Hang En Cave, Vietnam (December 2, 2025)
Seven months ago when I was planning my Vietnam portion of my World Tour, I was encouraged to explore the largest cave in the world in central Vietnam. It turns out that the largest cave in the world is Hang Son Doong in Vietnam, recognized for its massive volume. It is located in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and is over 9 kilometers long, with sections reaching 200 meters high and 150 meters wide, giving it an estimated internal volume of 38.5 million cubic meters.
It also is a multi-day trek usually consisting of 5 to 7 days (4 to 6 nights) inside the cave. In truth, that’s exactly what I wanted to do, but this time of year, that trip was not available, so I did the 2 days, 1 night version instead. This one is called Hang En Cave, and it’s the entrance to the Hang Son Doong cave and considered the third largest cave in the world in its own right.
I have SO MANY cool pictures to share here. There was the trek into the cave, the overnight, and the return trek out of the cave. Since it was a two day adventure, I’ll break up my blog post and focus this one on DAY ONE (December 2nd) and then post a second DAY TWO (December 3rd) experience separately. As you can see it kicked ass.
Part 1: Trek to the Hang En Cave Entrance
When I signed up, I and envisioned that most of the hiking would be in the cave, but I’m really glad we had a few hours to hike to the cave itself. This allowed us to “get lost” in the forest, jungle and river parts of central Vietnam. This trek was incredible in its own right. While the hike to the cave was mostly downhill, we all recognized what goes down must ultimately come back up when we return the next day. We crossed the river about a dozen times with some areas where the water was as deep as the lower part of your hips.
We learned to “link arms” with groups of 3 to 4 so that we could support each other against the strong current of the river. Yes, a few times a few of us fell into the river, but no one floated away because of the linked arms technique.
Along the way, we also saw buffalo enjoying the river, some of us saw monkeys waaaaaay off in the distance across the river, and when we stopped for lunch at the local village, we met some friendly dogs and their newly born pups. The best part, for me anyway, was seeing the entrance to the cave. We reached it by 3:30pm and the camp was already set up for us so that we could enjoy the views, relax and even go for a swim in the lake.
Part 2: The Trek Into the mouth of the Hang En Cave
Part of the joy of hiking in the cave is gearing up with the provided helmet, headlamp and gloves (as the rocks can be sharp). We took a “jump” picture when we entered the cave and it looks great — even in shadow (as it’s supposed to be).
I was not prepared for seeing our camp site. When we crested the final hill, the sun was hitting the tents, the dining area, cooking area, camp fire and even the steam room. It was extremely well organized and looked like a massive ordeal that was already set up earlier that day.
After going for a swim, I got to spend a good 15 minutes (maybe a little longer?) in the steam room that was complete with lemongrass. After a nice cool swim, it was wonderful to heat up while chatting with my new friends along for this trip (all while relaxing in steam). After that, we cleaned up, hung up our wet clothes to dry (on the expansive drying rack provided) and were ready for dinner.
Part 3: Night Activities Until Bedtime
Before wrapping up the day, our guide asked if we wanted to take some really cool pictures using the total darkness in the cave now that the sun had gone down. Um, hell yeah! I was asked if I’d be willing to be be the “model” and of course, I’m up for anything. I was told to get on the raft we used to ferry to the side of the lake where we were sleeping and pull myself about half way out there.
At first, I thought this was some sort of practical joke. Being singled out to go on the raft was great, but it had me curious what was happening on shore as I was told where to shine the bright light and “hold still.” It was at this time that I noticed my light attracting many bugs and the many bugs were attracting a few hungry bats. These bats were flying within about 8 to 12 inches from my face, but always managed to pull up right at the last minute after filling their mouths with bugs.
The result was a series of really great looking pictures and so creatively planned by our guide. I was really grateful to be part of this picture magic making.
One of our fellow travelers, Anette from Norway, is a professional photographer and used her DSLR camera to take high quality pictures which she is currently working on editing and retouching. She showed me a slow-exposure picture where you can see the bats flying around my face. She’s excited to play with the editing and see what she can do for the final product. I just like the simplicity of using darkness from behind and casting a bright light on parts of the cave from the raft. While I’m sure Anette’s pictures will turn out better (as the professional photographer that she is), I love having any record of this experience given how unique it was.
After that, our guide showed us a cave dwelling centipede that is the thing of nightmares. While it’s harmless, it has all the creepy crawly bits that would freak anyone out who isn’t prepared to see it (either on a rock where it was hanging out) or worse in your shoe if you fogot to hang them upside down.
In tomorrow’s post, I’ll share the best pictures I took as we go deeper into the cave and the guides take turns playing with the lighting on our faces and the incredible backgrounds we’re in front of. This was another highlight of the trip. More to come!
