It is quite convenient to travel to Thac Bo Cave from Highway 6. You can follow the road Binh Thanh – Thung Nai, and then go about 20 minutes by waterway or you can leave from Bich Ha pier in Thai Thinh commune and travel to in about 1 hour by boat. Thac Bo is a famous tourist attraction in Hoa Binh.
Thac Bo Cave is located in Ngoc pier on the northern slope, on the bank of the Da River. Bo waterfall was once called Van Bo waterfall, which was created by hundreds of large and small cliffs undulating like a huge elephant group in the middle of Da River. It has a legend that the temple worships Bo Waterfall Princess of Dinh Thi Van – a Muong person, who helped Le Loi King manage the food and boats for the military force to overcome Bo waterfall and cross to Muong Le, Son La to pacify the Cat Han Pass Party. After she died, she usually made her epiphany to help people overcome the waterfall safely and bless hundreds of people in the area with favourable weather and climate. People living in the area set up a temple to worship her. Bo waterfall temple once belonged to Hao Trang commune, and after a lot of changes about administrative boundaries, it is now located between Thung Nai commune, Cao Phong district and Vay Nua commune, Da Bac district, Hoa Binh province.
On the journey of visiting and worshipping the temple of Bo waterfall princess, tourists will continue to explore the Thac Bo Cave in the natural charming scene of Hoa Binh Lake. In the dry season, tourists who want to visit the cave have to go trekking about 100 stone steps from the foot of the mountain to the cave entrance. In the flooding season, visitors have to move from the boat to the floating house which is built on a bamboo raft, which runs about 50 metres to the cave entrance. From the entrance, tourists can overlook the majestic and romantic view of the mountain and forest, as well as exploit the beauty of the mysterious cave.
The cave is divided into three areas, the first one is outside the bottom of the cave, there are many stalactites in the tourist reception, and then the Buddha Worship place which is higher by about 5 metres. The arc cave area is quite large with fresh air. Besides the large altar worshipping the great Bodhisattva Buddha, the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara and the gods administer this area. The inside of the cave is composed of various stalactites by lime crust dropping droplets millions of years old, which shows the endless creativity of the majestic nature. The different shapes of the stalactites are like dragon carp, golden trees, silver trees, the sky, stone piano, Muong gong set to become a holy song of the sky piano.
