OMG! Its fucking freezing!!! Really it’s Sooo cold, and im not prepared for this. I got here with a night bus and arrived at  04:00 the only good thing was I could obtain a highly desirable blanket only the Vietnamese guard woke me up at 6:00 and took it off me for some unobtrusive reason.

Then we had some more time to kill. So we switched to wodka… The only thing that worked a bit… Wodka for breakfast, gotta do what you’ve gotta do…

After that we had a meeting at 9:00, free info about the Phong Nha-ke national park what to see (caves) and what to avoid (mines)

Teamed up with like 11 other people and got a mini bus and a driver, deciding where to go was a bit of a hassle but nonetheless had fun; we decided to go to Paradise cave. One of the many caves around this area.

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Paradise cave

But hell its still really cold; the room doesn’t have any heating and the concept of a “hot” shower is totally overrated. Only one solution, get some spirits and get warm on booze.

Lucky some Vietnamese girl from the hostel just came in (18:45 ICT) and gave us the remote for the air-conditioning which we switched to 32c I hope it helps… For now it’s just blowing cold air.

This place is not build for cold weather…

But… As a backpacker you have to work with the gear you’ve got… For me that’s board shorts and flip flops… so tonight its wodka night.

The scenery is beautiful here, and the local kids wave at you when they see you pass.

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Phong Nha-ke scenery

In three days it will be 25 to 30 degrees Celsius here so if we head down south even more well be fine :)

Just to give you an insight in expenses on a regular day in Vietnam here is what I spend today:

– 7$ for a night in Easy Tiger hostel
-300000 dong entrance fee for Paradise
cave
– 60000dong for breakfast
– 60000dong for lunch
– 90000dong for dinner
+-150000dong for drinks (quite a few)

This morning I woke up and I could literally blow smoke in my room; but outside its kind of warmer.

For now im going to see what to do for breakfast and which cave to see. Probably going to rent a scooter and drive over there.

Till the next blog!