Cave Bear!!

Wha-hooo!!! We are in Phong Nha... which is near the Laotian border and in the heart of cave territory. The largest cave in the world was discovered here a few years ago. It is a beautiful place with flat valleys full of rice fields and steep jungle-clad mountainsides.

Those mountains look like they would be impossible to climb!

Today we are headed off on a cave tour... first we biked to the boat launch... hmmmm... lots of tour buses here and tonnes of dragon boats ready to head off up the river to Phong Nha cave.

At least I got out of the backpack on this trip! We are pushing off...

Isn't he cute? His name is... Tee... that's not how it's spelt, but how it's pronounced. He is 11 years old and he is our guide in training.

Whoa!!! That's the cave??? You mean we have to swim into it?? I didn't bring my swim trunks and I am just a little bear after all (who is not big on swimming... not at all!).

But no... we get to go into the cave on boats... but it is very low... keep your hands and your head inside the boat!

Wow.... those are some awesome stalagmites!! I learned that stalagmites grow up from the floor of the caves and stalactites grow down from the ceiling. Mama has a neat trick to remember which is which... stalactites have a "c" in them which stands for ceiling... stalagmites has a "g" in it which stands for ground!!

After at bit of an underground boat ride, we got out to walk around a bit... it was a zoo!!! There were boats stacked behind boats stacked behind boats!

It's me!!! With the bottom of a column... that's what happens when a stalagmite and a stalactite join up and form one pillar...

Cool, eh?? I is a little cave bear!!!

There was a cool formation in the background but when Mama turned on the flash, all it showed was me and a black background... ah well...

And more cave rocks...

Oooh... ahhh... some of these stalagmite formations are 30 feet tall!

Wow...

If you pay close attention, you'll notice that many of the formations have lights shining on them. That's because the Vietnamese are superstitious about the dark and can get freaked out by caves.

This is one of the most famous formations in the Phong Nha cave - it is called the Fairy's Hair and is probably 60-80 feet tall.

It was absolutely spectacular!!

Oh yay!! The exit... that was a cool trip.

I'm sure there aren't a lot of little bears who have been caving and can say that they are Little Bear - Cave Explorer Extraordinaire!! Mama says I should call myself a Bear Spelunker because that is the technical term for a cave explorer...

And to top it off, there was a pretty sunset that evening... I like this place!!