Vietnam- Cuc Phoung National Park

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After arriving from Ninh Binh by coach, late into the night, we spent one night in a dusty hotel, where breakfast consisted of sitting at a table eating bad food whilst being plagued by the staff. They really wanted you to sign up for a tour through them, and between mouthfuls of stodgy food we took turns in declining their offers. Then we ran the gauntlet of getting outside where one guy was convinced we needed a motorbike ride. The town itself was pretty dusty and uninteresting, just on the edge of a boom though. Tam Coc, it's caves and the national park being Ninh Binh's only draw, which most people would come see on a round trip from Hanoi anyway. So we hired a driver and went to Cuc Phoung National Park!
The park was amazing. It's protected primary rainforest, and there was accommodation inside the forest itself. We spent the first night near to the entrance, in a stilt house room that had a few hours of electricity but was otherwise very basic. But perfect for our needs. On the way in we were greeted by a nice looking toad too. We visited the primate rescue center that day, with the various species of Languors it cares for looking pretty happy. The insect population was huge in that place, walk along any path and you'd disturb a hundred small grasshoppers. It was in the botanical section where we spent a couple of hours that we came across our first stick insect of the trip, easily a foot long with it's legs at last 25cm long. When we returned to our room, Hannah spotted a large Preying Mantis on the bridge to the WC- the first of many mantids we'd see in the park. Got very wet that night so we caught up with our books and played around with the shutter speeds of our cameras. A huge moth shared our room that night.
The next day we decided to go deeper into the park so we left our big bags and cycled the 35km to the park center. After 2 minutes I realised my bike had no low gears. It took us about 4 hours largely because of the many stops along the way we took to spot Flower Mantids. The bushes by the road side were teeming with life, and the flower petals were where the insects would hide.
The next stilt house had no electricity and was deserted apart from ourselves. We walked into the park, and found out that Cobras were commonplace. Walking a little more cautiously, we spent the evening spotting huge eerie crickets, looking for signs of primates, walking beneath the trees and strangler figs, listening to green tree frog calls that we're loudest near the water near the banana grove. Special being so far removed from anyone else.

Being so far removed from anyone else that night wasn't so great when Hannah thought she had malaria. Feeling feverish, we didn't know if it was just the heat and the thought of malaria or whether I'd have to cycle the 35km to get the medication that was in our larger backpacks. After thinking about a malaria victim we had seen on tv, we realised her symptoms we're slight, and she cheered up markedly.

That day we walked a winding trail that took us past some 100 years old trees, numerous clear streams and much wildlife. Freshwater crabs and tadpoles, small fish and a couple of what we imagine must have been hives, high up in the trees, which were unnaturally loud. The bird calls were amazing, and near the end of the walk, in a bamboo bush, we came across something eating. We could hear a gnawing grinding noise, quite loud a couple of feet away from us. Thought it was a pig at fist but the noise seemed to be coming from the roots of the bush. Never found out what it was.

The cycle back only took an hour and a half, mostly downhill and quite fun. You'd have to break quite fast to avoid the scores of butterflies drinking from a puddle. My bicycle somehow made it intact. So we hung around with the park dogs for a while and waited for our lift back to Ninh Binh.

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Photos

Giant Asian Mantis
Hannah spotted this one, well camouflaged.

Missing a leg.
Just about to bite me.

Bicycle Mantis.
This one landed on Hannah's saddle as we ate lunch before setting off.

First stilt house.
Oh yeah, they are actually called pillar houses.