HANOI, Feb 8 — All tours to Son Doong cave, described as the world’s largest cave, in the central province of Quang Binh have been fully booked up to 2015, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.
According to Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Ky, each tour to the cave will last for seven days and six nights at a cost of US$3,000.
Due to adventurous nature of the trips, each travel company is permitted to launch four tours per month and each of the tours will include at most eight visitors assisted by tens of tourism workers, he said.
Apart from Son Doong tours, Quang Binh province has also designed others such as Rao Thuong-Swallow cave, Dark cave-Mooc spring and Sinh Ton valley-Aquarium cave.
Son Doong cave, which scientists say to have been created two to five million years ago, was first discovered in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park by a local man in 1991.
The cave was later made public in 2009 by a group of British scientists from the British Cave Research Association after their surveying trip in the park.
Son Doong is found to have a length of at least 6.5 kilometres and estimated to be 200 metres in width and 150 metres in height. With its largest chamber judged to be 250 metres in height, the cave is said to have enough space to
accommodate 40-storey skyscrapers.
It has made headlines in prestigious magazines and on television channels, including the National Geographic in 2011. From August last year, tourists have been permitted to visit the cave.
— BERNAMA
