Monday April 11, 2011.
I made a goof in the last post. Bryn and I didn't really get lost this day. We always knew generally where we were, we just had a lot of trouble finding our destination.
We left the hotel around 9am. Today we would visit Pac Bo cave where Ho Chi Minh spent time gathering revolutionaries after his return from China. He didn't have to go very far when he returned because the cave is right on the Chinese border. The drive there was a lot less intense than the previous days' drives. It only took about three hours to reach the site.
The road went straight to the border and dead-ended in a parking lot. We parked our vehicles and took followed some Vietnamese tourists to a path through the forest.
This is Lenin Stream.
After obliging to take pictures with some excited Vietnamese girls, we decided to walk up a stone path that went up a mountain.
We were both pretty sure that the cave wasn't up this way but we had plenty of free time to explore. However, soon the steps disappeared and the climb became steeper and muddier. The climb also became increasingly more difficult. We stopped a few times and wondered if we should continue since we were getting really sweaty and tired and we had no idea where the path was taking us.
We decided to keep going but after another half an hour or so we realized that this path could very well just lead into China or to another village. So we came back down.
We ran into the group of girls again who were now joined with a group of guys. They were sitting down to have a picnic and they pointed out where to go. We followed their directions that led to steep stone steps. Climbing up the steps we ran into a pretty Vietnamese lady with her child. We must of looked like wimps huffing and puffing up those steps. I tried to explain to her that we had just climbed a mountain. We made small talk for a bit and then continued on with walking with her and her kid. We ran into her husband and mother and sat and had a rest half way up the mountain.
While Bryn rested with them, I decided to book it up to the top as fast as I could. When I got to the top, the path turned into a small dirt path that led to a construction sight. I was really confused. Off to the left was a stone marker that said "China" in Chinese. Bryn and the Vietnamese family came up later. Bryn heard somewhere that the cave Ho Chi Minh worked at had been destroyed and wondered if maybe this was a marker for where the cave used to be.
I thought that this could not be right because I remembered that our former colleague Shane had visited the cave and had taken pictures and had mentioned a table where Ho Chi Minh worked at. I tried to ask the pretty lady where the cave was. However, I didn't know the Vietnamese word for "cave" so instead I asked where his house was. She understood and told us that it was down the mountain. So we climbed back down. At this point we were extremely tired. We had also forgotten our water bottles in our motorbikes.
So this apparently was the cave that had been destroyed. However, I still wasn't satisfied. I knew that Shane had gone into a cave and had mentioned a table.
By now we were really hot and thirsty and so we went back to the parking lot and got some iced tea at one of the many small stalls located there. It was then that we noticed that two paths split off from the parking lot. There was another stone path that went out towards some rice fields. No one was on this path. We grabbed our water bottles from our motorbikes and went along this path.
Finally, we reached it.
It was just a large crack in the side of the mountain. But we entered it and it was definitely a cave. It was incredibly dark and damp but it was just light enough for me to make out large bats swooping around. I realized then that I'm afraid of bats. Or at least groups of large bats in a pitch black cave. Therefore I only went a little ways in before I decided I had seen enough of the cave. Still didn't see a table though. Perhaps I didn't go far in enough.
The trail kept going so we decided to keep following it. We came across small thatched house and a marker for the China/Vietnam border.
The following picture is photoshopped so you can make out the surrounding view and the shack. Maybe sometime when I have more time I will do a better job.
I checked inside and lo and behold a table!
(If you don't see a table it is because the picture is from a weird angle, it is sticking out from the wall right under the window)
Apparently in this shack Ho Chi Minh held the eighth Party Central Committee Meeting. I was very glad that everything finally came together in our search for the cave and the table. I could now leave satisfied. I guess we probably should have brought some sort of guide book with us. It would have saved us a lot of trouble. But in the end our method was more of an adventure and ultimately more rewarding.
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