We decided we wanted to go off the beaten trail a wee bit so we thought we would head Cat Tien National Park. This ment being dropped off in the middle of no-where persuading two guys on motos to take us to the park gates then catching a boat to some where with accommodation. We counted what money we had left after our epic journey and asked the park rangers what we could do with our pennies... turns out we could trek to 'Crocodile Lake' and sleep in the rangers hut so that is what we booked on to do the next day.

Met our guide early afternoon the next day, put on our leech guards, then jumped in the back of a jeep and went on a very speedy ride along narrow roads through the jungle. We both kept having to duck to avoid the branches that would have surely chopped off our heads! The trek through the jungle was lovely, Tom chatted away to the guide whilst i kept stopping to take photos, soon realised that stopping was not such a good idea as we ended up with leeches all over our trousers... the guide said the trick is to go fast... so that is what we did from then on.

We arrived at the rangers hut in a bit of a sweaty mess then spent the evening looking over the beautiful Crocodile Lake. We felt a million miles away from all the touristy places we'd been to in Vietnam so far. At sunset the rangers produced a feast for us of pumpkin soup, fish cakes, fresh fish (that we watched them catching), bitter melon and of course rice. After dinner we tried to do a bit of animal spotting, we saw a crocs eye glinting in the distance and many a bird but that was about it.

Trekked back the next morning, cleaned ourselves up, pulled off the leeches then got in a public mini bus down to HCMC.