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Thursday, December 21, 2017

Exploring Cuc Phuong Park


Cuc Phuong National Park is located near Ninh Binh. The Park is Vietnam’s largest national park with a diverse range of plant life, primarily. I was on a back of a bike trip and my guide Ta strongly recommended that I visit the Park while I was in the Ninh Binh area. 



My guide is a native of Ninh Binh so he stayed in his home while I stayed at Than Thuy Hotel. Than Thuy is well located, with a coffee shop, and a soup and noodle restaurant a few steps away. We enjoyed hot soup in the cool morning, sitting on little, red chairs on the footpath (or sidewalk). Quite a popular breakfast destination for office goers in the morning. 


The early morning ride was relaxed, the December weather was cool. It took about 45 minutes to reach the park, and the vegetation changed dramatically as we approached the park. The roads became winding while the vegetation turned dense. 


The ticket counter has a souvenir store attached. A large variety of products made of wood and bamboo are on display.  My guide had informed me that we can take a 7 km walk in the park. He forgot to mention two points. Firstly, the vegetation is remarkably dense and interesting. Secondly, it is not exactly a walk. 



So, I was rather excited and didn't know what to expect as we set off along the trail. 



Portions of the track consisted of mud and stones.



Some parts had larger stones strewn along the path.



Small sections were cemented steps. 


The trail went up and down, and seemed to go more up and down, as we walked along. The park presents several photo opportunities of flora, mainly. Fauna appeared to be limited to invisible birds and a few butterflies. Some of the banana plants were spectacularly tall, with  ultra large leaves. 


Light levels were in general low doe to the tall and dense trees creating an overhead canopy that shut out a lot of the sunlight.  



A rest stop at about the 3 to 3.5 km mark was a welcome break, provided the opportunity to rest a while. Garbage bins were overflowing with paper and plastic. Truly impressive that visitors have kept the rest of the trail so clean. Taking a selfie is such huge effort..!!



We resumed our climb up and climb down, along trails that ranged from loose mud to large boulders. For a moderately fir person like me, I found the trail to be of moderate difficulty. Therefore those who are not fit or have any back or foot problems would be advised not to try the 7 km walk. Not exactly a walk, rather a moderately difficult climb up and climb down walk along different types of terrain.



The cliffs have a few caves, but we chose not to explore the caves and walked along to the thousand year tree that is marked well. 



The tall, thousand year tree has got damaged by lightning, and the top part has fallen down. 





Parts of the trail have rough steps cut into the side of the mountain.



Photo opportunity again, a pretty leaf system consisting of tiny leaves in a delicate design.







Fallen logs and boulders made the trek rather interesting.  



At one point about 5 km along the trail, I came along a hollowed tree trunk that had been fashioned into a garbage can in which bottles, paper and plastic waste had been dumped. Once again, I complimented visitors for having done their bit to keep the park exceptionally clean. Not a piece of litter along the 7 km trek was an eye-opening experience, indeed. 



Up and down, up and down, along rough steps and slopes with loose gravel were the hallmarks of the 7 km trail. Not that easy, but extremely interesting and a good change from rice terraces and motorbike riding. 



The overhead sun resulted in sunlight coming down vertically so I tried out a few leaf photographs. Photographs don't come out very well due to the stark contrast between light and dark areas. 


A tall tree, very tall. 





Back on flat terrain, time for a quick picture. 






The restaurant near the ticket office and souvenir store serves quite good lunch, and light beer, as well. 



Lots of greens, as always, veg soup, duck egg omlette and fish were our lunch order. 





It was quite cool, so a selfie effort wearing a jacket with a hood that my guide had loaned me, since the jacket on top of my thick jacket acted as an effective wind cheater. 



We were soon on our way out of the park, along winding roads with dense vegetation that slowly thinned out. 



The highway led us to the Bai Dinh Pagoda, which was going to be another few hours of climbing up and down. 


After 2.5 hours of rough trails going up and down the 7 km trekking trail, it was now going to be hundreds of steps going up and down in the Bai Dinh Temple complex during  the afternoon ahead. 


This series of my adventures in North Vietnam is pictured here: 



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