Day 12-13: Cat Tien National Park (Tuesday, July 8 – Wednesday, July 9)

The reason we crammed all our shopping (and ultimately bagged on the meager sights) in Hoi An is that we really wanted to make it out to Cat Tien National Park to do some trekking and enjoy the outdoors a bit more in Vietnam. After a one night refresher in what good hotels are, we left the comfort of the Sheraton Saigon for the three hour drive northeast to the national park. Cat Tien is a huge park in Southeastern Vietnam and home to an impressive set of flora and fauna (over 1,600 species) including many endangered and near endangered species such as the Javanese Rhinoceros (only 5-7 left in the park). Shocking I know, but we did not see any during our time in the park!

While we knew we wanted to go to the park, we weren’t exactly sure how to make it happen. Frommer’s suggested just hiring a driver and showing up at the park… but in the end, we went with a two day tour organized by Active Travel Vietnam. It was definitely more expensive then the DIY option, but we didn’t have to think about anything. We booked it while we were in Hanoi, and actually went to the office to make the payment. The guy running the office, Tony, was great. He was all alone since the rest of the company was enjoying a little vacation at Halong Bay. He gave us some good advice, as well as some pointers for the Laos portion of our trip. It was a little concerning when he mentioned the leeches… apparently, there are lots of leeches at Cat Tien. Indeed, there were lots of leeches. Surprisingly, though, they were a) tiny and b) land-based. We learned that these are terrestrial leeches, and they stay small (unlike the larger water-based leeches that we had in our minds).

We stayed overnight in a guesthouse (a very generous term) at the park center, and had all of our meals in the park canteen (a little too fried, but overall pretty good). On our first day, we hiked about 6km after lunch, doing a circle route through the forest near the park headquarters. We didn’t see any animals (other than butterflies and lots of leeches), but we saw a lot of interesting and impressive trees. After dinner, we went on a drive (standing in the back of a pickup truck in the rain!) down the park road. Our guide had a giant torch to shine into the park so that we could look for animals. Unfortunately, it rained hard the whole time. We didn’t expect to see much, but we found a rabbit, a bunch of frogs, and a whole lot of deer that had come out for dinner. Back at our guest house and (somewhat) dry, we hopped into our mosquito net covered beds to get some shut-eye. Needless to say, city girl Viv was a little shocked at the idea of sleeping under mosquito nets!

Day two meant more hiking… 10km, to be precise. We hopped a ride on a jeep down the main park road, and then hiked 5km to the Crocodile Lake ranger station. This was a great hike, and somehow we managed to spot a group of langurs jumping around in the tree tops. We couldn’t get a photo, but they were pretty good-sized black langurs (with distinctive white/silvery tails)! It was quite a find, and our local guide was really shocked that we saw them. The park headquarters had a good display on the various species living in the park area, and it too indicated that the langurs were rarely seen (lucky us!). We heard a bunch of macaques, as well, but they didn’t want to come close enough for us to see them. We also came across some truly giant trees, including this one that completely towered over us (700 years old).
We didn’t see any crocodiles in the lake, though they do exist (apparently they only come out at night), but we did see a lot of birds in the area, including a very green, peacock-like bird. And of course, we had the obligatory de-leeching when we arrived at the station. They just hop on your shoes and try to make their way to skin. The park is well prepared, though, and we were all given leech socks (sexy), as well as a leech repellent that we rubbed on the socks... check us out showing them off.

On the way back to the Park Headquarters, we really picked up the pace and did the entire 5km hike in just an hour. Not much in the way of animals on this part, either – just a small snake and a centipede. After lunch, we left the park and drove back to Saigon.
If you are in Saigon (or Dalat) and have some time, we highly recommend Cat Tien. And if you really want an outdoor adventure, you could spend even more time there. The best time to go is in the dry season – stay overnight at Crocodile Lake, because the animals come to the lake at night to get water, so it’s a great spot for animal viewing.

We were counting down the hours until we got back to the shower at the Sheraton Saigon (great water pressure with jets on the side, as well) the whole time we were hiking in the park… and by the time we got there it was well-deserved. Clean and refreshed, we hit the streets of Saigon for some dinner and fun. Dinner was at Nam Kha (owned by the Khai Silk empire, and completely decked out!), followed by drinks at the Temple Club. Sadly, there was no one else at the Temple Club besides us and a group of girls that we saw in Hoi An, as well. It was still cool, though, with some great décor. Perhaps a more fun time on the weekend?