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Published: October 9th 2007
Hi Friends and Family,
Today, we visited Hoa Lu (the capital under the 10th Dynasty) and went to Cuc Phong.
Cuc Phong is Vietnam’s oldest national park where we did a very basic trek up to the caves to find evidence of pre-historic man! With torches, we climbed up the steep slippery hill. The caves were dark and interesting with traces of fossils and natural elements.
The park is also a tropical rain forest which contains rare hardwoods and an amazing wildlife. We visited the Cuc Phuong Primate Rescue Centre which is sponsored by the Frankfurt Zoo in Germany. We were guided around various species of primates and met one of the German sponsors from an Animal Wildlife Organization.
We were also guided around various species of primates and met one of the German staff members and had a bit of a chat. They had been based in Vietnam for 15 years and obviously, they were doing good work. I was glad of the guide because I do
NOT like monkeys. I have been with them at close proximity in Indonesia, South Africa, and India, and none of them were nice experiences.
At one point, one
of them climbed on my head in Bali and started pulling my hair! I had long plaits then and it was extremely painful and scary. Since then, I try to keep my distance but its not always so easy as in India, you do have to pass them to get into the forest and temples and in South Africa, they roamed freely in the car parks of the Cape Town Mountain!
We had lunch on the premises of the park and then we checked into our Home-Stay accommodation.
Our accommodation was a joint house in the middle of the rain forest, divided into twin and single rooms. It was pretty basic with a bed and mattress, bed sheet, duvet and pillow (no covers). A mosquito net was provided but no electricity was available until 18:00. There were two cold showers and two toilets.
After making ourselves comfortable, there was an option of a 6 km trek which all the women ,and Simon and Bill opted out of. I, because I needed some time out to read a couple of things without snatching time or on bumpy roads, and the other women because they didn’t want to climb
Cuc Phuong
Pre-historic man?any more hills or go through any more jungles!
So it was left to the men to organize a boys day out to hunt and conquer the elements. I really wanted to take a nap but it was way too hot and for the 1st time since I’ve been in Vietnam, I was bitten by about a million mosquitoes, and I still had my cough that had turned into a hack and a sore throat so a time-out was sorely needed. The wooden windows were left wide open for a breeze to come through but there wasn’t one, just sunshine and still wind.
“The boyz” came back a few hours later hollering down the path, sweating and with a few bevies down ‘em! On further investigation on the pain of death, my companion told me that they did a bit of hiking, trekking, climbing over tree trunks and listening to wild and wonderful noises. How they also happened to find cold beers in the middle of the jungle too, I’ll never know.
The generator was switched on at 18:00 and so people could shower and set up their mosquito nets. We then proceeded to the “bar” with
Cuc Phuong
The Germans are everywhere! torches through the dark forest. Vietnam gets dark at about 18.00 and by 19:00, the forest was pitch black. Walking through the path was a bit worrying as you were in constant fear of stepping on something or something crossing your path unexpectedly, so a lot of deliberate loud noises were made.
The rest of the gang had gone on before us, so my companion and I wandered the forest alone. I have no fear of the dark or the unknown in general, but I did feel a little uncomfortable as we only had 1 torch and it was a 20 minute walk. What if our torch battery went flat? Unsurprisingly, my companion had brought his army supply kit to the forest Home-Stay and had a spare torch and life-saving supplies of liquorice!
Dinner was an all-inclusive meal of things that I can no longer remember (I’m sorry folks but my mind did begin to get mushy!). Suffice it to say, it was all lovely of course and way too much. We were all so stuffed and hoped that the staff would find a way
NOT to throw away all the food. I asked Bill and he said
On the climb
Don't look down! that most of the vegetables and meats would be turned into noodle soup and mixed salads. What a relief!
Back to our home-stay rooms, we slept under the mosquito net but I soon woke up at a little close to midnight. The generator had been switched off and I was drenched with sweat and sticky. What to do? No electricity!
Against my own better judgement, I threw open (actually, I struggled to open) the window and we received a little light relief. It was too difficult to sleep. Apparently, I tossed and turned so much that I pushed all my stuff off my bed!
Yikes!
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