National Park? Your having a laugh

  Ninh Binh, Vietnam
Sunday, November 5, 2006

After resting up, we headed to Ninh Binh from where we could visit Cuc Phuong National Park. Ninh Binh itself is a horrible, dusty, industrial town with one redeeming feature - a nice, welcoming atmosphere - quite a novelty in Vietnam. People everywhere say hello and ask you where you're from, but this will almost always be as a prelude to trying to sell you something. In Ninh Binh they are genuinely being friendly. The town itself is disgusting though. We managed to get lost for about an hour and were feeling the effects on our lungs for days afterwards.
We took a day trip to Tam Coc, which translates as "three caves". The main thing to do here is to take a paddle boat trip down the river where you go through the caves en route. Once again, the surrounding mountainous scenery was breathtaking and its times like these when I have to pinch myself to believe that I'm really out here.

Scenery at Tam Coc

We also visited several nearby temples. The most memorable was so because we got a guided tour by this ancient monk who explained the significance of all the relics. Despite talking to us in French (my GCSE level understanding of the language proved to be just about sufficient), we were able to get an understanding of his lifelong anger towards the Mongolians of Genghis Khan for the destruction they wreaked upon Vietnam in the 12th century! Not to mention his over-familiarity towards Mani but I let that one slide.
Onto the park where we spent two days. Beginning to realise that independent travel is difficult to the point of being discouraged in Vietnam, I imagine so that the government can keep as tight control as possible over where tourists go and what they see. We were adamant we wanted to do this on our own, rather than with a group and as such, had to get a private car there and back. Not to mention accomodation, meal and guide costs within the park. In the end this cost us over $100, much more than we would have paid if we'd have gone with a group.
We went on two treks - the first was crap, the second good. The problem with the first, was that the path was concreted over. When you went up or down a hill you followed steps. When the guide book says "great trekking opportunities" this is something they fail to mention. If I wanted to go up and down stairs I would have stayed in my hotel! The reason is that its a very un-Vietnamese and also un-Asian thing to do - go trekking through the wilderness. So, the paths have been concreted over to encourage the locals to come. But if you want to walk on a concrete path, you should stay at home. The views weren't anything special either as the path was enclosed by forest though we did get to see a thousand-year old tree and go crawling through some caves.

National Park

The second day was much better - no concrete! We went on a nature trail for which we needed a guide as the path seemed to be almost non-existent at times. Our guide told us stories about people - usually Germans - who tried to do this trek unattended and got lost for days on end. Again, there weren't really any good views but the experience made up for it. The jungle was really dense in places, so much so that some of it needed hacking through with a machete.
The other highlight of this visit was an endangered primate centre. They do excellent work here - taking in endangered monkeys that have been rescued from captivity, nursing them back to health and preparing them for release back into the wild, where possible also running a breeding programme. We saw some of the rarest creatures on the planet, including two of only 60 remaining Cat Ba monkeys. The conditions they are kept in are very good - much more adequate space is provided than in most Western zoos.

Monkeys!

They do face possibly an unwinnable struggle though - security here is incredibly tight because of previous break-ins. Many locals are professional poachers - we even saw a couple on our second hike who sprinted away when they saw us as they thought we were rangers. The price they can get for only one monkey will be enough to provide for their family for well over a year. The result is that numbers of these creatures are unfortunately always diminishing.
We returned to Ninh Binh and decided to take a night bus straight to Hue - something that turned into a complete nightmare.