Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
On a tour
Tourist agencies in Hanoi arrange day-trips to
Cuc Phuong for about $35 per person (not including
entrance fees).
By bus
A morning bus runs from Giap Bat bus station in
Hanoi directly to the park at 9am, returning at 3pm. If
coming from Ninh Binh, take the public bus (20,000VND).
By bike
From Ninh Binh you can rent a motorbike or hire a
xe om
(about 250,000VND return including waiting time).
Head north along Highway 1 for about 10km, and take the
left at the sign for Cuc Phuong. From here it's another
18km to the park entrance.
other travellers, with decent older rooms in the guest-
house ($15), and spacious, fully equipped rooms in the
newer hotel at the back ($30). Their tailor-made
mo
tor-
bike tours to outlying villages are popular. Double
$10
Trung Tuyet
14 Hoang Hoa Tham. Quite possibly the best
restaurant in town, with large portions of inexpensive
Vietnamese dishes such as vegetable spring rolls and fried
noodle with egg. A “small” is plenty for one person; only go
for “large” if there's a ravenous group of you. Mains from
60,000 VND. Daily 11.30am-9pm.
CUC PHUONG NATIONAL PARK
Established as Vietnam's first national
park in 1962,
Cuc Phuong
, 200 square
kilometres of tropical evergreen forest
surrounded by limestone mountains,
spreads over three provinces and two
mountain ranges. he myriad species of
wildlife that live among the forest's
ancient trees - some of which are more
than a thousand years old - include
more than three hundred bird and
ninety mammal species, including bats,
bears, leopards, rare butterflies, and one
of the world's most endangered
monkeys, Delacour's langur. At the
entrance gate (30,000VND), the
visitors' centre
(daily 9-11am &
1.30-4pm;
W
cucphuongtourism.com)
can organize biking, hiking,
birdwatching, night-spotting and
overnight accommodation either in the
park headquarters, bamboo bungalows
or stilt houses in a Muong village in the
park ($7-15 per person).
Beyond the visitors' centre stands the
Endangered Primate Rescue Center
(daily
9-11am & 1.30-4pm), where you can
see the park's research, conservation and
breeding programmes to save endangered
langurs, lorises and gibbons and learn
about the threats to this unique
environment in the form of illegal
logging and poaching. here's also good
hiking to be done here; a popular 3km
walk leads to a 1000-year-old tree, and
there's a tougher 11km walk to Silver
Cloud Peak, as well as a fairly tough
15km (5hr) hike to the Muong village of
Kanh; park staff can provide basic maps,
but it's worth hiring a guide for longer
hikes ($25 or so for a hike up to Silver
Cloud Peak).
Ha Long Bay
Nearly two thousand bizarrely shaped
limestone outcrops jut out of the emerald
Ha Long Bay
, its hidden coves, echoing
caves and needle-sharp ridges providing
the inspiration for dozens of local legends
and poems. Navigating the watery
channels and scrambling through caves is
a hugely popular activity, justifiably so,
but some may be put off by the
numerous boats that congregate in the
bay and the floating garbage left in their
wake. If you want to go off the beaten
track and experience true beauty without
the crowds, it's well worth taking a
small-group tour with Cat Ba Ventures
(see p.855) on Cat Ba Island or heading
out to the remote Bai Tu Long Bay (see
box, p.852). Bear in mind also that the
weather from January to March can be
overcast and even cold.
he vast majority of visitors to Ha Long
Bay come on
organized tours
from Hanoi
(two days/one night; from $110); the
same can be organized from Cat Ba
Island. It's well worth staying overnight
on the boat for the chance of a midnight
dip in the phosphorescent waters.
he gateway to Ha Long Bay is
Ha Long City
, an amalgamation of two
towns - Hong Gai and Bai Chay - but
unless you're a Chinese or Korean
tourist, staying in Bai Chay resort is
neither appealing nor necessary, as the
better tour agencies from Hanoi use
the nicer boats from Cat Ba, rather than
the large, poorly maintained ones from
Ha Long City.
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