On the way to Cat Tien

On our way to Cat Tien National Park, our guide in Dalat recommended that we switch our tour to Buon Ma Tot for a stay in Cat Tien. We didn't hesitate for long, as Buon Ma Tot was not very promising and everything we wanted to see there - especially coffee and tea plantations - we could already see in Dalat thanks to Than. So we cancelled the hotel bookings for the next three nights (which is not complicated with booking.com), extended our stay in Dalat by one night, and booked two nights in the national park.

We arranged to meet Than and the driver at 9 o'clock in the morning to depart for the national park - plenty of time to enjoy our last morning in Dalat. Our little morning swim in the pool was not granted to us, the pool was only covered at 7 o'clock 😳 OK, that left more time for a hearty breakfast, which started with a large plate of fresh fruit and ended with a nice Vietnamese coffee and tea.

Than was already waiting for us with the driver at the reception - off we go towards the national park and into another part of the Vietnamese jungle.

On the way there, we wanted to stop at a park where 🐘 🐘🐘 are kept for riding, as well as visit the largest waterfall in Vietnam and a tea plantation.

In the park of the 🐘🐘, it was very depressing, the elephants looked sad 😒 They were poked with large pointed hooks on their ears or hit on the forehead for certain commands. It didn't look animal-friendly at all. Nevertheless, the line of tourists eager to ride the elephants was long 😒

In Vietnam, there are not many Asian elephants left - about 250 of them. Most of them live as working elephants with humans. Only a small part lives in the wild, like in Cat Tien National Park (about 15 elephants).

We quickly said goodbye to this sad place and continued on to the waterfall. It was truly impressive - masses of water thundered down 7 levels 40 meters into the depths - a great spectacle. I would have liked to take a short walk there, but we had to keep going. From Dalat, it was 250 km to the national park and we hadn't seen much yet.

Our next stop was a tea plantation for green tea. We learned that the top tea leaves are harvested every 5 days and then a very long processing process begins - drying, fermenting, spinning, packaging... similar to coffee, very elaborate manual work. Along the road, we saw rice grains, coffee beans, or tea leaves spread out on tarpaulins for drying. The small farmers then sell their harvest through middlemen (works like cucumber acceptance ;-)

Unfortunately, the people here don't earn much for this hard work 🤔 once again, we come to the realization: people, buy fair trade!

We didn't plan any further stops for the next hour's drive. Instead, it starts pouring rain as if from buckets. The road is partially flooded, but that doesn't stop the traffic here - okay, a few mopeds are driving less.

Shortly before our destination, we stop at a typical Vietnamese restaurant. It looks like a beer garden - about 100 seats right by the river. The river is now also rushing by us with a lot of water. We order the midday noodle soup with various ingredients and enjoy it.

We continue to rock along comfortably through the rain for the last hour in the car.

After a total of 5 hours of driving, we arrive at Cat Tien National Park at 2 o'clock. It has stopped raining 😀

The park is huge and is home to rare animals and plants - some of which are listed in the UNESCO's red book - such as the Javan rhinoceros, Siamese crocodiles, or the Malayan bear. There is also a large group of elephants living here.

AND there is jungle with giant trees, flowers, colorful birds, and monkeys in the trees.

After checking into our accommodation - several small houses with 2 and dormitory rooms are available - we look for something to eat. It's not much - a vegetable plate - but it's enough.

Than had booked an evening safari for us, so we started at 6.30 pm with the jeep (we and two other guests sat on the truck bed) towards the jungle. The ranger scanned the trees and clearings for animals with his gigantic flashlight. What did we see? Yellow birds, deer, wild boars, black cows - an elephant or a monkey didn't want to show themselves 😳

Nevertheless, it was an eventful tour through the night, because the sounds in the jungle are gigantic - cicadas are deafeningly loud and in between, there are the sounds of birds - a great night concert.

Happily returned from this experience, we planned the next day with Than and headed to our room - the day was long and we wanted to take the many impressions with us into our dreams.

Kerstin