Sung Sot Grotto

In Vietnamese Sung Sot means surprise. Sung Sot grotto located on one of the Bo Hon Island, is a large cave, covering an area of 12,200 m2. The French entered this grotto in 1901 and in a tourist book on Halong published in 1938; they called Sung Sot Grotto des Supries (the Grotto of Surprises). Its entrance is 25m above sea level and covered by bushes. The Grotto’s mouth faces a windless bay surrounded by the Bo Hon mountain arc. Sung Sot is close to many small mountains and beautiful caves, such as Bo Nau, Me Cung, Luon, and so on. This area is also a floating village for fishing families.
The grotto has three chambers linked through narrow ravines. The out most section has a high ceiling and many stalagmites. The third chamber opens wide with an arch like a large medieval theater: unusually, there are almost no stalactites or crevices on the ceiling. In Sung Sot grotto, any voice can be heard very clearly but there is no echo. In the center of the grotto, a huge stone column supports the vault. Approaching the end, one can see gigantic rocks on the floor, each much bigger than a room. They seem to reach the ceiling, suggesting that they collapsed along time ago, creating the many deep ravines and crevices in the chamber. An 800m long walkway inside the grotto was built in January 1999 and finished on 1st May of the same year.