Jungle Booogie!

Day 37: Arrived in Hanoi at 4:45 - once again feeling refreshed and rejuvinated... so clean... yet oh so sweaty... Wandered the streets of the old quarter for an hour or so and made our way to the main lake where we stumbled upon literally thousands of "Hanoi-ans" doing some serious tai chi, yoga, walking, jogging, weight lifting, and yep, even some groovified outdoor aerobics. Was bloody funny. Conclusion: 'Hanoian' leotards rock. Eventually found somewhere to book a bus down to Tam Coc, 2 1/2 hr drive south. Arrived in Tam Coc - Row not feeling well. Checked into place and snoozed, watched tv, and drank loads of water in an attempt to escape the incessant heat outside.

Day 38: Needed to get to Ninh Binh - only 9km away, but the only mode of transport was via motorbike - we were going one-way so had to get two people to give us a lift. If ever one needed a definition for "dodgy", our short but scarey bike ride is it. With both of us wearing our big packs, and both of us being about double the size of our poor little Vietnamese drivers - we both looked like giant monsters that had climbed onto the back of two little ants. We arrived safelly, but not after Greer's driver stopping all of a sudden and Greer whacking her chin into the back of her lady driver's head. Poor thing - even my chin was about the size of her head!

Anyway - we arrived, treated ourselves somewhere nice - Row still pretty sick so he knocked himself out with some Paracetemol/Coedine tablets given to him by our newly acquainted English GP. I went for a walk and checked out the markets. Bought some dodgy mango... dodgy.

Day 39: Feeling much better, we headed off to Cuc Phong National Park for the day. First stop was the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre - a centre where they are trying to breed endangered monkey like things - very cute things - some of the species we saw are in high danger of becoming extinct, with only 50 living animals left in the world due to pressure from illegal trade of primates being used for medicinal purposes and "gourmet" dishes. Very sad - but the centre has been very successful which is encouraging.

Visited the "Con Moong Cave" - 7000 years old pre-historic man relicts were found at the cave just 40 years ago - to date, they are the oldest 'human' remains found in the whole of IndoChina. Was amazing to walk through the pitch black tunnels of the cave [and a little creepy!] thinking of the lives lead by those who inhabited the caver thousands and thousands of years ago. One of the "chambers" [no, it wasn't of farts] had hundreds of bats in it! Scarey - but we were very brave and didn't squeal out loud when our guide, Chi, kept clapping/making noises so that they would fly over us.

Thanks Chi.

Went for a 7km loop walk to hug a 1000 y.o. tree through some serious jungle inhabited by many poisonous spiders, centrepieds AND cobras! Ahhh - I admit I freaked out at one stage when Chi wouldn't stop telling story after story of hair-raising experiences in the jungle......

Chi, who we initially assumed to be your regular hum-diddli-um tour guide, turned out to be a living legend. Having grown up as a shepherd, living in the mountains, he would often find venomous creatures in his bed of an evening. He has caught two pythons [he assured us it is easy if you know what you are doing]... and described how they always knew when a python was heating a goat by the incessant screams the goat would make as it was taking its last breaths INSIDE the pythongs belly... he has fought in three wars, survived numerous Agent Orange attacks [60% of Vietnamese men his age are now deceased due to the war/agent orange]...

Oh yeah, to add to his humble port folio, he was also one of the chief assistants during the filming of the "Quiet American".
Anyway... he wouldn't stop telling stories of the many ways one can die in the jungle [albeith from plants, animals, insects, being shot], and it got to a point where I had a SERIOUS case of the heebie-jeebies.... This wasn't helped when, after pointing out a 30-cm long, 5cm centipede [yes, highly venomous - Chi assured us that when you are bitten from it the pain is so intense that no amount of drugs will help you sleep, immune the burning sensation for at least 24hrs] - Chi could not stop giggling at me as I freaked out, jumping up and down while he used a stick to try and turn the killer on 100 legs back towards me... who, by the way, was getting angrier with every poke.

Ahhh yes, Vietnamese jungle humour - its really not that funny...
Needless to say, the next half hour was spent me walking about 5cm behind Chi with Row following closely behind [although he was being much braver than me!], stomping with every step in an attempt to ward off any cobras who might be snoozing near by, and then following each step with a prancing motion in the hope that the creepy crawlies wouldn't have time to climb up my bare legs! All the while squatting the flying buzzards that were buzz buzz buzzing about in front of me, behind me, to the side of me etc.
I managed, after about 1/2 an hour of freaking myself out, to calm myself down - and once again surrender myself to the serenity [well, apart from the seriously loud insects] of awesomeness [is that a word?] of the jungle we were walking through. There were HUNDREDS of butterflies all around us - some as big as our hands, some as small as buttons. Massive trees, and huge vines [one in excess of 1km in length!] - and a very cute little iguana with beautiful colourings.
Needless to say, upon returning to our vehicle a couple of hours later, I was very pleased we had done it, and extremely grateful to have not met Mr Cobra face-to-face. Another adventure for the books!
Went back to the hotel, had shower, dinner and waited for our overnight bus to Hue to arrive... Except it didn't... So we waited... And then it came... But then there wasn't any room.... So we waited... It FINALLY came at 23h - it had been 'delayed' due to a "broken wheel" [ok....] but we were assured before mounting the bus that it had been replaced with a "much newer and better" wheel... oh that's good then... as long as its 'safer' than the other one...