ATTRACTIONS - Cuc Phuong

Cuc Phuong National Park

Vietnam’s oldest national park – a 222 sq km area of jungle and mountains roughly 120km southwest of Hanoi – is such a beautiful area that Ho Chi Minh took a break from the impending conflict with South Vietnam and the USA in 1963 to come and declare it a national park. If you’re looking for jungle experiences, it’s Vietnam’s best. Poaching in the past has tragically taken some wildlife, and diminished numbers of others (such as the Siamese crocodile, Asiatic black bear), but there you can see very very rare langurs and gibbons in the terrific Endangered Primate Rescue Center (see below). You can also sign up for morning or night hikes that witness (or at least hear) over 300 species of birds and some 140 types of mammals and reptiles.

Day trips come here from Hanoi, but it’s possible to arrange from Ninh Binh – or show up on your own. Overnight treks to minority villages required a guide.

You’ll find the PARK OFFICE (tel 030-848-006; www.cucphuongtourism.com; admission US$2.50) near the park gate past a visitor’s site. Here you can ask about accommodation, activities or hiring an English-speaking guide for US$8-15 per day for up to five people.

SEEING THE MONKEES
You may tsk-tsk at zoos, but the much-heralded ENDANGERED PRIMATE RESCUE CENTER (tel 030-848-002; www.primatecenter.org; free tours run every 30 minutes from 9-11am & 1-4pm), back a couple hundred meters from the Cuc Phuong gate, is no ordinary animal shack. This non-profit center provides a fascinating close-up look at very rare gibbons and langurs that easily justify a trip to Cuc Phuong on its own. Rescued from poachers, the 150 primates living in large cages here are intended to be reintroduced back to protected areas – beginning with the ‘semi-wild enclosures’ (like the adjoining one to the center) – though some animals sadly never recover. Visits are led by a guide who leisurely walks past animals you won’t and cannot see in other facilities, or the wild, anywhere. A favorite are the playful show-off gibbons and the stunning red-sanked duoc langur, which has a cranberry-colored beard, a gray body and burnt-orange legs that look like Brooklyn hipster pants.

PARK ACTIVITIES
The main office can point you to HIKES around the park. If you have half a day or more, the best choice is the 7km loop through dense jungle to the 1000-YEAR-OLD TREE (cho xanh), a 50m high Terminalia myriocarpa, with seating areas to admire its massive roots. The trail begins near the Bong Station restaurant about 20km past the gate on a sealed road. The loop ends at the park accommodation. Afterwards head back a few kilometers towards the gate on the road for a short steep hike up to the PREHISTORIC MAN CAVE (dong nguoi xua), a supposedly 7500-year-old lair found – along with assorted tools – in 1966.

Longer trips include a tougher hike up to SILVER CLOUD PEAK (650m), or a full-day, very strenuous 18km jungle hike to KANH VILLAGE, a Muong village with rustic homestays (guides required).

Park guides can also arrange two-to-three-hour BAMBOO RAFT TRIPS (about US$3) on the Buoi River here, during dry season (roughly September to April).

Accommodations

The PARK OFFICE (tel 030-848-006; www.cucphuongtourism.com) runs a few accommodation facilities in the park. The least atmospheric ones, and where some group tours stay, are near the park gate. (But there’s karaoke – but watch out for the public restroom: a python made it in there when I dropped by. All rooms have private bathrooms though.)

Another 2km in the park from the gate, the artificial MAC LAKE has four bungalows for US$20 per night.

In many ways the best is at BONG STATION, with US$25 bungalows and US$12 rooms near a river-fed swimming pool (which was closed when I went by). Here you can access trails in wee hours when there’s more likely wildlife out, but you only have electricity from 6 to 10pm.

There are also some nice-looking budget hotels in the town 2km or so from the gate. Or ask at the park office about HOMESTAYS in the Mmong village Kanh.

Transport

Cuc Phuong is about 45km northwest of Ninh Binh, where you can arrange motorbike tours here for the day (about US$12 for the day), which also drop by the KENH GA FLOATING VILLAGE on the way back.

You can also take a public bus from Hanoi’s Giap Bat bus station to Nho Quan at 8am, 9am, noon, 1pm, 3pm and 4pm (supposedly) then take a motorbike taxi to the park for about US$2.

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