Day 227 - Motorbiking the back roads to the jungle

Our day started a little later than planned after Liv conveniently turned off the alarm and went back to sleep - Lars' decision to buy a bottle of vodka last night might have had something to do with it! After breakfast we got our motorbikes for the day and set off in the direction of the Cuc Phuoc National Park.

In complete contrast to Cat Ba island, we spent the first half and hour on a crazy Vietnamese road, zig-zagging between cars, trucks, buses, and other motorbikes. We were relieved to make the turn off the main road to begin a much more leisurely cruise through small towns watching Vietnamese life pass us by.

The closer we got to the forest the more impressive the scenery became: the majority of the view was taken up by entire families decked out in pointy hats working the rice fields together, bent at the waist and nearly knee-deep in mud!

We stopped a couple of times on the way to the National Park to take photos of the amazing views, and arrived at the park gate after a couple of hours of relaxed cruising. We thought we had been spoilt for views already, but we soon found ourselves travelling through the National Park road amongst beautiful Vietnamese jungle.

At the end of the road we set off for a hike into the dense green forest but we're met by concrete steps and pathways half of the time! Our travel buddies decided to turn back and we decided to push on for a while longer, and when the hike was along dirt tracks it was really stunning and we were sheltered underneath the forest canopy. Adam even detoured into the forest and was soon hidden in the jungle. We didn't get to see much of the jungle life that is meant to live here, but we did hear some birds and insects - it seems that the leopards and bears know which part of the jungle to avoid!

When we returned to the beginning we remounted the bikes and headed for a quick lunch before making our way to the Primate Rescue Centre stationed at the entrance of the park. Although we normally avoid zoos, this is a legitimate operation that rescues many types of primates all over Vietnam. The primates are most often captured by hunters who hope to onsell them for medicinal purposes or food and our guide informed us that the most valuable can fetch around US$1,000 on the black market - which is more than most Vietnamese make in one year. The best part about centre was seeing a species that had only been discovered 10 or so years ago - a benefit of having a country with so much unexplored forest, although this is slowly changing as development occurs. Another highlight of the centre was seeing the 'semi-wild' enclosure where 15 monkeys currently live, some of which were even born there, with the hope that they will all eventually be returned to the wild.

On our journey home we ended up in rural back roads for the 2 hour meander back to our hotel, where we were greeted by children and adults alike waving and cheering at us along the way. We were surrounded by sugar cane fields, working buffalo, herds of cows ambling along the roads (like back in NZ!) and of course the rice paddies and huge mountains. As we went through small villages a third of the road was taken up by herbs and veges being dried for later consumption. It was hilarious to pass by (and then later be passed by) 4 teenage boys all piled on one motorbike! It was not so hilarious when we passed two poor pigs (alive) tied upside down on the back of a motorbike - presumably being transported home for dinner? The driving became terrifyingly harder as we turned onto Highway 1, where we had to battle for space in order to survive! Adam decided that the best way to get through it was to drive fast - Lars and Anja (the other 2 members of our motorbiking gang!) even witnessed a bus conductor leaning out the door and pushing away people on motorbikes!!

We made it back to Ninh Binh in the dark, and got a little lost making our way back to the hotel - but we made it in the end and settled in for a huge dinner and spent the night talking through the events of a brilliant day.

Adlibing Vietnam's Jungles