We just received the notice of the Winter Tech regional that Carol sent out. Unfortunately we will be in Laos and Vietnam. If you look at the cover of the July 2009 NSS NEWS http://www.caves.org/pub/nssnews/july09_nssnews.pdf you will see Kevin Stanway standing on the Giant Gours of Xe Bang Fai River Cave. Think of me as you meet on December 3. I will be standing at that very spot and promist to think of you! We are going to visit Nam Non Cave and Konglor Cave (Hinboun River Cave) as well as Xe Bang Fai RiverCave (what is erroneously called Tham Khoun Xe in the July 2009 NSS NEWS) . Then we will visit developed caves across the border in Vietnam: Thien Duong Cave (Paradise Cave) and Phong Nha Cave in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thien_Duong_Cave http://businessinsides.com/thien-duong-cave-magical-mystery-tour.html They are close to but not quite as spectacular as the "giant" cave ( Hang Son Doong) described in the National Geographic special, which is a fairly strenuous 6-hour hike and, I think, a 328 ft rappel, to enter . I have attqached some links in case you have not seenthem before. Enjoy the reading and the images! Dwight Xe Bang Fai River Cave - - Canadian/US Expedition, Laos : 2006 and 2008. (Erroneously called Tham Khoun Xe due to poor information provided to them by the locals) in the Khammouane Karst (central Laos just across border from Phong Nha - Ke Bang karst of central Vietnam). NSS News July 2009 -Pollack, Kambesis, Osburn, Bunnell, Addison, Stanway,Sawatzky, Whitfield - Tham Khoun Xe - The Great Cave on the Xe Bang Fai River. http://www.caves.org/pub/nssnews/july09_nssnews.pdf The Giant cave is close by, just across the border in Vietnam: Hang Son Doong, or “mountain river cave,” is in a remote part of central Vietnam. Hidden in rugged Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park near the border with Laos, the cave is part of a network of 150 or so caves, many still not surveyed, in the Annamite Mountains. This is very close to a well-known tourist cave that we will visit: Phong Nha Cave World Heritage Site in central Vietnam. National geographic calls Hang Son Doong "the world's largest cave", which, although true in many senses, is a bit misleading. Hang Son Doong is the largest known cave passage , a huge and spectacular tube over a 100 m in diameter (at places even 200 x 150 m) and 4.5 km long. This passage is not continuously "underground", as the cave roof has collapsed in several places, creating large shafts open to the surface which allow jungle vegetation to grow on the cave floor. The largest cave room (by volume) remains the Sarawak Chamber in Deer Cave (Mulu, Sarawak, Malaysia) which is an unsupported natural chamber 700 m long x 400 m wide and over 70m high. The longest mapped cave remains Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, with 628 km (390 miles) of passage. Here is a link to a video by Brian Bird from still photographs courtesy of National Geographic Magazine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFWhqJeThfc Higher resolution images of these and other fine National Geographic photographs in several Vietnam caves: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-cave/peter-photography Article from the January 2011 National Geographic: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-cave/jenkins-text Interactive 3-d cave map and photos: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-cave/largest-cave-interactive National Geographic videos of the exploration, survey, and science. Originally shown on the National Geographic TV channel. There are three 15-minute segments originally aired in January, 2011: Segment 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUXw40R-sbo&feature=related Segment 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi-6MflQUVs&feature=related Segment 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkmeHBqGO5E&feature=related Drowned tower karst of Ha Long Bay , northern Vietnam. During the last ice age, so much water was locked up in the continental glaciers that sea level was approximately 130 meters lower than it is at present. South and east of what today is the border between China and Vietnam, the level of the China Sea was correspondingly lower and the shoreline was several kilometers farther offshore from its present location. Karst towers formed, very similar to those seen in the classical karst of SW China (around Guilin and Yangshuo) rising above an alluvial plain. As the continental glaciers melted and the water locked within them flowed back to the oceans, sea-level rose 130 meters and flooded the alluvial plain that surrounded the limestone towers. We see those in the spectacular landscape around Ha Long Bay, northeastern Vietnam. The karst towers did not form in the ocean. Rather, the ocean rose and inundated the base of the towers after they were created. Here are some images from a Vietnam promotion of Ha Long Bay, which we will visit on this tour. Click on the upper right corners of the text boxes (that urge you to action) to close them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXcYnrwqJxY Link to another 3.5-minute video sailing around Ha Long Bay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlH8rgZiI0E&feature=related
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