#cattien

[coffeenuts]

[coffeenuts]

Oriental Dwarf-kingfisher (Ceyx erithaca) by Rosa Gamboias https://flic.kr/p/2o73njM

[coffeenuts]

Siamese Fireback - female by anacm.silva https://flic.kr/p/2odN1rR

[jonfitton-photography]

Sharpening his machete in Cat Tien National Park #cattien #cattiennationalpark #hcmc #southernvietnam #jungleman #machete #camouflage #vietnammotorbiketours #vietnamlife #vietnameseculture #vietnamtourismboard #jungle #visitvietnam🇻🇳 #vietnamesepeople #candidphotography #portraitphotography #peopleofvietnam #myvietnam #vietnamcharming #charmingvietnam #documentaryphotographer #documentaryphotography #documentingvietnam (at Cát Tiên National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYOZiH_FUe6/?utm_medium=tumblr

[kluong29]

Taken at: Cat Tien Jungle, Dong Nai, Vietnam “Crocodile Lake“

[rachelcabakoff]

I see you. #CatTien #Vietnam #explore #experience #nature #girlinvietnam #lovingthis #adventure #fresh #coconuts #alldayeverday #traveltheworld

[adventuresbyashley]

Vietnam, part 1. Ho Chi Minh city and Cat Tien national park

Wow,  I can’t believe it’s been so long since I have posted! I have posted a lot of pictures of my trip though my instagram, but now its time to write about the trip. Since I have gotten back from my 12 day trip to Vietnam, I’ve been busy with the start of our new school year, getting into a new swing of things, and starting the crossfit open. Now I’m sitting at my desk on a wednesday, waiting for my classes to start (on wednesdays I just have 3 (only about 3 hours worth out of my 8 day work day), so I have plenty of time to write today.

Our trip to Vietnam started on an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur, and then a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh City. After arriving late to Ho Chi Minh, we caught a taxi to our budget hotel in the backpackers district (District 1) in the Phao Ngu Lao ward of Ho Chi Minh city. The area was popping when we arrived (mostly with lots of foreigner tourists), and the area certainly seemed like more of a party area. Still, it was cheap and in the middle of the city, and there was certainly lots of good restaurants and things to do around. The next morning, we woke up to a rooster crowing from the street. Even though people were partying late until the night, the city seemed to be bustling early in the morning nevertheless. That day we had pre-booked a Vespa scooter tour with a teacher friend of mine from Seoul (Jeanie), so the tour group picked us up and brought us over to their cafe. We booked the Glimpse of the Mekong tour through vietnamvespaadventures.com. We had the choice on whether to ride on the back of a tour guide or to drive a scooter our-self (if they approved of our driving skills). However, when we arrived we learned that the Vespas were only manual (so I’d have to shift gears, which I’ve never done). They also had automatic non-vespa scooters there though, so I picked out one of those, gave it a test run, and was approved to drive it. I had a scooter for a year during college, and driving it came back to me very fast! Because we were going out into the more rural areas of the Mekong, I was not that worried about driving one. However, driving a scooter through the inner parts of Ho Chi Minh city would be much crazier, there’s more scooters there than anywhere else in the world! Michael got on the back of a vespa so he could just relax and enjoy the view the whole time. Anyway, our tour was one of my favorite days. We had so much fun with our friends, seeing the countryside of Vietnam, seeing the Mekong river delta, getting free (and very delicious) food and drinks throughout the tour, and going to markets of Vietnam where there were absolutely no tourists besides us. It was also very fun to be on a scooter again, driving through the countryside, watching the scenery go by. We ended the tour with a delicious meal at a pretty outdoors restaurant where they fed us a delicious vietnamese meal.

The next few days were spent exploring Ho Chi Minh city. We mostly just enjoyed trying different foods in the city, especially Banh My sandwhiches (a delicious sandwhich with varying types of meat and extremely fresh and tasty vegetables on a fresh baguette, for around 15,000 dong  I might add, or less than a dollar!), cheap bear (less than $1!), and seeing a few of the famous sites in the city. One of those sites was the War Remants museum, where I got to learn mostly about the Vietnam war and some of the awful effects of it, particularly of Agent Orange use. While parts of the museum seemed to be pretty anti-American, I don’t doubt that all or at least most of the things I learned were true. It was pretty eye-opening and very sad at the same time. We really liked Ho Chi Minh city, there were flowers everywhere and tons of good restaurants to eat at. We enjoyed our days there even when we weren’t doing much besides relaxing in the city. The last night, was the Tet new years eve, so we got to enjoy fireworks at midnight. The fireworks were pretty good, but it was mostly just exciting to see all of the scooters and people around. Tet is Vietnam’s biggest holiday, so it was pretty cool to be a part of.

After our 3 days in Ho Chi Minh, we took a bus to Cat Tien national park. Our bus took a little longer than expected, and we were the only foreigners on the bus. At times we were worried that we had maybe signed up for the wrong bus, because it kept picking up people along the way, and then someone told us they didn’t normally have tourists on that bus. But, the bus did finally drop us off in front of our hotel, the Cat Tien Farm stay, which is a part of the Cat Tien Jungle Lodge that was recently built. We were there for 2 days and 3 nights, which was plenty of time. We were pretty disappointed when we found out you could only do the gibbon trek if you were staying inside of the park (just across the river), but it was too late to cancel our hotel. Overall it was pretty hard to find information before hand about tours such as the gibbon trek and accommodation around the park. The organization and management of the park could use some work. But anyway, our farm stay and the jungle lodge were beautiful and very peaceful. We signed up to do some trekking with a guide and to do a night safari. They told us that you are not allowed to hike around without a guide. That morning we also were able to visit the Gibbon rehabilitation sanctuary in the park, and this was probably our favorite thing we did there. It was around 10 am when we got to the Gibbon island, and we were fortunate to hear the gibbons doing their singing/calling to each other. The guide at the gibbon rehabilitation center told us all about their behavior and what the project is doing for them, and we learned a lot. It was very sad to here that all of those gibbons had been rescued from the illegal pet trade, because some people think its cute to keep primates as pets. The center tries to rehabilitate the gibbons back into the wild, but for some of them that have grown up with humans for too long, they are too well accustomed to living with humans and would not have the skills to survive in the wild on their own. However, some of the gibbons they are able to teach how to be a gibbon again and re-introduce them into the wild in the park. We learned how gibbons make singing calls every morning, as a way to attract a mate. Apparently, gibbons bond for life and will only mate together if their songs properly fit. I will post of a video of the gibbons singing to each other because it was really amazing to hear. Later, we did some trekking with a guide, which mostly just involved walking through the woods trying to see if we could see any animals. We saw practically none, of course, but learned about the different flora and fauna of the park. Michael did happen to see one gibbon jumping very briefly. But they are so fast and blend in so well, the next second, it was gone and we couldn’t see it anymore. We did a night safari that night on a truck, and on the safari we saw two different species of deer, an owl, and another small mammal that I can’t remember now. It made me wonder where all those deer go during the day time. The next day we made friends with these two German girls and went out walking through the park on our own. It made us regret hiring a guide to do trekking because it clearly seemed possible that you can just walk through the park on your own. But anyway, the German girls were very nice and it was cool getting to know them. It made us really want to move to Germany as they described all the castles and Germany’s proximity to all the other countries in Europe. We also visited the bear rehabilitation sanctuary that day, where we got to see more gibbons, some Asiatic black bears, and a leopard. Additionally, one of the gibbons that the sanctuary had rehabilitated back into the wild, happened to be visiting its old home. They told us that it just so happened to make its territory the area right around the sanctuary. While it wasn’t necessarily good that the gibbon is still so used to human contact, what was good is that this rehabilitated gibbon had mated with another wild gibbon and had a baby, which we got to see! We felt so lucky to see a wild baby gibbon. It was so cute and quite an amazing experience. I will post a video of the gibbon calling and some more pictures from Ho Chi MInh and Cat Tien now, and then write about the rest of my trip to Vietnam! Thanks for reading!