Hardcore Birding in Da Lat

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Hi,

It was 6:00 and the alarm clock was ringing already… so happy new year to Europe!!! We were sending some happy new year sms back home. Around seven o’clock we got picked up by the driver who was going to take us to Da Lat in the central highlands in Vietnam. It was going to be a long drive, but after 2 or 3 hours we got joined by our guide for the next 4 days: Bao. Bao’s not just any guide, but he’s a really good bird guide. We arranged a birding trip in Da lat, because birds are my biggest passion and there are several birds in the Da Lat plateau you can’t see anywhere else in the world.

It was 16:30 when we first stopped to do the first birding in the area of Di Linh and I loved it so much and we saw a lot of good birds. (for anyone interested in the whole trip report of this birding trip, go to www.easystringer.web-log.nl) We arrived in Da Lat around 20:00 and had a lovely diner and we got to know Bao and his driver Ahn a little bit better.

The next day I got up at 5:30 and at 6:30 we were already birding hardcore style! I saw some key species I was looking for and missed some, but there was still enough time. We went back to the hotel for some lunch and Bao took a nap, while my mom and I went to a pagoda (not the one we actually wanted, because the cab driver wasn’t able to read the map, but it was still nice and some locals helped us to get back to the hotel) and spend the afternoon with some culture instead of nature. When we got back at the hotel, Bao was already waiting to go birding again and so we went birding until it was dark, and I loved it!

The next day I got up even earlier and we went to climb the mountain Lang Biang for some more hardcore birding. Again we some very good key species and again we missed some, but that’s how it works with birds and there was still some time left to see the missing species. We got up to the mountain with a really old jeep which was quite fun and we went down by foot. Bao met some friends of him at the foot of the mountain who were paragliding and after he talked with them for a while we drank a nice Vietnamese coffee and then got back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch I did some studying (yes, they make sure to keep me busy in even in the holiday) and in the afternoon we visited a lovely pagoda and after that we tried to see some of the missing species but they were not performing today.

5:15 and the alarm clock went off again and the last day of hardcore birding had begun. We managed to see the most important missing species in the morning, but failed to see the second one in afternoon. But still, I was very confident about our trip, after all we managed to see all the key species but one and we saw a total of 110 bird species in 4 days birding (which is about 50% of all the species in the plateau).

Besides of all the birds a saw I had a really great time with Bao. He is a 32 year old conservation biology professor on the HCMC university, the only twitcher and ringer of Vietnam, he is the head of the Bird watching Vietnam company and he has a wife and son, who he loves much. I really got intrigued by him and how he handles his whole life and manages to keep birds such a great part of his live (he even earns his money with birding!) and a truly hope I was looking at a Vietnamese version of myself in 15 years, at least in a general way. We also talked a lot about studying abroad and there is a real possibility that I can do my internship for my master in biology in Vietnam, because we talked a lot about this and the possible projects which are running and which could be possible for me to take part of. We’ll definitely keep in contact and I hope to see him again in 2 of 3 years as my supervising professor!

Our trip to Da lat ended at 18:00 when our little plane left to bring us back to Ho Chi Minh City. I loved Da lat very much, even besides all the birds and Bao. It has a lovely climate, because of its elevation and the surrounding nature is also quite different from the rest of Vietnam. There are a lot of pine forests and some places can look like Canada! There’s also a big French influence you can feel everywhere. Also the food is different from the rest of Vietnam as a consequence of the climate. The local people even manage to make wine (which is quite tasty) here!

So I had a bunch of good experiences in this part of Vietnam, I managed to see a lot of bird species and I even was able to do some networking which will be handy in the future for my study! Tomorrow morning the alarm clock is set at 6:30 (I really hate this thing) and we will leave together with Duong and her family to the Mekong delta for a one-day-trip, so no time to get bored around here!

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