Cat Tien National Park: there's no place I'd rather be. And it was impossible for me to get there--have to get a bus ticket to Da Nang, get dropped off in the middle of nowhere, and then get a xe om the rest of the way. But Jenny's new friends were going and JOY! they invited us along.
It was an ordeal from the very beginning. We did it local style, which may be quaint and ethnic and all, but let's face it--it's bad. I insisted on taking a cab to the local bus station. Instead we hefted our luggage onto our motorbike, and threaded impossible crowds, often nearly creamed by buses, only to find most of the parking lots full.
Finally, here we are waiting for the bus--my camera somehow cropped out the insanity. The first bus was full, even though we had tickets. The second one wasn't much better. I had 1/4 of a butt cheek to sit on and clung with every tooth and toenail for the 4 hour drive, stuck into one of 2 bus-hand's armpit. The bus has a limited number of ticketed seats, but they crammed people into every crevice. It was awful, and definitely illegal. Every time we passed a highway patrol the bus monkeys closed the window and crouched into a pretend seat. When we passed, up goes the window and the bus monkeys call out for yet more passengers. I was really pissed--good thing I didn't speak Vietnamese. I wanted to rat them out to the nearest cop.
But the ride didn't last quite forever. Eventually we were dumped onto the riverbank and got a ferry to the park. Here's the dorm where we stayed. If they put half the care in the dorms as they do with the topiaries, we should be in good shape.
They didn't. We slept on wooden slats and had to go outside to a latrine.
This was really sad. No toilet seats, never been cleaned since the Carter administration, never even had the single-serve shampoo packets cleaned out. The arthropods took over.
Here's a detail of the bathroom stall. A nice katydid. The invertebrate life here is really spectacular.
And also kinda gross. We shared the latrine with many hand-sized wolf spiders. The one in the insert is carefully guarding an egg case, but in vain. The next day all that was left was a hollow assemblage of legs. Must have been a bigger spider.
But the top of the human food chain is the mosquito. This sign probably warns of Dengue Fever. Too bad we brought the useless but dainty-smelling skin-so-soft.
I even had bad luck with the guides. The place was fully booked, and my first day I tagged along with a guide and two surly, SLOW old people. The next day I missed the tour altogether, and the guides were too lazy to work in the afternoon or the next day.
Worth it? Definitely. I see less birds by myself, but I get to do the work and get all the credit. Otherwise I'm too focused on my notebook and don't get to see much but a retreating bunch of feathers. Here's a Great Hornbill, justifying all the hardship in one quick swoop.
And then I ate it (kidding). This was the best chicken I ever had, even after losing points for presentation.
The adorable Vernal Hanging Parrot. Would love to take one home, but they have so much fun in the wild.
Altogether I saw 51 birds--not much, but what I saw was amazing. Not much else to see--just a few monkeys that were to quick to identify. But the inverts continued to astound me. I've seen large foraging trains of ants, but never termites. Their soldiers had powerful jaws like ants too, instead of the usual noxious snout-spike. In this picture they are herding into a tunnel entrance. It looked like a clown trick--thousands of termites pouring into a tiny house.
This spider wins 3 awards--the biggest, scariest, and most beautiful I'd ever seen.
A peacock-colored lizard!
Our guide had a little surprise. He'd been collecting trash and plastic bottles and found a large scorpion inside. The bigger they are the less venomous, so this one must be puppy-like.
Butterflies were constant stage-stealers. Here are some beautiful ones that were innocently feeding on dung when they became roadkill.
I also met a wonderful Irish volunteer who took care of the bear sanctuary. The parks have bears, and also tigers, gaur, and all kinds of things, even a rhino until just a few months ago, but these were confiscated from Bile factories. They are very well taken care of. Here's a moonbear snacking on a banana popsicle. They have great muttonchops and look pretty harmless--more like sloths than bears. The sun bears look like small rottweilers with tremendous claws, and most of them were confiscated pets.
And what better way to end a trip than with dog meat? I knew it was inevitable that I'd try it, but I still haven't. This is organ meat, and I wouldn't eat the organs of any animal, thank you.
So, horrendous commute, extremely rugged hospitality. Would I do it again? Yes please. ASAP.
For instance, they like to carve huge smiley faces in their fish for no discernable purpose except that it sells more fish. Often in the US we just cut off fillets, which is very wasteful and makes us cowardly meat-eaters. But when it's done right fish are left with their heads and tasty jaw muscles intact and gutted. Vietnamese leave all the guts in--why? It's not like they eat them, probably because they taste like you'd expect fish guts to taste--absolutely jaw-rottingly horrifying. So the first side of the fish is tasty but the other half has been stewing in gut-sauce and isn't worth leaving for the dogs. I'd like to think the guts are left in for sheer laziness but it is pretty time-consuming to extract the face, which as I mentioned is rather pointless. Maybe they do it for sanitary reasons, not wanting to lick the inside of an animal's mouth?
Nah, probably not. This chicken will be hacked up and every little bit will go on the platter, mouth, eyes, wattles and all. Very creative presentation, no? Better than a Sicilian necktie. Makes me wonder how they kill the chicken--obviously not the traditional and quick guillotine method. But all chickens in Vietnam, even in the city, are free-range, organic, lean and delicious, and as someone dear to me once said, "just have one bad day."
