Vietnam, Cuc Phuong: Spider and Leech Heaven
Travel Location: Cuc-Phuong,Vietnam
The first half of our 2-day tour to Tam Coc and Cuc Phuong National Park finished with a high note. We were very happy with everything we saw the previous day around Tam Coc and we think that Lise and Tarjei, the two Norwegians who joined us for the tour, were also quite happy.
For the second portion of the tour, we all woke up early to have breakfast at The Long Hotel, which was located in the small town of Tam Coc. After breakfast, we checked out of our rooms and met our tour guide, who took us through the national park for the day. The national park was over an hour away from Tam Coc and since it was only the four of us on this part of the tour, we were loaded into a 4×4 vehicle and were off on our way.
We could see leeches everywhere, standing at attention and waiting for a victim to latch onto
The first stop at the national park was to see the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre. There, we were able to see over 130 primates, about 15 different species of gibbons, macaques and langurs, and many of them were just as curious to see who we were. There were some very interesting features on some of the monkeys, including one with dark hair and markings that looked like it was wearing white shorts!
The rehabilitation centre houses rescued monkeys that are saved from poachers or pet owners who no longer want the animals, and their aim is to release the animals back into a semi-wild environment. There is a large enclosure next to the rescue centre where the primates are released from the cages to start adapting to the wild, and we witnessed the centre’s successes when we spotted some creatures playing in the trees above.
After spending an hour at the rehabilitation centre, our guide drove us through Cuc Phuong National Park to the park centre where all of the hiking and walking trails began. He informed us that the trail we would be walking was only a few kilometres long, but we actually think we walked at least 7 kilometres that day.
We were really worried about the weather, since it had poured down with rain the evening before in Tam Coc. We were in luck, though; the sun came out during our hike and no rain fell on us. Parts of the trail were a little slippery from being wet the night before, and even through we had to walk carefully through the jungle trail, no serious accidents occurred from any of us slipping and falling off the path.
We saw many interesting insects and spiders during our walk. Lise has a big fear of spiders and she wasn’t very happy that the jungle floor was covered with huge long-legged spiders that were crawling over everything. She had on walking sandals and, even though she was wearing socks with them, she felt like her feet were exposed to the predators.
In addition to the long-legged spiders, we spotted another interesting spider with horns. Our guide was looking out for different species of snails to add to his stone garden at home, and was in luck; he found at least five different types that he quietly stuck in his pockets. There are signs at the entrance of the park which advise visitors not to disrupt the natural state of the park, e.g. don’t take any animals or plants from the park and don’t leave anything, either. We probably should have reminded him about this rule, but we didn’t want him to leave us alone, lost in the jungle!
Our guide in the national park was a funny one; he was decked out in a pair of nice work trousers and shiny black shoes, and looked more like he was going into the office than starting a tour. We guessed that the Vietnamese are not seasoned trekkers, and this assumption was strengthened when we saw a Vietnamese woman pass us by in her high heels. We really have seen some funny, strange and interesting things on this trip…
Other creatures we saw in the jungle included leeches (more on that in a couple of paragraphs), a cave-dwelling grasshopper, a cave spider with ten legs (two were growing out of its backside), a well-camouflaged lizard and a glimpse of a giant squirrel. Dan saw this last animal twice, but Kyle, unfortunately, only saw a branch moving as it was running away. Dan reckons the squirrel was about the size of a plump house cat, definitely bigger than the normal sized squirrels we have back home in England.
One of the natural wonders featured during our walk in the jungle included a visit to a 1000-year old tree. The tree was enormous and it appeared as though the Vietnamese were building a walkway around it in order to protect it from damage caused by inconsiderate visitors – we saw many names carved into the tree trunk like graffiti. Another cool natural wonder was a really, really long vine that must have been at least 80 metres long and spread out on the jungle floor and into the air.
With the sun out, we got quite hot on the jungle trek, and stopped twice for a water break. Our tour guide actually stopped more than that, and often lagged behind us. He was not nearly as in shape as the four of us were, and it was entertaining to see him struggle with the walk. Being a smoker didn’t help him, either, and we still cannot believe that he was smoking whilst trekking for part of the trail.
On each water break, we checked ourselves for leeches, as the jungle at that time of the year was prone to having them. Also, since it had rained the night before, the leeches would be out in full force. We had no idea what they would look like, and we thought that the creatures would be quite large and visible during the walk. Up until the second water break, no one spotted any leeches, but as Kyle inspected his ankles on the second stop, he noticed a small dark brown creature stuck onto the skin of an ankle. Check out the photos for this journal entry if you would like a glimpse of this nasty little bugger.
The leech was stuck onto Kyle’s ankle pretty well, and our guide had to use his lighter to burn the thing off. This was one moment when we were happy that our tour guide was a smoker. Finally the thing came off, and no hairs were burned off in the process; we figured the guide had removed leeches before. No one else in our small group had been attacked by a leech, but as soon as we started walking on the trail again, we could see leeches everywhere, standing at attention and waiting for a victim to latch onto.
Lise was the next and final victim of a leech attack, and we spotted one on the heel of her foot. Luckily for her, she was wearing socks and the leech could not attach itself to her skin, but we were all pretty grossed out nonetheless. Another thirty minutes of walking and we were back at the entrance to the trails, ready to sit down and relax while eating lunch.
After lunch, our guide drove us to the Cave of the Prehistoric Man. We walked through the cave, which had many chambers with a large variation of colours in the limestone walls. The cave was really dark and we shared one torch between the four of us. Lise gave all of us a great fright when she screamed and started going crazy from spotting a creepy cave grasshopper-insect-thing. We had just been looking at a weird spider with two legs growing out of his behind, and she thought this was another spider out to get her. We reassured her that it was not an arachnid, but she still wanted to get the heck out of there.
We left the cave, hiked back down the many steep steps that we had climbed up to enter the cave, and hopped into our air conditioned 4×4 for the journey back to Tam Coc and to the van that would take us back to Hanoi. We passed some really excellent scenery along the way and, as the sun was shining in the blue sky, we were all able to really appreciate the beauty of that part of Vietnam.
When our vehicle stopped to let us out, so we could change over to the van bound for Hanoi, we were in for a big surprise. Who did we run into, but the deaf couple we met in Laos! Nati and Avishai had taken a day tour to Tam Coc with the same company that we chose, and they were heading back to Hanoi as well.
We were both very tired at this point, from all of the trekking, and the last thing we wanted to do was have a (difficult) conversation with the two of them. Dan was the fortunate one; he chose a seat towards the front of the van, and Kyle was stuck sitting next to them. Even though Kyle was really tired, he made an effort to talk to Nati and Avishai, but he did decline their invitation to hang out that evening and to go on a Halong Bay tour with them the next day. We had a lot to do in Hanoi and we wanted to rest up after a long couple of days.
