Bird flu, anyone?
Trip Start
Jul 15, 2007
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136
197
Trip End
Jul 16, 2008
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Where I stayed
Da Nang, Vietnam
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Amy just walked up to me in the Business Class lounge at Danang Airport to show me a headline buried on page 10 of the Vietnam News, the government's official English-language newspaper. Four civet cats in Cuc Phuong National Park just died of bird flu. They are investigating the recent unexplained deaths of several monkeys at the Primate Research Center.
Yep, the very same Cuc Phuong that we visited five short days ago. The highlights of our tour were a visit to the Primate Research Center and a two-hour hike into the forest. Fortunately (we now realize) we saw no animal larger than a fruit fly on our hike, and our interaction in the Primate center was limited to watching monkeys from a distance, swinging around cages or clambering around a building in a large compound surrounded by an electric fence. No cuddling of cute baby langurs with unexplained barking coughs.
The incubation period of bird flu is two to eight days. So we'll know by March 16 whether we will need to be airlifted out to Bangkok or Singapore. If you don't see any new posts, watch for us on Fox News.
