A few weekends ago we took a weekend trip to the national park Cuc Phuong. We were told we needed to take a bus to a city called Ninh Binh, and from there take a taxi into Cuc Phuong. But like most of our travel adventures in SE Asia, when we got to the bus station, a local person negotiated with bus drivers on our behalf, and suddenly we were on a bus that would drop us off in Cuc Phuong for about $1 extra USD ($5 total). In this sense, traveling in Asia is much easier than in Europe. Everyone knows someone who can arrange transportation or tours for you, and everything is negotiable. This combined with the fact that almost everything is affordable (for example, we arranged for a private boat from Cambodia through the Mekong Delta to Vietnam for six hours for about $15 USD each), you can really travel whichever way you want, at whatever time you want, with however many people you want. Advertised times, prices and destinations are almost always able to be changed with persuasion.
So after riding on the bus packed with locals, we arrived at the edge of Cuc Phuong. There was no transport to speak of where we were dropped off, so we made about a 2k trek to the nearest tourist office through a wide dirt rode surrounded by forest. See below:
I fell pretty far behind at this point, my backpack strap broke and I spent a significant amount of time fishing out my camera so that all of you great readers wouldn't miss this exciting road.
After we arrived at the tourist office and arranged for our hotel, we took a tour through a nearby primate rescue center. The center is run by a German, and he saves monkeys that would otherwise not survive poaching or deforestation. I love animals and these monkeys were very interesting, so I took about a billion pictures of them. I limited them to six for the blog, which was very difficult.
This guy was the coolest. I couldn't really capture it through pictures, but he would swing with his huge arms from one branch to another, making such big leaps that he seemed to be flying mid-air for a few seconds before grabbing hold of another trunk. He moved all over his gigantic cage like this almost constantly, and after watching him for ten minutes I seriously considered changing the animal I would be if I could transform into one (it's a dolphin, not too creative but it is what it is).
The faces on these monkeys were very human like, sort of creepy.
Cutest baby ever.
On his own for a bit.
Back in the arms of his momma.
During our trip we went on a hike through the surrounding forest, and below are pictures from the hike and from inside a cave that we explored.
Some cool butterflies i stumbled upon.Below are pictures we took on our ride back from Cuc Phuong to Hanoi.
The countryside in Vietnam is never disappointing, and one day I hope to come back to Vietnam and spend my time motorbiking through it.
Odd encounters. Of all the weird things we've eaten, seen and experienced, I've probably captured about 1% of it on camera. Below are just a few examples of how different daily life can be.
We ate some pigeon on the street. Tasted like the dark meat of chicken, and it had very little meat on it.
My friend Jenny with the pigeon head. 
Leaf juice. Exactly what you think it is, and tastes exactly how you think it would.We were given it while we were waiting to have a spa/massage treatment. $10 for two hours, plus free food and leaf juice, not too bad.
If you've ever wondered what driving school vehicles look like in Vietnam, see above (you're welcome to all those people dying to know) . In Vietnam, the government places a 200 - 300% tax on cars, in order to discourage purchasing cars and therefore avoid impossible traffic jams and more importantly, avoid investing in public infrastructure to remedy this potential problem. So whoever is taking this driving lesson is very rich, or plans to be rich enough in a few years to afford a car. Vietnam does have plans to create a metro in Hanoi, but it will probably be several decades before it is near completion. There are no plans that I know of to widen or repair roads.
There are little fires everywhere in this country, and it is usually either slash and burn for crops, or burning garbage to get rid of it. I can't imagine the latter is good for the environment, but the trash system is very rudimentary here so I think it is often for lack of better options.
We saw these during a boat ride in Hoi An, they are fish nets that are lowered into the water.
Karaoke. Vietnamese (and many other Asians) LOVE Karaoke. They sing their hearts out and sometimes battle for the microphone. In Vietnam you rent out a Karaoke room, where you are brought drinks and food and can pick all of the songs you want to sing. Featured on the left of this picture is our good friend Nam, the first night we went out with him.
All of us at Karaoke.
We had a hot pot filled with chicken broth and potatoes, and we added greens, mushrooms and beef and cooked it in the water. Then we could take out what we wanted and put it in a small bowl filled with noodles (on the bottom left of the picture) We also had spring roles, and an oil based sauce with chilis to put over the noodles. Sooo good.The past few weeks I've been teaching a two hour class at a gifted high school in the area. I will talk about that experience next time!
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