Mystery of Bat Cave

Bat Cave has many giant stalactites with unique shapes. Photo: Le Minh Ty

About 30km from the center of Ba Thuoc district, half an hour's travel time, Kho Muong village is located deep in the core area of Pu Luong National Nature Reserve. The village has 63 households with 326 people. Here, almost isolated from the outside world , especially Kho Muong village still retains its inherent poetic beauty with a system of caves, interesting stone streams... Nature has been extremely "favorable" when "bestowing" on this poor land a truly charming landscape.

On the motorbike, we followed the small road to Kho Muong village. On one side was a steep cliff, on the other side was a deep abyss. Welcoming us, the village chief Ha Van Thao happily boasted: "Bat Cave is much different now. Just over a year ago, it was very difficult to get from the village to Bat Cave. Now, we can rest assured, there is a concrete bridge across the stream, the road up has been renovated with natural stone steps, and there are railings so it is very safe."

The deeper you go into the cave, the more open the space becomes. Climbing plants grow on the rocks, creating a lush green forest. Strangely, each rock nourishes plants, and the plants "embrace" them, making the rock warm and lively. In addition, stalactites created from the freezing of water over millions of years sparkle overhead, making the scene even more mysterious.

“Why Bat Cave?”, I asked village chief Ha Van Thao. He smiled and said: “This is the kingdom, the home of bats. Thousands of bats choose this cave to live, partly because it has not been interfered with by humans, partly because the cave is a suitable condition for bats to come and grow. Research by explorers confirms that there are up to 4 species of bats living here.”

According to Mr. Ha Van Thao, coming to Bat Cave each season, visitors feel a different beauty. If Vietnamese people like to come here during the rice harvest season, Western visitors like the period from October to Tet. Because they not only enter the cave, walk nearly 2.5km to explore the magnificence of nature, but can also visit the tangerine garden of Mr. Ngan Van Hien and Mr. Ha Trung Thong's family; learn about the rituals of making a way, beating the drum, and offering new rice of the Thai ethnic group; and enjoy delicious dishes produced and processed by the locals.

Currently, the village has 4 homestays owned by the households of Mr. Lo Van Nam, Ha Dinh Nech, Ha Van De and Luong Trung Tuyen. As the first household to do tourism in Kho Muong village, Mr. Ha Dinh Nech said: “To do tourism, the district allowed me to visit, train on models, learn foreign languages, learn cooking, learn how to communicate... Besides, I raise a few hundred chickens, ducks and grow vegetables... to ensure food and green vegetables to serve tourists. The average annual income from community tourism of the family is about 300 - 400 million VND, stabilizing life and reinvesting in tourism development".

“In recent years, promoting the potential and strengths in developing community ecotourism, identifying this as a lever for sustainable poverty reduction, the locality has continuously promoted tourism promotion and stimulus, invested in some infrastructure... We hope that Bat Cave will be a destination to attract tourists to stay in Thanh Son in particular and Ba Thuoc in general. The most desirable thing for the locality is for the State to invest in building a road to Kho Muong village to facilitate tourists when visiting...”, said Mr. Nguyen Chi Cong, Chairman of Thanh Son Commune People's Committee.

Bao Anh

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/ky-bi-hang-doi-246300.htm