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This drone-shot caving video is so awe-inspiring, it’ll give you chills

Hang Son Doong
One of the reasons we love drones is the incredible aerial photography made possible by their small size, maneuverability, and comparatively low cost. One of the newest — and perhaps most awe-inspiring– examples is this video shot inside the Hang Son Doong cave in Vietnam. It takes us into a place that doesn’t look like our world, but the one created by James Cameron in Avatar.

Made by caving and adventure photographer Ryan Deboodt, the cave is the biggest in the world, stretching for more than five miles along the border of Vietnam and Laos.  The video is shot at two different points where the cave is open to the sky, and gives us just a glimpse of the amazing rock formations, forests, sink holes and an underground river formed over millions of years.

Deboodt says on his blog that it’s, “incredibly difficult to put into words how amazing Hang Son Doong really is … It is truly otherworldly and something that probably can’t be experienced anywhere else in the world.” Luckily, he makes it possible for us to get a tiny glimpse of this stunning cave in the video you see here.

The video cleverly plays with our perception of scale. While shots initially look like they’re taken close-up, they turn out to be high in the air, and we only realize the bizarre perspective when we spot people walking through the foliage. To get an idea of just how big Hang Son Doong’s is, it’s largest cavern is vast enough for a 747 airliner to fly through. A DJI Phantom 2 drone with a GoPro Hero4 Black camera was used to take the aerial footage, while a Canon 6D took care of the stills.

If the video has inspired you to visit, then Oxalis Adventures — the company that worked with Deboodt on the project — runs a seven day tour, limited to ten people, between February and August. It’ll cost you $3,000 each, but judging by what we’ve seen in the video, it’s a journey you’ll never forget.

Andy Boxall
Senior Mobile Writer
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
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