Welcome to another Travel Tuesday! I talked previously about what to expect on the Kong Collapse Top Adventure, but what of our actual experience there? Comin’ right up in this post!
Kong Collapse Experience with Jungle Boss
Day 1: Arrival, Welcome Lunch, Technical Training, Welcome Dinner
The morning after our Son Doong Cave Expedition, we had breakfast at Chay Lap Farmstay + packed up our belongings. Our tour guide (Messi) from Jungle Boss came to pick us up/take us over to the Jungle Boss Homestay.
On the way, due to the fact that I’d lost my voice a few days ago and was still coughing (sigh), they did me a solid and stopped at the pharmacy so I could get cough drops. (Bless their souls.)
After we settled into our rooms at the homestay, we enjoyed a welcome lunch and got our vitals done/started our technical training.
Since it was just the 3 of us, training day was much shorter and we finished pretty quickly. We had dinner that evening with Messi and 2 of our safety assistants + had the evening free to pack and rest up.
Day 2: Road 20 Victory to the lower entrance of Tiger Cave (11km)
Breakfast: crepes with lemon/sugar or chocolate/banana, or beef pho
Before heading out!
We boarded what looked like a party/karaoke bus back to Phong Nha National Park (~45 minutes) + hiked ~1.5-ish hours before stopping for a lunch of bread, peanut butter + condensed milk (or jam) + various fruits (bananas, apples, oranges, dragonfruit) + rice crackers, Oreos + Choco pies for snacks. After another ~1.5 hours downhill, we made it to our first campsite!
While dinner was being prepared, we climbed over a bunch of sharp rocks to get to the swimming site. (The provided helmets + sandals were a must!)
Due to recent rain, the water wasn’t its usual blue but we were able to swim through the cave to a doline for photos/to explore a bit before heading back for dinner.
Dinner: fish, steamed rice, jungle vegetables that were harvested along the way, jungle vegetable soup, fried tofu, bok choy with beef, egg dish, beef/veggie soup, steamed carrots with crushed peanuts, cucumber dish
Bathrooms were unfortunately a lot less convenient to get to + also a lot less pleasant than the Oxalis bathrooms, so I resumed my Team-Hold-It-Til-Morning-Status that I usually adopt when camping.
Day 3: Abseiling 100m + 3km trek
Breakfast was beef pho! We trekked for about an hour through the jungle (30 minutes uphill) to get to the Kong eyes. My brother is scared of heights and decided to offer me up for slaughter to go first, citing that I “had the most experience” out of all of us. (He says this because I used to do aerial silks, but this was for a pretty short time. I’m also mildly afraid of heights + took up rock climbing as self-exposure therapy.)
Since I’d lost my voice several days before and didn’t have a voice to protest, off I went. The most terrifying part was honestly just trusting the equipment and convincing myself to step off the cliff. Afterward, I was all good! :D (The training that they provided was excellent in preparing us for this day!)
Helloooo, 100ft drop!
The second section was just 20m (66ft), but more technical. We got to eat our lunches while sitting in a hammock nestled in a crevice in the mountain overlooking the Kong Collapse! At 450m deep, it’s the 3rd largest collapse/doline in the world + was also our campsite for the night!
Lunch: stir fried noodles with hardboiled eggs/bok choy, yams, pumpkin with a crushed peanut dip/soy sauce, fresh fruit (apples, oranges, dragonfruit)
Afterward, we completed the last 50m (164ft / pictured above + below in multiple views) to get to our campsite.
We took a boat over to check out the first entrance of Tiger Cave and were able to wash up in the river. (There was an option to swim but it was pretty cold so we were good with staying in the boat.)
Dinner: fish, pork/eggs, pork/chicken dish, seaweed soup, green mango dish, okra, egg plant, spring rolls, steamed rice
After dinner, we lay on the tarp to look up at the sky + saw a flying squirrel soaring across + also got to do some stargazing.
Day 4: Explore Tiger Cave + Hang Over Cave to get to Hang Pygmy Cave
Tiger Cave is so named because when they first discovered the cave, they found tiger paw prints at the entrance and a collection of animal bones inside. (Luckily for us, there are no longer tigers there or this trip absolutely could not have happened.)
Breakfast: ramen with fried egg, crepes, fresh fruit
After breakfast, we did a little abseiling off Turtle Rock! The little white things in the photo = butterflies! :]
We trekked back into Tiger Cave and swam to the 4th + final opening of the cave! The water was cold but super refreshing and after swimming for a short bit, we warmed up pretty quick.
We scrambled up a bunch of rocks to get to the very last Tiger Cave entrance, then trekked about 10 minutes in the jungle to get to Hang Over Cave.
I love how those light rays hit! <3
Dinner: eggplant, pork spare ribs, sour veggie soup, egg dish, cabbage, chicken, baked sweet potato fries, steamed rice, and hot tea with fresh ginger/honey made by one of our safety assistants (bless him!)
Messi entertained our exceedingly mature shadow wars.
We called a truce!
Day 5: Hang Pygmy back to Road 20 Victory (9km)
Breakfast: banh canh with fish (a Phong Nha traditional breakfast) with more hot ginger tea!
We trekked back through the jungle for ~8k to get back to civilization — there were some steep sections but nothing too-too difficult, especially since we took plenty of breaks! The lack of rain definitely helped in terms of preventing slipperiness, but the heat sapped a lot of energy out of us.
We had a lunch of spring rolls + fresh fruit + a gala dinner with Messi before we parted ways.
Shoutout + major props to Messi (our tour guide), who is the MVP and acted not only as as our tour guide but also as our very dedicated photographer (legit took ~297 photos of us on the second day alone). He also picked a bug out of my eye and helped me to park the moped I borrowed after my lil accident. In conclusion, he’s awesome. If you book a tour with Jungle Boss, make sure you ask for him!
Hello, cicada!
- Check out my last post on the Kong Collapse Top Adventure with Jungle Boss + what to expect here!
- What’s something new that you’d like to try doing?
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GREAT article! Thanks so very much. Really enjoyed it!
Yay! :D This one was a fun one too! <3
Woooah Farrah I didn’t know you were afraid of heights. All these photos of you hanging backwards upside down made me think you love it!? Did everyone do the beautiful ballet-like poses upside down, or was that just you? I love all the photos of you like that in any case!
p.s. I know it’s not the point of this post, but the food look incredible! I wish all camping was that tasty looking!
Aww, thank you! :] I’ve been doing exposure therapy of sorts over the years with rock climbing + aerial silks/lyra so that’s helped for sure! :P My brother went for more macho/manly poses! :P
I wish that too! I got so spoiled with food on these trips!
What! This is so cool! I need to go back and read the other posts in your series about Vietnam.
It sounds like you guys were really out in the wilderness for a lot of the trip, especially after that hour long hike on day 3. Your campsite was a hammock on the side of the cliff? I’ve seen that on climbing documentaries before but didn’t realize you could sign up for adventure tours that include it as part of the itinerary, that’s awesome. Were you scared?
Man they really fed you well, I would have been just as excited about some of those meals as I would be for the climbing lol.
What a great jungle experience. The photos are brilliant! And the food looks good to.
Thank you! It was definitely a fun adventure! :D
Farrah recently posted…Tu Lan Experience Tour with Oxalis
What a stunning photo at the start of your post! OMG that food looks so good. You certainly are very adventurous and what a wonderful experience for you. Thank you for sharing this exciting activity.
Thank you! It was a ton of fun and that foodddd. I miss it so much!
Farrah recently posted…Ultimate Coffee Date: August 2023
Hi Farah, thanks for this extensive guide! Is there a specific physical level to do this? Is there also age limit to do the activity?
Hi! They said ~16 to 65. It’s rated as “extremely strenuous” but if you’ve done long hikes/treks before, you should be good to go! The longest trekking day was 11km (~6.8 miles) and aside from the abseiling, there is some scrambling/swimming (optional) involved too.
This sounds like an incredible adventure. Adding it straight to my list of things to do during my next Vietnam trip – Phong Nha was already on the list, but up to now I was not sure how to explore it, so this is perfect. Recently did abseiling for the first time ever and loved it, so it sounds like the perfect adventure for me!
Ooo, there’s so much to do there! If you’re planning on going to Phong Nha, I’d highly recommend doing a tour with Oxalis as well (we did Son Doong and Tu Lan with them)! Duck Stop is also a really cute place to check out! :] (I wrote about all of em’ if you’re planning on going somewhere in the near future and want to find out more about those!)
Farrah recently posted…Ultimate Coffee Date: August 2023
This looks so incredible!! I love that you couldn’t even protest when they offered you to go first ha ha Adding this to my bucket list!
haha, right!? :'( Thankfully it all turned out ok! I hope you get to go sometime! I’d highly recommend asking for Messi for your guide — he was the bestttt!
Farrah recently posted…Tu Lan Experience Tour with Oxalis
What an exciting adventure. And the photos are extreme! I love reading about the food on the trip too. I always wonder how these companies are vetted for safety and reliable gear. It’s always something to be sure of.
Karen recently posted…In Search of Three Pines: A Fascinating Tour of Louise Penny’s Inspirations
For sure!! They definitely prepared us well and we felt safe the whole way, or this could’ve gone veryyy wrong, haha.