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Published: June 11th 2017
Lianas
Seeming to twist into infinityAfter a group breakfast of baguettes and omelette, we drove about twenty minutes into the rainforest to the Cuc Phuong Visitor Centre, where we split into two groups for either an easy or a difficult walk. I was persuaded by certain members not to chicken out but to come on the hard walk. In the fog and drizzle, the slipperiness worried me, but there were stone steps on all the climbs, only sometimes requiring close attention.
Our guide, Viet, was careful to keep everyone together, and he stopped several times to point out trees or plants. He knew all the Latin names because he was trained as a forester, and he also knew their traditional uses. The forest was thick, not impenetrable. The trees stretched sixty metres into the sky. Lianas thicker than a human thigh twisted around and between trees, without killing the trees. On the other hand, the Ficus tree does choke other trees – the same plant that contributed so much to the destruction of Angkor Wa in Cambodia. Grasses grew about three metres tall, as did banana plants. All the fruits were eaten only by wild animals. Fan palms and some others that grow as houseplants
"1000 Year" tree
A very old tree that has witnessed much history at home here grew four or five metres tall with huge leaves. Parasite ferns were attached to trees about five metres up. While we were walking, the trees were “raining”, that is, the dripping sounded like rain all the time, but when we were in a clearing there was no rain falling from the sky. Viet told us the crickets liked the water so they were sing in the daytime, although characteristically crickets only make noise at night. We saw no animals, because they were “shy” and wouldn’t want to get wet.
Our destination was the “1000 year tree”, the remains of a 1400 year old tree. Viet explained that “1000 year” to the Vietnamese means “very old”. We arrived to see a group of younger people taking pictures; three of them were from Edmonton, the others from around the world. They took photos for us, enabling us to get a group shot. By the time we carefully made our way down again, we had spent about two hours walking about six kilometres.
We stopped soon after lunch at the Endangered Primate Rescue Center. Many monkeys were in large cages, in large family groups. We walked past the
cages, where some monkeys looked at us and some ignored us. There were many types of monkeys, all identified and under careful care to preserve endangered primates.
Our afternoon drive was rather dull, mainly due to the dull weather. The grey clouds hung low, fog or mist obscured the view, the roads were mucky, and drizzle fell much of the time All this kept townspeople more indoors than on previous days. The street life has been a great entertainment during our time on the bus. Today we took divided express highways whenever possible to minimize the three-hour drive. The businesses were more industrial and geared to the needs of vehicles – the most colourful sight during the drive was a motorcycle dealership with a long line of red and blue and white motorcycles parked out front.
Difficult to say exactly when we entered Ha Noi, because the industrial businesses and other buildings just got gradually bigger until Thuy announced we were a few minutes away from our hotel. We were in the Old Quarter, and the buildings had a French influence, although now modified by time. Our hotel was a Vietnamese style building, that is, narrow with eleven
Farmer cycling in the fields
Tranquil scene in drizzling rain floors stacked on top of a small footprint. Inside it was modern western style. I immediately had a good hot shower!
One little problem is that a leech may have bitten me in the Park; I have a round wound that is not clotting very well. My shirt was stained with blood, a washing chore. Hope my other shirts don’t suffer the same fate! I washed the bite with a wet-wipe and applied antibiotic ointment plus a bandaid supplemented by a tissue.
Dinner this evening was at “Indochine”, a special restaurant with individually served dishes, rather than the usual family style. I was glad to have banana flower salad again, a favourite. The vegetable was eggplants cooked very thoroughly in a ground pork and onion sauce.
Ha Noi is Thuy’s home town, so she eagerly treated us to a brief night tour. The highlight was arriving at the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh at 9:00. With proud excitement she led us quickly to the crowd waiting for the ceremonial lowering of the flag. A large contingent of soldiers in white uniforms marched to the flag pole, an honour guard of three slowly lowered the gigantic flag and
folded it, and the contingent marched the long way back. Martial music played. Every evening this happens and every evening there is a crowd. Rather than returning directly to the hotel, she took us past the Opera House and two lakes, “the lungs of the city”. Tomorrow we will see this and more in the day light.
">View the video of the flag lowering ceremony.
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
The hard walk
Sounds like everyone did well with this option. Hope the leech bite heals.