Động Thiên Đường

Paradise Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Phong Nha-Ke Bang Park. Km 16 Đường Hồ Chí Minh, Nhánh Tây, Bố Trạch, Quảng Bình. From North/Hanoi QL1A, turn right on DT2B at Bố Trạch, turn right on QL16, at Bố Trạch turn left on DT20, turn right on QL15 . Turn left, road ends at parking lot, signposted. 1.7 km walk to the cave, tran available. (17.5192008, 106.2230450)
Open:	All year daily after appointment. [2022]
Fee:	Adults VND 250,000, Children (1.1-1.3 m) VND 125,000, Children (<1.1 m) free, Tram VND 20,000. [2024]
Classification:	Karst Cave
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:	L=31,400 m, T=9-10 °C, A=360 m asl.
Guided tours:	L=1,000 m, St=2,000.
Photography:
Accessibility:	The cave can only be reached on a 3 km walk through the forest and the climb of 519 rocky steps.
Bibliography:
Address:	Paradise Cave Ecotourism Area, Km 16 West Branch Ho Chi Minh Road, Phong Nha - Ke Bang, Quang Binh, Tel: +84-232-3-506-777, Fax: +84-232-3-842-555. E-mail: Thien Duong, Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Son Trach, Bo Trach, Quang Binh, Viet Nam, Tel: +84-5236-77021, Fax: +84-5236-77021. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

2005	discovered by Ho Khanh and explored by cavers of the British Cave Research Association (BCRA).
03-SEP-2010	opened to the public.

Description

Động Thiên Đường (Paradise) is a rather new discovery, first explored by cavers of the British Cave Research Association (BCRA) in 2005. With a total length of more than 31 kilometers the cave has become the longest cave of Vietnam. The show cave part is about 1 km long and has electric light and elevated wooden trails. The passage is really spacious, and the largest chamber is 200 m wide and 100 m high. The tour is rather expensive, but includes a boat ride to the cave and a 2.5 hour guided tour.

The regular tours are show cave tours, but the cave also offers cave trekking tours twice daily. They show about 7 km of the undeveloped cave, including rowing a boat for 150 m on the cave river, wading through water and other physical activity. While not actually difficult, the tour is a full-day tour and definitely requires physical fitness.

The cave was developed with trails and electric light by the Truong Thinh Joint Stock Company and was opened to the public in 2010. The company offers day trips which include the Sun Spa Resort, Thien Duong and Tam Co caves. The investment was enormous, they published they spent around VND 98.4 billion (USD 5.07 million) for the development, which actually includes the spa. They are really proud of the wooden trails, and thell that they have the "longest wooden path", we guess in a cave. Most people think wood is a natural material, and the trail was not concreted, so it is possible to remove the trail and the cave would be unharmed. Those ideas are good, but nevertheless wrong: wood starts to decompose in the humid cave air, so its either necessary to use poisonous paint to protect it, or it will decompose and contaminate the cave. Modern cave development also propagates removable trails, but generally they are made of special plastic material, which do not release any chemical substances into the cave. This plastic is easily destroyed by ultraviolet light, but in the cave there is no light and remains unchanged almost indefinitely.