmite is called the Hand of Dog. The cave is estimated to be 2.3 million years old - relatively young considering the surrounding limestone is 400 million years old. The rest of the world calls it caving,” said Howard. The size and features of Son Doong make it popular with travelers, filmmakers (notably, as the home of King Kong in 2017’s “Kong: Skull Island”) and world-class spelunkers. Staying dry is not an option on this trek trekkers cross the river two times while in Son Doong. Son Doong’s size is owing to two main factors: the river that runs through it, shown above, and the fault line upon which it sits, shown below. Temperatures are cooler at the bottom of the cave, which typically holds steady at 73 degrees F, give or take a degree or two. Your browser does not support the video tag. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Full-service trips cost $3,000.Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit Oxalis is the only outfitter allowed in the cavern. Season February to August (rivers become impassible afterward) Guide Six-day tours of Son Doong are extremely limited book a year or more in advance. Getting There From Hanoi, a 12-hour sleeper bus or train gets you to Phong Nha. But as Son Doong proves, there’s still plenty to be discovered where the sun can’t reach. Ĭynics say there’s nothing new under the sun. About the time I’m dry, the pork is sizzling and the lead guide Bambu slams a local Huda beer into my hand. Eerie shades of purple mute the cave walls and pocket forests while we change out of wet layers. By the time we arrive, the tents are positioned at the perfect angle to watch a skylight sunset. Our porters in sandals jog past the sections we scramble, beating us by hours to set up camp in sand beside the river. Wires and ropes provide safe passage across several of the cave’s rivers. We clip into guide wires and cross a teetering bridge over Rao Thuong, the river at the heart of the cave system. We spend four days inside, scrambling through chambers that have never seen sunlight, hiking past funhouse water formations and stalagmites the size of office buildings. Son Doong’s entrance is a menacing cleft that blows the ferns and vegetation as it exhales damp air. When I arrive, I can see why Ho Khanh never thought to enter. The Limberts worked with locals to form a guide service to take backpackers inside. It wasn’t until 2009 that British researchers Deb and Howard Limbert, investigating rumors of one cave larger than all the others, convinced Ho Khanh to show them the way. Overhead dolines admit enough light to carpet the cave bottom in vegetation Photo by Ryan Deboodt/Aurora PhotosĪ local hunter named Ho Khanh discovered-but never entered-the cavern in the 1990s and kept it mostly to himself. From there, 2 miles of muddy hiking deliver us to Son Doong. We hike along and across the giant teal rivers that sculpt amphitheaters out of limestone on the way to our first campsite in Hang En, the park’s third-largest cave. The way to Son Doong (literally, “mountain river cave”) begins at a trailhead in Phong Nah-Ke Bang National Park, in the central part of the country where karst mountains carpeted in rainforest roll like waves at the border with Laos. A fast-flowing river leads to travertine lagoons and soft-sand beaches perfect for pitching tents. Monkeys, birds, and flying foxes flit from the treetops. Overhead, stadium-size skylights called dolines admit enough light to sustain jungle trees growing 100 feet tall. In scale and experience, it’s a whole subterranean world. Its walls glitter with minerals and tower higher than 40-story skyscrapers in places, and a 747 could fly through its largest chambers. They would if they could see it: Vietnam’s Son Doong is the biggest cave in the world, and unlike the pitch-black ratholes of your claustrophobic nightmares, it’s more like a canyon with a ceiling. People usually don’t believe me when I tell them the best place I’ve ever camped is underground. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!
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