A Walk In The Park
Trip Start
Oct 19, 2011
1
19
22
Trip End
Nov 12, 2011
Ninh Binh, Vietnam
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Toan arrives on time and this morning we are headed off to Chuc Phuong National Park. It's a bit of a haul out there and my discernment to wear a surgical mask while riding the motorcycle proves prudent. This is due to the fact that not only is there dust everywhere and my allergic rhinitis is doing overtime, but also due to the fact that much of the rice is being harvested and they are burning the remaining chaff off, so there's lots of smoke in the air from time-to-time as well. I don't even look like a goober either because nearly everyone is wearing them. Very fashion-forward here in Vietnam. After about 45 minutes or so we arrive at Cuc Phuong, where I pay $1 entry fee and $2.50 for a guide at the Endangered Primate Center. I first am directed to see the monkeys and we see several types of langurs and gibbons. Who doesn't love watching monkeys? The best part is when a worker walks by the gibbon cages and (thinking the worker is delivering food) they all start zooming/flying around their cages and SCREAMING like sirens going off. Let me tell you, the gibbons have got some lungs. Those things can scream and wail like crazy. It would scare the bejeezus out of me if I were walking through the jungle and they all got started up. I unfortunately did not bring my video camera, so I couldn't catch their racket on that but I did have my digital audio recorder on me, so I caught it on that. Those of you who remind me when I return, will get a kick out of listening to them.
The monkey tour only lasts about 12 minutes and then it was off to the turtle recovery area. Blah, blah, blah re. the turtles. I'm sorry they are being poached and all but I can't get too excited about turtles.
The second event at the park was a "leisurely" 6 km. trek. Now I thought it would be a "walk in the park", both literally and figuratively. I mean that's ONLY about 3 miles and I thought I'd read that it was an easy trail. Toan also said it was easy. I asked him twice to consider joining me but he just smiled and said "no, not really much talk about, just follow trail". So, I grabbed a small bottle of water and headed to the trail. The trail was paved in concrete and had some steps. For awhile. What was in reality to be a short while. The paved concrete was the only short thing of this hike. Eventually it became a gnarled mess of roots and clay- thankfully dry clay as it hadn't rained recently. So I hiked and hiked and took a few pictures along the way. I was basically hiking through a jungle as it ran up the side of a mountain. Let me repeat that part... as it ran UP the side of A MOUNTAIN. Rocky hewn steps, steps, and more steps. Good grief, this was no leisurely walk in the park, that much I figured out about kilometer 2. Did I not tell him that I didn't want another workout today? Particularly not 3 miles of walking up a mountain with ZERO lunch and 1 measly bottle of water. Thank God I had the soundness of mind to go to the bathroom prior to starting. There was a lot of buzzing around heard and I also began to hope that my 30% Deet was up to this task. The last thing I needed was to get stung out here.
There was zero wildlife to be seen, which, depending upon what might be seen, was possibly a good thing. The last hike I'd taken, which was in the Blue Ridge Mountains this past September, I came a cross a snake in the path. They have cobras here in Vietnam, so I'll pass on snake sightings out here in the middle of a jungle in the middle of nowhere. Particularly since I have not seen another human in the past hour. There were plenty of buzzing bees, screeching cicadas and grasshoppers flying around however. Come on Deet & Permethrin, hang in there!
I continue hiking onward/upward, and hiking, and hiking. For crying out loud, do we ever go downhill? After about an hour plus, I make it to the 1,000 year old tree. Big whoop. It's no Redwood or Sequoia. Just a big tree. I give it a Griswald's look and I pick what I believe and hope, is the right path, onward and oh yes, UPWARD, to the end of this trip to nowhere. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I swear it seems like this is one of those "uphill both ways" albeit not in a snowstorm, trips you always hear about. I cannot figure out how so much of this trail, that goes in a big circle, is spent trekking uphill. Towards the end, I pass some Brits and English trekkers who have only been at it for about 30 minutes and are already huffing and puffing. I tell them it's more of the same but they are not diswayed. Suckers. FINALLY, FINALLY I reach the end of this gauntlet. Toan is there waiting and I feel like giving him "the finger".
We get on the bikes and head to the final stop for the day, Kenh Ga Floating Village. Along the way through the park's long road, some guy he knows passes us and they begin chatting. The guy moves a little ahead of us and I notice a large branch lying in the road. The branch moves and I now realize it's not a branch but a snake, about 4-5' in length. Just as the snake is passing to the right of Toan's friend, and about 12' before we get to it, it rises up like 2' off the ground, rears back and flares it's neck. Holy *#&^% it's a COBRA!!!! I am not kidding you, it was a big, grey cobra and it was doing the yoga pose and everything! Worst of all, we were now closing in on it but thankfully I yelled, "Whoa!" and Toan slowed and finally stopped the bike. The thing bobbed its head to & fro a little, as if it were looking for something to strike, and then went back down and took off into the brush. BLOODY HELL, that was close!!!! OK Doug, NOW THAT will keep me from getting back on a motorcycle here! I need more reptilian protection. We could have been nearly eye-to-eye with that thing!
I grabbed my camera but was too late. Initially I was ticked at myself but then I was just happy that I hadn't soiled myself during the whole escapade. That was far too close. I am SOOOOO happy I didn't come across one of those during my hike. So happy.
As we continue driving down Vietnam's dusty backroads, passing rice fields, water buffalos, fisherman, children shouting "hallo", "hallo", and the craggy mountains stand looming in the background, I can't help but recall the John Denver tune that we used to play and sing to over & over on roadtrips across America in our Winnebago and then can't resist tweaking the lyrics a wee bit.
"I hear his crow, in the morning hour he calls me
It reminds me that my home's far away
And drivin' down the road I get the feeling
That I still won't be home not today, not today
Country roads, let me roam
Through the place, I don't quite belong
Dusty Vietnam, Mountain mama-san
Country roads, let me roam"
Enroute to the floating village, we pass some water buffalo swimming and I have Toan pull over so I can grab some pictures. As I am shooting, he says "look there". I look down and just below me is a snake swimming. Good Lord, this place is crawling with snakes! What is it with the snakes today? I ask him if it is poisonous and he says, "No, not poisonous. But snake on road was cobra. It poisonous." No shit Sherlock! I read Rickki-Tikki-Tavi.
We arrive at the dock to catch a boat to the "floating village". Of course they call a woman to come and drive the thing. We head off down the river and discuss the cobra encounter. I ask Toan how long a person has to get help/anti-venom after a cobra bites, before they would die. He answers that they tie off the blood (tourniquet) and the person has about 30 minutes to get help. He then tells me something about some "medicine" they make by pounding up some root and putting it on the bite and making the person tea from it. OK, so I'll go with traditional medicine for gastric issues, but I sure as heck don't want to roll the dice with it post-cobra bite. Besides, we were in the middle of BFE. If we'd gotten bit, I think it would not have been a pretty outcome.
Regarding the "floating village"... I have been to several of these and can now check that off the list. This village was not floating. It was just some fisherman's village. No idea why they call it a floating one. Toan told me some blah, blah regarding the reason but it still made no sense to me. Anyway, there was some OK scenery.
I returned to my hotel and asked them to whip up the dinner I had requested this morning. Tonight is fish cooked in a Vietnamese tomato sauce, some steamed greens and... wait for it... rice.
