Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Vietnam Day 2


I awake at sun rise the the craziest jungle bird calls I've ever heard, and for a moment, I'm scared out of my mind! "Where the heck am I. Holy crap! I'm in Vietnam!" Have you ever waken up freaked out, not knowing where you are? Then after a moment you realize it's all good.
Every Morning I took this ferry across the river to the National
Park.


After a breakfast of some "opal eggs" and bread, I head off into the park. I take the tour of the endangered primate center. Which sounds much more impressive than it actually is, but it is still a valiant cause and a decent centre for rescued endangered primates. Apparently, the bush hunters and trappers are a really big problem here because of the illegal pet trade.
The Dao Tien primate center is one of the key features of Cat
Tien National Park.
In the late morning, I decide to do a little recon on some close trails. I grab a park map and plan my routes. On my first trail though, I realize there is a problem. I've got an urgent "code brown" here and I'm gonna needs some leaves pronto. These will do... Some of these too... I hope they're not some Asian poison Ivy of some sort. Tree? tree? Tree! Ah that one there, plenty of privacy. At least there's plenty of cover here in the jungle, even though it's the slow season for the park. Ah, that was close. . . Well, I don't think I'll be having the Opal eggs for breakie anymore.
No that is not the tree I "went" behind. This is just one really cool big tree.

I hike the "Botanical" trails, but honestly, I can't tell ya if there's anything "botanical" about them because they look just the same as the rest of the jungle. I must need to brush up on my botanical acuteness.


The insect fauna was absolutely stunning!

I buy a load of bananas on my way back to the lodge. The bananas here are about half the size as the ones in the States but these are also twice as sweet. After a luke warm first day out I retire to the lodge deck and plan tomorrow's big day.
The bird fauna, though diverse and abundant, is very hard to photograph through the
thick jungle foliage.

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