Exploring the World's Largest Cave: Son Doong’s Hidden Wonders

In this episode of Wildly Curious, hosts Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole wrap up their cave mini-series with an awe-inspiring journey into Son Doong, the world’s largest cave located in Vietnam. Discovered in 1990 and mapped just over a decade ago, this cave is a geological marvel with skylights revealing lush rainforests, rivers winding through its depths, and colossal stalagmites towering 80 meters high. Join Katy and Laura as they delve into the science, history, and sheer wonder of this breathtaking underground world. From exploring its endemic species to dreaming of visiting its unspoiled beauty, this episode takes you straight into the heart of one of Earth’s most extraordinary places.

Perfect for adventurers, nature enthusiasts, and anyone captivated by the unknown!

Transcript

Laura: [00:00:00] Welcome to Wildly Curious, a podcast that tells you everything you need to know about nature and probably more than you want it to know. I'm Laura.

Katy: I'm Katy, and this is the last episode of Season Two.

Laura: Ten?

Katy: 10 that we're in good 10 question mark with my head cold. So I sound awful. But yeah, so we're going to take, well we're not going to take technically a break. We're going to have another mini series and that's going to be released every week through the month of, December.

And so

Laura: thing like we're finishing with today.

Katy: Yeah, so we're going to finish Cave Chronicles today, and then we're going to go into just mini series every week, and then we're going to pick up with the long episodes again in January. Um, do we want to tell them what this, what the mini series is? Is that something we just decided?

Laura: Let's give a hint, but not actually say what it is.

Katy: oh, oh. Do you know a good hint for it?

Besides Scottish?

Laura: does have to do with a habitat. Like, and cool things found [00:01:00] there. Cool things found in a, a unique

Katy: like it has the same vibe as a

Laura: It totally does have the same vibe as a cave.

Katy: So there's your hints, there's your hints. Yeah, there's your hints. It has the same vibe as a cave.

Laura: Same vibe.

Katy: I mean,

Laura: It truly does.

Yeah.

Katy: It's a habitat.

Laura: creepy, spooky, cool.

Katy: Text us. If you guys, If you guys look at the descriptions of each of the podcast episodes, you'll see like I send us a text. Text us your guesses.

Laura: do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to know.

Katy: Please. Cause I'm so excited. Yeah, that'll be good. So we're going to wrap up the cave Chronicles today. Laura's going to do it last one.

Um, because last one we ended with before was Cheddar man. Yeah. The Cheddar man, not the cheese.

Laura: about that one. From

Katy: Oh yeah.

Laura: listened to it. They were like, wow, that was really good.

Katy: Yeah. Cheddar man, you know, Cheddar man.

Laura: That sounds so gross and creepy. Um, [00:02:00] well, I'm like kind of obsessed with this place and this won't take long guys. Again, it's a mini sode. Um, but, I was like, alright, I need to find like one more good cave thing and there were several I could have chosen from but I finally decided to go with the Son Dung Cave, um, in Vietnam.

Katy: Ooh.

Laura: I am obsessed with this place now. Like, I need to go here. I was actually texting Katy and I was like, Listen, this is a

Katy: Yeah. This is, I was going to ask, this is the one, right?

Laura: was texting you. I was like, well listen, we could go, we could literally like, spend five solid days in the cave. Or four days. Four days in the cave is like three grand.

Totally. Um, so. What

Katy: How do you, how do you spell this one?

Laura: Son, S O N, which means mountain, and dung for the name of the valley where an ethnic minority lives, um, and a river flows through it. So it's kind of like mountain cave that a river

Katy: Okay, cool.

Laura: Um,

Katy: Oh, I've seen this. Okay, I have,

Laura: this has been in the news fairly recently because it's a pretty new cave.

Katy: [00:03:00] Yeah, I've

Laura: I have been talking to everybody. You ask my people at work, they're like, oh yeah, we've heard about this one. Um, I just go off. I'm like, guys, did you know? So, this place is two to three million years old, which in the grand scheme of things is not that old, um, geologically. And, um, Uh, so that's like the actual cave system.

The doe lines, which basically are like giant skylights where the ground has collapsed and made these big holes in the ground, they likely formed about 500, 000 years ago, which kind of opened up this cave system to sunlight. Before then, it was just all underground. Okay, so this cave was theoretically, I mean, It's said to have been found in 1990.

Did indigenous peoples find it before then? Surely! But nobody talked about this cave until 1990. Um, and it was discovered by accident. By, um, a local man. And he was going out in the ju It's like in the middle of the [00:04:00] Vietnamese jungle. Uh, in this giant forest preserve. And he found it by accident. He didn't actually, like, grasp.

How large of the cave system he had found he just sheltered there in a storm And then kind of like came back and then word got out because there are two other very well known caves in the area And they're all part of they're not connected, but they're all like part of the same rock formation kind of place

Katy: Yeah.

Laura: and these these british cave, uh people well british cave people expedition team british expedition team

Katy: British.

Laura: It was a husband and a

Katy: British cave people.

Laura: yeah.

These, uh, they were like I know there's got to be something else in this area because we got one on one end and one on the other. Surely something is connecting them. So then like they started searching around and found this guy who was like, I actually think I know what you're talking about. So they found this cave.

So the actual cave was not mapped until [00:05:00] 2009, which is so recently. And so they mapped this place in 2009. Um, where it was then dubbed the world's largest cave. So if by accident you stumble upon only the world's largest cave,

Katy: No big deal.

Laura: um, and it is, this is not going to mean as much to our American listeners, but it is 385 million meters cubed in area.

So,

Katy: is it?

Laura: million meters cubed.

Katy: Jeez.

Laura: yeah, it's huge. It is not the longest. So, like, here in America, some of our American listeners might be like, But Mammoth Cave! That's the longest, guys. Not the largest.

Katy: But Mermaid Cave!

Laura: I guess it'd be more in like a Kentucky accent. Um, Mammoth Cave. Uh, it's a great place, been there, it's great.

Um, but it's the longest, not the largest by volume. Um, this place is only [00:06:00] nine kilometers long, which is still a respectably long cave. Um, but inside everything is supersized because of how big it is. So.

Katy: gorgeous,

Laura: It is, I mean, dude, it is everyone who has been there that I was reading, it's basically Avatar on Earth in a way because of how large everything is.

Katy: Yeah.

Laura: Um, and movies and like things have even been filmed there. So inside, so these dole lines, these giant like essentially like a sinkhole into the ground, the biggest one, the first one that you would enter into, is so large that it can fit a 40 foot A 40 story skyscraper can fit within this

Katy: Geez.

Laura: without coming out of the ground.

40

Katy: I don't, I don't think my brain,

Laura: Can fathom. You gotta see pictures to only even write to grasp because the people in it are so tiny.

Katy: That's what I'm saying, like, you can look at pictures, but I just don't think that It's like one of the things, like,

Laura: No, not until [00:07:00] you're there, the majesty of such a thing. I, and like, and a Boeing 747 can fly through that section without its wings touching. So you know how many people can fit on a Boeing 7, like that's the size scale we're talking.

Katy: That's nuts.

Laura: in there is the world's tallest, tallest, tallest stalagmite. The tallest stalagmite, it's 80 meters tall.

Um, because it's just drip, drip, dripping from this giant ceiling. And people stand on it. And you are like, eeeety beety tiny, and the sunlight is just beaming down on you. Like, it is the most picturesque place. So, that's just the first room. Then, you continue on, and the place also happens to contain its own rainforest.

Hence, the whole avatar thing.

Katy: See, that's my jam, because I'd be like, Microecosystem, like, I would be all about it.

Laura: it's called, that room is called the Garden of Edom. E D A M and it's actually [00:08:00] like supposed to, it's a joke because previously the largest cave was found in Malaysia just a few years before that and they have a place, a room in it called the Garden of Eden.

So as a joke they called this the Garden of Edom. I'm like, aha.

Katy: Gotcha!

Laura: Anyway, inside this rainforest there are mosses, ferns, flowers, and even skinny trees. And the trees are really freaky because they're about 40 to 50 meters tall, but eeeetty bitty skinny because they've spent all their energy trying to

Katy: Check up,

Laura: but not, they're not, they're not girthy, just long.

Um, and, eh, there's about 200 species of plants in this rainforest, in the cave. Anyway, that's it. Now they're not necessarily endemic, because this is open to the rest

Katy: open top. Yeah.

Laura: But they do grow differently than elsewhere. Um, and many animals visit the cave from the outside. Birds, bats, monkeys, snakes, and flying squirrels.

Just [00:09:00] yeetin down into this rainforest and goin back out. But, because it is its own little thing, there are endemic species, which means they're nowhere else. They've already found, what am I gonna get the number right, seven. They've found seven new species there in that rainforest. Um, they're all small, and they're cave specific, like fish, wood lice, millipedes, spiders, and scorpions, and typically they are like the pale, no eye kind of

Katy: Yeah, so nothing nothing too cool yet. I mean cool whatever but not like its own

Laura: it's gotta be something, right? It's gotta be something they can't get out of the cave to have evolved by itself down there. So something that can't fly or climb. So it'd be really cool if it was like a big mammal, but I guess it's got to rely on like, like, would it get enough food?

Katy: yeah,

Laura: like a sloth's feet, like its own, I don't know.

Katy: All right, Laura we'll go the more i'm looking at pictures of

Laura: I'm telling you. Um,

Katy: go. This looks so awesome. We should invite bill shout [00:10:00] out to bill If you haven't listened to our other cave episode, it's really funny if you don't know what I'm talking about then,

Laura: Otherwise you're lost.

Katy: cool. That's

Laura: Um, a river does flow through it. Um, though the river is not fully mapped yet. Which is awesome, they're still mapping it out. Um, it has waterfalls in it. It creates its own mist, so like the whole area in there is sometimes misty and there's a giant lake that you can be in, uh, underground.

Because it is so freakishly large, it has its own weather. Um, so it's just, you're on an alien planet. There's no other way to say it. Um, its temperature is around 22 to 25 degrees Celsius in the summer and 15 to 20 in the winter, which for everybody else out there, that just means it's about 8 to 12 degrees colder.

than outside. So it is always cooler in [00:11:00] the cave. There are, there's a section that contains coral fossils that you can easily see because of course this whole place is made out of limestone which is, you know, ancient dead sea creatures. And then there is, um, the this formation called the Great Wall of Vietnam.

So this is where exploration stopped the very first time people went in because it is a giant flowstone formation which is like It's like, it was literally insurpassable because they hadn't brought the equipment to do anything about that. So it's a flowstone formation is like, from the dripping, all these Like, all the crystals and all the, all the, uh, formations like stalagmites have merged and it looks like a giant waterfall, essentially.

And it was so tall that they actually couldn't see the top, so they didn't even know how long they were gonna have to climb. So they were like, we'll be back. Um,

Katy: With an unknown amount of equipment. Like,

Laura: Well, cause it took them two days to climb it.

Katy: [00:12:00] Dang.

Laura: with professionals.

Katy: And that's underground. That's what's insane. You know what I mean?

Laura: yeah. And it's not even, I mean it's deep, but like, yeah?

So the top, can't be seen from the bottom, it took them two days to climb, and that's because it's, it's not, okay, like when I say 90 meters tall, that doesn't actually sound that tall, but because of the difficulty of what they're climbing, it, first of all, it goes, the reason they couldn't see the stop, the top, is it goes up, straight, vertical, 25 meters, and then the rest of it is slanted.

So that they couldn't tell what goes beyond. And then it just exits. Um, like, that's the end! You've made it! You've conquered the cave! Once you've climbed the wall, you're out.

Katy: There's just a little hobbit up there with a metal. And he's like, here

Laura: And, uh, so under, they're, the underwater cave passages are still being mapped. Like, they're doing some diving at this point because they haven't found the exit. No,[00:13:00] 

Katy: That's where I draw my line is cave diving.

Laura: percent.

Katy: Yeah. I will explore anything via ropes, climbing. Like,

Laura: that I can breathe my own element.

Katy: Yep, yep, uh, yeah, nope. Not diving in, nope, in caves. Nope, nope, nope.

Laura: way too dangerous, uh, and too creepy, um, and then, last but not least, um, what makes this so amazing and so pristine and so wonderful is that only a thousand guests are allowed in there per year.

Thank you. And it's only through one tour company. I found it. They're booked out for next year, but they got the next year after that free. Um, 1, 000 people per year. And this is a tour company. They do Vietnamese caving. Like that.

Katy: Yeah, that's a

Laura: they do the other two caves. You can actually tour the other two caves for like 245.

Katy: Oh.

Laura: Because they're like day excursions. To, there's only one,

Katy: say dead excursions. I was like, eh.

Laura: No, day. This place is [00:14:00] so hard to get to and so physically demanding to trek through such a large area. You spend two nights in it, one under each skylight, like one in the rainforest and one in another place. And you take boats through it, um, on the river.

And it's a four day, it's a six day trip, one day there, trekking through the jungle. And then getting to the cave and then in the cave for four days and then trekking out of the jungle and going home so like and it's three grand which in the grand scheme of things like anyway

Katy: that's, yeah. In the grand scheme of things, it's not bad for what you're

Laura: And you're seeing pristine

Katy: yeah.

Laura: Nature's wonders.

Um, so all that

Katy: support us on Patreon

Laura: please please listeners

Katy: Laura and I to Vietnam.

Laura: us there

Katy: But seriously, if anybody wants to donate to this cause, we will 100 percent put it towards it

Laura: Oh yeah, I'll, in fact, I'll print you out like as a cardboard cutout and bring you with us and take

Katy: yes, yes, [00:15:00] all of the donors, if you guys donate towards Laura and I going to Vietnam, we will take a cardboard cutout of you to the caves. Promise.

Laura: little flat Stanley versions of all of you. You'll all be with us, listeners, if you help us go.

Katy: Yes, 100%. I have no, I have no problems doing that.

Laura: And it's only like 30 a day to travel in Vietnam because of

Katy: Yeah, the, yeah, it's,

Laura: Thank you It's just getting there. It's the plane ticket and then that three thousand dollar tour, but boy, it'd be freaking epic To see a place so listeners. Also, you must look up. Um, look up doline one of the sandun cave, which is giant sun beams come in this entrance at certain times of year and it is Man, oh man, like you could believe in magic or aliens or angels something something magical there

Katy: Yeah. Alright, send Laura and I [00:16:00] to

Laura: Dung Cave in Vietnam.

Katy: Yeah, send Laura and I to Vietnam, please. Yes. This, that would be awesome. Cause I, I, this is something that I would, we would have to go all out on like, like

Laura: Oh, a hundred

Katy: but we would bring, we would bring other people to film it to like, you know what I mean?

Like we would, we would make it a whole thing cause it would be amazing.

Laura: And like,

Katy: would

Laura: would gladly go visit some of the other caves we've talked about. Not all of them. I have no desire to go into like that one that I talked about that's like,

Katy: The methane cave.

Laura: Um, you know that one.

Katy: cave.

Laura: No thanks. No

Katy: Yeah, they would all be cool, but like this one is

Laura: This one and the crystal one, I would, I'd need, just because, again, it's the scale, man.

I wanna feel tiny and insignificant, like an insect. Like, I wanna see big

Katy: because the ones in the crystal one like really hot though and

Laura: Yeah, and it's no longer open to the public, so it's literally not impossible.

Katy: Yeah, but this one is possible. Send [00:17:00] Lorenai to Vietnam. It's just Lorenai.

Laura: I'm screaming that in the cave when I wake up in the morning. Everybody else on this poor tour is just like, gosh, dang it.

Katy: I hate these two Americans. We're just

Laura: I'm standing in the sunbeam. Good

Katy: Yeah.

Laura: morning!

Katy: It's a cave, you wouldn't even need to say it that loud. You just

Laura: to swim, like, and you're just by yourself. Dude. Skinny dipping in a giant cave.

In the Vietnam wilderness. Yeah.

Katy: so, oh

Laura: And I would 100 percent be riding a water buffalo to and from said cave. Because that's on my

Katy: wait. That's an option? That's an option?

Laura: I mean, it has to, I mean, we can make it, right? Like,

Katy: I,

Laura: that's how a lot of people get, I mean, water buffalo are from that area,

Katy: yeah, no, they are.

Laura: very reliable. I would really like to ride a water buffalo the [00:18:00] Vietnamese jungle.

To a cave that I'm gonna live inside for a while. Like, I just can't even imagine primordial wilderness. Like Other people are like, never. I would never want to do this.

Katy: No, heck

Laura: Like, I was like, Justin, come on. And he was like, not in one million years would this be Justin's cup of tea. To

Katy: That's fine. That's one less

Laura: That's right!

I said, well that's why I have That's why Katy exists.

Katy: Yeah,

Laura: And we do this pod Like, I'm not asking, really, for you to come. I'm saying I'm going and I need you to watch Allura. Like

Katy: Yeah, I'm requesting your babysitting services for our child right now, like

Laura: hate it. It would be no fun at all.

Katy: Gosh. The bats though, for me, it would be like the

Laura: Well, the whole rainforest, I mean, the other reason why the rainforest does so well is because of all the freaking guano. The

Katy: And that's a whole ecosystem I've never explored [00:19:00] before like,

Laura: Uh, uh, uh, cave rainforest? Of course you haven't.

Katy: No Well, even just Asia in general,

Laura: okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know Indonesia.

Katy: Yeah, nor have I explored a cave

Laura: cave rainforest.

Katy: Alright, send Laura and I to Vietnam. I am, well, I have a boyfriend But I'm sure he would be open to me having a sugar daddy to pay for this too Or donations, um, and yes, and we will totally flat Stanley you and bring you along. This is something that we gotta make happen.

Laura: We say this about a lot of things, but I'm dead serious

Katy: We do. But this one would be an amazing one to go do. This really

Laura: I can't think of many other places that I was like It

Katy: Yeah, and again, there's other really cool places I'd be like, Oh yeah, that'd be cool to go,

Laura: as cool as going to another planet to see something, because it's basically like going to another planet, because it's nowhere

Katy: This one would be, this would be like one of those like, [00:20:00] life, like life topping experiences. Like, there's not very many other places in the world you could go that would top this. Like this, the experience as a whole. Like yeah, there's like gorgeous things and stuff, this is beautiful, like, but like this experience as a whole, there, I don't, there just, there's not gonna be

Laura: what other ecosystem I would be like, I mean maybe like, New Zealand's glowworm caves would probably be like, That was my other one that I was thinking

Katy: yeah would be really

Laura: But,

Katy: but this is like So diverse in what you get to do and see that you're like it's not just like it's not just like going

Laura: Okay, the Galapagos. I guess the other one would be, this is the Galapagos, but this is far more affordable than the Galapagos.

Katy: It really it really is It really is though, which is insane because the Galapagos is not all that far. It should be pretty accessible for us So yeah, send Lauren out of Vietnam, please and thank you

Laura: And we will be tuning, you guys can tune in next week. Unless we take a week off.[00:21:00] 

Katy: No, no, we don't have to no because we'll do we'll do bogs. Yeah,

Laura: We'll do bogs.

Katy: we'll do

Laura: Wait, we weren't gonna tell!

Katy: Oh, wait, we I'll bleep it out

Laura: Okay.

Katy: I'll bleep it out. I'll bleep it out

Laura: were gonna do PEEP!

Katy: Yeah I'll take the uh, the bleep from the squirrel episode talking about the

Laura: That's Hilarious Squirrel

Katy: stuff. Yeah,

Laura: Now you gotta bleep that too. Make sure you get that one.

Katy: I will

Laura: Alright.

Katy: Yeah,

Laura: Thanks for a great Season 10, everybody.

Katy: Yeah, gosh, it's so good to be back. Thank you guys for your patience during the the changing of the names and everything We've had a lot of great feedback on the name and everything. And so, um, only exciting good things ahead Laura's graduating soon,

Laura: Yeah! I mean, It's not till next summer. But I

Katy: still it's getting

Laura: I got one more guys. I got one more

Katy: Yeah, as far as like seasons of podcasts go you're getting there Yeah, you're getting there almost there. All right. Yeah, so good things So thank [00:22:00] you guys for always for your support. Go ahead and check us out on patreon support us Send laura and i to vietnam, please Because we would totally, again, we're not, we're serious about the Flat Stanley thing.

We will bring you along. And you get to pick your picture and pose. Age appropriate though. But you get to pick your pose. We don't need somebody flicking us off and like taking him around. Yeah, you know what I mean? Or mooning

Laura: No,

Katy: the whole

Laura: many things I don't want to see

Katy: exactly. So, so yeah. So anyway, so yeah.

Check us out on Patreon. Um, Send us your text messages with your guesses that I had to bleep out of what you think we're gonna do For the mini series and then we will talk to you guys next season

Laura: Bye everybody