Day 1 – a walk and the night tour

We arrived in our accommodation, Eco Floor Bird Song Lodge, just around lunch time. Getting there is a bit trickier than most places we’d visited so far, but it all worked out swimmingly.
After dumping our bags and getting some lunch, we set out for a first look at the park itself. Since we weren’t staying in the park itself, this meant a very short walk to the ferry and getting a 60,000d ticket each at the booth that’s a bit sandwiched between the cafes surrounding the road to the ferry.

We had read that there were free maps to get in the tourist information center, so we went there first. The leaflet you get does contain a map, but it is unfortunately fairly useless. If you are familiar with the WikiLoc or ViewRanger app, both have routes that are more accurate and easier to follow than the ones in the leaflet.

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We set off to follow this route, but the starting point was blocked by construction work so we decided to do it counterclockwise. This lead us onto the concrete road that follows the river for several kilometers. The furthest point of the walk was the Uncle Dong’s Tree, so called because Phạm Văn Đồng once visited it. We got to the tree, which is located at the end of a short trail that starts from the main road and is well signposted.

Monkeys!

From the tree, there was supposed to be a trail through the forest leading back to the visitor center area, but even with the GPS app we couldn’t find it. With only a good hour left until sunset, we chickened out and turned back the same way we came.

No regrets on this decision, as about 10 minutes later we heard some weird noises and rustling in the trees around us. We immediately stopped and kept quiet, trying to get a glimpse of whatever creature was making these noises. Some time later, our patience paid off, and we spotted a group of 4 to 5 grey shanked doucs: at least one adult male, a juvenile, and a mother with baby. Heather’s zoom lens outdid mine and she got a particularly nice shot off the mother and baby. We enjoyed seeing the family going from tree to tree, snacking on the leaves and calling out to each other, until we heard a scooter approach – yes, scooters in the park!

We figured that that would scare the family away, but it turns out that even the wildlife in Vietnam is accustomed to the noise, and they didn’t even stop stuffing their face with leaves. They kept moving as they ate, making them harder and harder to see, so we headed back. We had also spotted a couple of otters in a small stream near the concrete road, so we were feeling rather good about coming to Cat Tien: 2 nice encounters on a short walk was promising for the remainder of our stay!

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Leeches!

It’s worth noting that on this short walk, we (well, Heather) also had 2 encounters with leeches – she got bitten twice, through her trousers. In general, the leeches will drop off when they’re full, but Heather felt the bite so we had to get it off while it was still trying to suck blood. This is best done by squeezing the skin where the leech has attached itself rather than grabbing it and pulling it off. They’re black, 1-2 cm long, and move like a slinky – those springs that can ‘walk’ down the stairs that you may have had as a kid. Long socks, trousers and DEET are definitely advisable if you plan to walk here, even on the main concrete road!

The night tour

When we arrived in our lodge, we had also signed up for the ‘night wildlife spotting tour’ (250,000d per person), thinking it would be a guided hike through the jungle. So we showed up with long sleeves and trousers, and all exposed skin covered in DEET. In the visitor center area, we got into the back of a vintage UAZ truck, and found out that the whole tour would be conducted from the truck.

In essence, it’s a 7 km drive down the park’s main road (left as you enter), while someone standing in front on the truck uses a big spotlight to point out animals as you go along. Truth be told, we did spot wild boar, mouse deer, sambar deer (lots of them), and a glimpse of a sievet cat, so it wasn’t bad – just not what we expected. It goes to show that you shouldn’t assume things like this. Back at our accommodation, we rounded the night off with a couple of Saigon beers and headed off to bed.

Day 2 – Dao Tien and countryside

As seems common in Vietnam, our room had little to keep light and noise out, and so we were awake well before the scheduled visit to the gibbon sanctuary, Dao Tien, nearby. This allowed us to get a decent breakfast in before heading off to the visitor center in the park via the ferry (another 60,000d for the entry ticket each). At the center, we coughed up another 300,000d each for the visit to the sanctuary. The proceeds of this fee go to Dao Tien.

Dao Tien – EAST primate rehabilitation center

The rescue center itself is located on an island in the river that borders Cat Tien national park, meaning another little boat ride. Our guide, Dat, is part of the crew that takes care of the animals on the island. This center, started by EAST, puts most of its effort into rehabilitation of gibbons and pygmy loris, which are seized out of captivity as either a tourist attraction or as pets, or for use in traditional medicine.

The pygmy loris in particular is a popular pet, but doesn’t do well in captivity. They are nocturnal, and keeping them in daylight without shelter will damage their eyes.

The center rehabilitates its guests in several stages: first they are health checked and kept in spacious cages for observation, and to reintroduce them to the food they’re supposed to be eating in the wild. The next stage is a semi-free enclosure on Dao Tien island. They are regularly monitored by primate experts, and once they are deemed fit enough to be able to fend for their own, they are released into the Cat Tien national park with GPS collars. These collars allow the park rangers to check up on them, and to intervene in case there’s any problems. If they manage this for 6 months, they’re completely free – the GPS collar drops off automatically.

In the center, we saw many gibbons in cages, all on their way to be reintroduced in the wild at some point. This allowed us to learn what their (very distinctive) cry sounds like. The pygmy loris, being nocturnal – and much to Heather’s spite – we could not see. There was an elevated viewpoint from which we were able to spot a couple of gibbons in the semi-free enclosure as well. A great photo opportunity, and great to see these animals on their way back to the wild.

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Siesta

In the afternoon, we tried our hand at the Vietnamese siesta, but overdid it a bit and woke up at 3PM. This left little time for the scooter ride in the countryside that we had intended to make. Instead, we went for a brisk walk in the surrounding area along little back roads. The area here is absolutely beautiful – undulating hills covered in thick jungle, valleys with little creeks and ponds, interspersed with fruit and vegetable farms. All the kids wave and say hello, and some are a bit braver and try to practice their English with you. No one badgering you to buy something. This is what I had imagined rural Vietnam would be like.

At dinner, we got talking to a lovely American couple from Philadelphia, Chris and Silpa. They’d been working their way south along a route that shared quite a few waypoints with ours, and it was interesting to hear how they felt similar about Da Lat, Hoi An and other places.

Day 3 – Crocodile lake hike

When we first booked our stay in Cat Tien, we had only taken 2 nights, but since we were enjoying this place a lot, we extended our booking with another night. We wanted to get to crocodile lake, which can be reached in several ways.

Most places will advise you to take the guided option, but we ignored that and decided to do it by ourselves. This required us to head to the visitor center again (another 60,000d each), get a ticket for the crocodile lake (140,000d each) and rent 2 bicycles for the day (150,000d each and 250,000d deposit per bicycle, max 8 hours). We then cycled 10km along the main concrete road, which turns into a dirt road after a few kilometers. It’s quite bumpy in places, so it can become a slightly painful experience for your rear end after some time.

However, while we were cycling, we encountered some heavy machinery that was smoothing the surface, so the bumps might be completely gone by now. After 10 km, you get to the trailhead to crocodile lake. From there, it’s an easy 5 km walk on a man made path. You can also get a truck to drop you at the trailhead from the visitor center, or get it fully arranged by your hostel.

Densely populated trail

The walk is quite popular, which makes spotting animals more difficult as there are plenty of people that seem to want to get to the lake as fast as possible, while loudly commenting that they haven’t seen any monkeys yet. We even had a whole class of Vietnamese school children run past us while yelling at each other, making sure that no wildlife would let itself be seen anywhere in their vicinity. Taking it slowly, we let many people pass us by, and that paid off when we spotted a couple of black shanked douc. We also think we saw a yellow-cheeked gibbon, but there’s no photographic evidence of that. They seem to move faster than the doucs.

Eventually we made it to the lake, where you walk on a raised wooden walkway, which has a viewpoint at both ends of it. The one on the right overlooks the bigger lake, and we went there first. It’s a nice lake with various kinds of reed surrounding it and densely forested hills in the background.

We spotted a crocodile almost immediately, slowly making its way to the lake’s bank. We then moved to the other viewing point, which overlooks a smaller pond that is actually just an outcrop of the bigger lake. In there, we spotted at least 5 crocodiles, which made me wonder if they’re being fed. I don’t see why 5 crocodiles would want to huddle together in a small pond when there’s a big lake available, especially since they didn’t seem to appreciate each others company.

This second viewpoint doubles as a cafe / restaurant, and we had counted on it to provide us with lunch. Unfortunately, that was also the plan of the class of Vietnamese kids, and they had just put in their order. We were told it would be at least an hour before we could eat. We didn’t want to wait that long,  so we bought a few cans of Coke to spike our sugar levels, a big bottle of water to keep us hydrated, and set off on the return journey.

This turned out to be a good move, as the path was much quieter now, and we managed to spot another couple of doucs, possibly another gibbon, and a mouse deer. At the end of the trail, we got back on the bikes and set off for the visitor center. The steamroller had made some progress while we were walking the path, which made the return journey a bit easier on our bums.

Slacking off

Back at the lodge, we got some spring rolls to make up for the missed lunch earlier and accompanied them with freshly squeezed sugar cane juice, something I’ve only ever seen in Vietnam. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening rather lazily – enjoying a couple of cold beers while gazing over the Dong Nai river that separated us from the park.

We also said our goodbyes to Chris and Silpa, who would be heading straight for Ho Chi Minh City, while we intended to bypass it for now with a fairly long journey to Ha Tien at the west coast, near the border with Cambodia.