CUC PHUONG NATIONAL PARK- NINH BINH Today we meandered south 3 hrs to a national park just west of the old capital Ninh Binh where we trekked 6km in the jungle to hang out with the 1000 yr old trees. Then we visited the endangered primate rescue centre, an independently funded organization who is working to preserve and rescue 15 species of monkey in Vietnam- various Languans, the grey feet, red feet and white bum, plus the Cat Ba Languan which only exists on t...

HANOI- HALONG CITY- CAT BA ISLAND The journey to Halong Bay from Hanoi was 160km, or 4 hrs by car. The speed limit here is 80km/hr on Hwy and 40km or less in built up areas- which is most definitely a blessing, and surprisingly there are very few accidents despite the Seemingly non existent road rules and interweaving cars, buses, push bikes, motorbikes, semi trailers, trucks and the courageous pedestrian! I have to say it is quite amazing to witness rush h...

HANOI Hiya, or should we say Xin Chao! We finally braved wandering the streets of Hanoi and we've decided the city isn't for us and have booked a 3 day tour out to Ha Long Bay and trekking in Cat Ba National Park which is an island where you can overlook the bay, apparently! We get to sleep on the boat and kayak around the bay and into water caverns, so looking forward to that. We arrived about 10.30am yesterday to Hanoi airport. It took 3hrs to get out through t...

MT BUFFALO NATIONAL PARK Since its the last day of 2011 we thought it would be nice to watch the sunrise and do 'The Big Walk' 23km return from the base to the chalet and Gorge at Mt buffalo. I remember walking the 11 km from the chalet down to the base when I was 14 and I wondered why the only parts I could recall about that trek were scrambling across the 'sleeping elephant hide' rock escarpment and the very narrow, VERY STEEP decline of the last 2kms. I now...

CANIA GORGE NATIONAL PARK This NP was fabulous! The campground at the start of the park was beautifully maintained and set in a natural bush setting. Best of all it was quiet, peaceful and all of the walks were accessible by foot from this campground. Also the camp kitchen here had a functioning oven so we were pretty excited about the prospect of some baked veggies!!