Thumper
01-05-2017, 02:54 PM
You mentioned Angkor Wat as being on your bucket list. Maybe I could steer you in a different direction. Angkor is definitely interesting ... including it's history. I would never suggest NOT going to Angkor, but I WILL suggest maybe knocking it down a notch on your bucket list. Greece kind of reminded me of Angkor in a way. I'll have to admit, after the Acropolis and a few other "must see" sites, I ended up feeling like "when you've seen one pile of rocks, you've seen them all". The history is incredible, but TBH, I got bored with it pretty quickly. I have a suggestion for something you've most likely never heard of. Granted, this is from MY bucket list, but hey, I'm entitled to an opinion! ;)
During my last visit to Thailand, I was sitting in a little open-air bar having a cold Singha while chatting with a Britt who was sitting next to me. I mentioned that my SEAL bud and I were planning an adventure of a lifetime (which is another story in itself, so I won't go there). This guy told me he was (and this is where my memory gets gray) either part of a team, was putting together a team or KNEW of a team (maybe the beer affected my memory) to explore a newly discovered cave in Central Vietnam. I told him I'd LOVE to do something like that, but he said it was an official team of scientists/biologists, etc. I have no idea who he was or if he was even on the team ... but I started researching to see what he was talking about.
Back in 1991, a local villager (the village is very secluded and only has about 50 inhabitants if I remember correctly) stumbled upon a cave in the jungle. It was too gnarly for him to enter, so he never went into the thing. He was actually poaching wood (this is within a huge National Park), so he didn't tell too many people about it. I honestly don't remember the details (I'm sure it's on the net somewhere) but word got to some Britt (the guy I met maybe?) and the Britts wanted to explore it. Problem is, the villager couldn't remember exactly where it was! Eventually it was located and explored, but they reached a point where a wall prevented them from going any farther. At that time, they deemed it one of the largest caves in the world. They went back the next year and traversed the wall for further exploration and it is now officially the BIGGEST cave in the world! Mind you, this was only 5 or 6 years ago (?).
Since that day sitting in that little bar in Thailand, it went directly to the top of my bucket list! Problem is, that's when the economy went south, as well as my business and my health (BAD couple of years). Well, as of last year, an "adventure tours" company has started sponsoring guided tours into this cave and I believe the Vietnamese government only issues a couple hundred permits per year. Mind you, it's a bit physical and nothing I'm capable of doing any more, so if you think you're up to it, you may want to consider it before you get any older. ;)
If you have a couple free hours ... and I'm serious, I think it's right up your alley, so you could easily kill 2-3 hours watching YouTube videos and studying up on this place. Google Oxalis Adventure Tours for tour info. To see what this cave is all about, go to YouTube and search for Hang Son Doong Cave (or just Son Doong Cave). This thing is so huge, there's even a river and jungle WITHIN the cave! The biologists are going crazy over this "jungle" and hope to find new species or possibly some species of plants or insects thought to be extinct. The British team that first explored this thing said they expected to see Pterodactyl and actually heard animal type noises during the night that no scientist or biologist recognized. They never saw anything, only heard it. It's a fascinating cave and I'd give my left nut to be able to go on one of the Oxalis tours. You have to hike to the cave entrance, they set up camp within the cave and provide porters and cooks/meals, etc.
Here's a video of one of last year's tours (2016) with Oxalis.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gjR70_mhd_U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
During my last visit to Thailand, I was sitting in a little open-air bar having a cold Singha while chatting with a Britt who was sitting next to me. I mentioned that my SEAL bud and I were planning an adventure of a lifetime (which is another story in itself, so I won't go there). This guy told me he was (and this is where my memory gets gray) either part of a team, was putting together a team or KNEW of a team (maybe the beer affected my memory) to explore a newly discovered cave in Central Vietnam. I told him I'd LOVE to do something like that, but he said it was an official team of scientists/biologists, etc. I have no idea who he was or if he was even on the team ... but I started researching to see what he was talking about.
Back in 1991, a local villager (the village is very secluded and only has about 50 inhabitants if I remember correctly) stumbled upon a cave in the jungle. It was too gnarly for him to enter, so he never went into the thing. He was actually poaching wood (this is within a huge National Park), so he didn't tell too many people about it. I honestly don't remember the details (I'm sure it's on the net somewhere) but word got to some Britt (the guy I met maybe?) and the Britts wanted to explore it. Problem is, the villager couldn't remember exactly where it was! Eventually it was located and explored, but they reached a point where a wall prevented them from going any farther. At that time, they deemed it one of the largest caves in the world. They went back the next year and traversed the wall for further exploration and it is now officially the BIGGEST cave in the world! Mind you, this was only 5 or 6 years ago (?).
Since that day sitting in that little bar in Thailand, it went directly to the top of my bucket list! Problem is, that's when the economy went south, as well as my business and my health (BAD couple of years). Well, as of last year, an "adventure tours" company has started sponsoring guided tours into this cave and I believe the Vietnamese government only issues a couple hundred permits per year. Mind you, it's a bit physical and nothing I'm capable of doing any more, so if you think you're up to it, you may want to consider it before you get any older. ;)
If you have a couple free hours ... and I'm serious, I think it's right up your alley, so you could easily kill 2-3 hours watching YouTube videos and studying up on this place. Google Oxalis Adventure Tours for tour info. To see what this cave is all about, go to YouTube and search for Hang Son Doong Cave (or just Son Doong Cave). This thing is so huge, there's even a river and jungle WITHIN the cave! The biologists are going crazy over this "jungle" and hope to find new species or possibly some species of plants or insects thought to be extinct. The British team that first explored this thing said they expected to see Pterodactyl and actually heard animal type noises during the night that no scientist or biologist recognized. They never saw anything, only heard it. It's a fascinating cave and I'd give my left nut to be able to go on one of the Oxalis tours. You have to hike to the cave entrance, they set up camp within the cave and provide porters and cooks/meals, etc.
Here's a video of one of last year's tours (2016) with Oxalis.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gjR70_mhd_U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>