We woke around lunch time, still not feeling too great unfortunately and after a slow getting ready we headed to reception to organise a tour for the day and how to get to Hanoi in a few days time. Had quite a shock on the way down the hotel was rammed with a huge buffet and so many many people. After organising a tour around Cuc Phuong National Park the following day we opted to join the buffet as neither of us felt like going out in the blistering heat. Spring rolls, soups, rice, stir fries (including goat much to Andrews dismay) didn't quite have the effect we were after though and both still felt quite sick so went back to our room. We had a pretty lazy day, caught up on the blog, relaxed and sat out on our balcony with a stunning view.

The following day we grabbed breakfast and then at 8 am headed on our tour to Cuc Phuong National Park, our driver was the grandfather to the owners of the hotel with limits English so he just cranked up the crazy music enroute to avoid conversation, including abba, Irene cara, some sort of dance/house music, need we go on!
The day consisted of visiting two rehabilitation centres; one for turtles who have been rescued from smugglers selling them to the Chinese for 'alternative' medication, and the other for endangered primates, who have been saved from the hunters/poachers. It was amazing to see the primates up close including gibbons, langurs and loris. After this we headed to the Prehistoric Man Cave, involving lots of steps (approximately 183) and quite a spooky cave with the tiniest bats in there, they give you a flash light at the entrance as its pitch black inside, we didn't last too long as we were freaking each other out with the possibility of encountering creepy crawlies and skeletons! We then drove right up through the park to get to a 7km circular trek that took you to the 1000 year old tree. On the way back to the hotel we stopped off for some fresh pineapple and discovered that out here they grow on plants ( here's us thinking all Anananas grow on trees) the fields were full of them, so much fresh produce was being grown on the outskirts of the national park it truly was a sight! We grabbed showers before heading out for a bite to eat. The evening was spent having down time as Katie is full of cold, Bork. But it was a beautiful sunset and is really nice to have a balcony with a view for once.

Today we spent the morning relaxing until check out and then we took a boat trip down the tam coc river. We'd heard a lot of bad reviews about being hounded to buy items and photographs etc but decided as we had a few hours to kill we'd give it a shot. The ride was actually stunning, incredible scenery and went through two caves only got hounded by the one lady on a boat but she did listened when we just blatantly said, NO. The cheek of it when our lady rower asked for a tip, which we'd already planned to do but then she asked for double haha to which we obviously declined. Grabbed a bite to eat before waiting for our bus, See you in Hanoi, the base for our Halong Bay Cruise and Sapa trek!