Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park
Border of Vietnam and Laos
Central Vietnam 2004

Hello all:
The final and most exciting leg of this Vietnamese journey has concluded. I returned on an overnight train to Hanoi from Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park early this morning. The survey was an incredible success and I will try to give you a brief rundown of the past 3 weeks, along with a few detailed accounts of the highlights. How to start?! It was wild! It's been so amazing and yet with noone but my journal to tell it to, it seems surreal still...
Nine of us left Hanoi on May 24 in a minivan headed for Quang Binh Province at the 17th parallel where the demilitarized zone of the former North-south Vietnam was-myself, Bert (my CU advisor), 5 Vietnamese scientists from the Forestry University, a boy we would drop off later on down the road, and a driver. It was a 9-hour trip and we stopped at local truck/roadside stops along the way for meals, along with a stop off along the coast of the South China Sea where we ate peanuts and I walked on the beach for a bit. We spent a couple of nights getting the necessary permissions from the park authorities and then on May 26 we were dropped off along the road and we packed into the park along with two ex-hunters from the local minority who would serve as our guides. One boy came along just to carry the enormous sack of rice! we set up camp about an
hour into the forest. The forest was magnificent-huge and healthy and complex and challenging and yet forgiving and inviting and beautiful. I have never experienced anything like it. We surveyed
for 8 days in this first area, which consisted of two teams of us (my team was Ha, Manh, and Hoan, the guide) going out for the day to find primates--we saw or heard endangered primates every day.
so amazing and exhausting and challenging and rewarding and exciting were our days. the forest there was huge and healthy and we saw hatinh langurs almost everyday along with 2 species of macaques, heard gibbons sign and saw a group of the beautiful red-shanked doucs fleeing one day. also saw birds, snakes, a giant squirrel (seriously giant-I thought it was a monkey at first), and loads of lizards, insects, frogs, crabs, and little creatures. but few leeches-I had actually attach on me the entire time, and didnt realize it until an hour into a cardgame in camp! the leechy socks really did the
trick, and they were easily flicked off clothing. Everything had a prick or a spike on it and the substrates that didnt had creatures crawling on them with pricks and spikes-the spiky caterpillars were my nemesis! every handhold was an adventure. the limestone was sharp as a knife
and scrambling over it involved precision and strength and for me, time! I was slow and careful, hile the guys were quick and flawless, but we worked together great as a team. the hiking and climbing was hard-core but I feel so satisfied, especially since I was the only girl and the only non-vietnamese after bert left (he left after the first week) and these guys have never had a girl in the forest with
them before--Ill never forget the bathing and swimming in the streams, collecting greens and mushrooms and leaves from the forest for dinner, falling asleep to the sounds of the forest every night. the guys were the most incredible cooks and we had the healthiest most delicious meals of rice and peanuts and greens and soup and eggs and they had meat. they also managed to hike in the rocket fuel (rice wine) which they enjoyed at every meal. the comraderie was amazing and my cheeks ached from smiling and laughing-we laughed tons and I am so happy with the amount of vietnamese I have learned and am speaking. they were so good to me-took such greatcare of me and taught me so much about the ecology and habitat of these animals. they also laughed at and with me a lot, and I know that I was great entertainment both on the trails and at camp, but I loved it and never minded being the butt of the joke or subject of a story. it was spectacular and I have memories to last a lifetime. we walked along the old ho chi minh trail on our hikes before branching off to cut into more rugged parts of the terrain, and I saw caves which served as werehouses for the northern viet. army during the US war and another that was a hospital--our guide was an ex-hunter minority man and he knew the forest so well-I would have been lost, even with my GPS! he would constantly stop and pick yummy leaves for us to munch on or show us where bears had clawed the trees, or fresh civet cat scat, or evidence of monkey eating. we came across many snares (which we would disable), a few hunters, people cutting wood, a macaque and douc langur skull, a civet cat whole skeleton in a snare, a wild boar skull, and the remains of many hunter's camps. we would hike for hours to get to the Hatinh sleeping sites. Hatinh cliffs that have been used are easy to spot as the rocks are stained from the urine and feces (you could tell if
they were currently being used by hatinhs by the presence of fresh feces at the bottom of the cave) and then we would wait for the group to return that night. wlking back to camp over the limestone in the dark, with only the assistance of my dim headlamp was scary but totally exhilirating-I am officially a rock climber now! I fell down several times after it rained and the downhills were
essentially mudslides, but with the exception of shredding 2 pairs of pants and my hands, I am injury-free:) I actually feel like Im in the best shape of my life now! the views were sensational and after
a 5-hour hike up to the peak of one of the limestone karsts the breeze would be strong and refreshing and invigorating. we would watch from the peak as a hatinh group travelled around the perimeter of the valley on their way back home to their cave. every day was an adventure, full of frustrations and exuberances and unforgettable moments. the final days were full of rain, as a typhoon is in the region. the days pretty incredible too, fitting for a conclusion.

There were 3 days which were magical and which I must relate. The first was within the first few days of the survey-our group headed out and hiked/climbed/scrambled over the mountains and valleys for half the day, arriving at a Hatinh langur sleeping cave at about 3pm. Manh and Hoan climbed up to get a close-up of the cave for pictures, and Ha and I positioned ourselves underneath the sleeping cave, in a smaller cave which we covered with branches to hide our faces. as the sun went down we listened to a gibbon pair duetting. At about dusk we heard the branches overhead rustling and instantly I forgot the biting mosquitoes and froze still. The troop moved stealthily through the canopy above us, right above us, until the whole group of 11 was in the cave,darkness had fallen, and the night was still. Then I saw the flashing of lights above me as Hoan shone a flashlight on the troop in their sleeping cave as Manh snapped photos. ha and jumped out of our hiding spot and looked up above us, about 30 meters at the show--in the spotlight I saw the sleeping cave amd a few langurs moving around with the big male vocalizing his "onk" of disapproval. suddenly liquid was raining down on Ha and I, and the familiar smell of urine permeated the air.
Im getting peed on, I thought. Then rocks began falling off the side of the cliff, and the thrill of watching this spectacle suddenly seemed dangerous. Just as I thought that it might be best to take
cover before getting whacked in the face I received a SLAM in the shoulder. Ive been hit! But it didnt hurt so bad, and as I turned to assess my shoulder my nose told me what it was--feces. Ive been bombed by hatinh feces! This is awesome!! Ha was in stitches already, and I started to laugh and then BAM anothe one slammed into my thigh. I stood there at the bottom of the cave, staring up at the langurs above me who were bathed in flashlight, the camera flashing on and off, with
feces and urine raining down around and on me. We left the cave at about 8pm to start the hike back to camp which would take 4 hours. At 1o:30pm we stopped and ate 'fast food'-uncooked ramen-type noodles in the moonlight of an abandoned hunter's camp. I vividly remember staring up at the full moon, listening to the guys laughing and talking Vietnamese,listening to the insects humming and buzzing, and reeking of feces, and I jotted down in my notebook: "I'll never
forget sitting here in the moonlight eating 'fastfood' with ha, manh, and hoan,,smelling of feces, listening to the birds and insects, their vietnamese, and feeling so exhausted and so satisfied." as we walked back to camp, Hoan sang "vietnam Ho Cho Minh" and I sang the Gratefu ldead's "shining star" and then Van Morrison's "Moondance" which they loved. I would be asked to sing it every day til the end of the survey.

The second highlight was after Bert and 3 of the Vietnamese guys left, and it was me, ha, manh, a new ex-hunter guide and a park worker. (the day that those guys left, Hoan had a thit cho (dog
meat party) at his house and we all ate a ton and drank a lot of rice wine and said our good-byes. It amazes me how close I felt to these guys after such a short period of time. The good feelings
between us all were so strong.) We had camped for a night at the ranger station (where hatinhs can be seen SO close) and then a night along the new Ho Cho Minh highway that cuts through the park (highway is a bit of a misnomer as few autos actually come along) because there were Hatinh groups and macaque groups rght along the road.The next camp was across a river (we waded through it and I fell in) and another hour into the forest, and next to this gorgeous clear pond where we swam and bathed and the guys fished. Anyway, the second highlight was when ha and I had gone out on survey alone and we came across a Hatinh group at a cave next to a field. We observed them for a while from the field and then went into the forest and instantly heard macaque vocalizations. We froze and there was a group of about 20 macaques feeding above us. One came about 15 feet from Ha and I, feeding near the ground, before seeing us, screaming
and the group ran off. None of the primates that we observed are habitauted to humans-in fact, because of the high hunting pressure, they flee at the sight/smell/sound of humans, and so it was
incredble to be so close. Ha and I decided that having seen 2 species already, we should get out of the area and come back to the cave at night to see the hatinhs. So we hiked out to the highway and a man ona motorbike stopped and gave us free jackfruit and peanuts just because I was a foreigner-as we sat on the road eating, another guy on a motorbike stopped and gave us 3 free mangoes, once again,ust because I was a visitor. we took the fruit and headed to the river where we went swimming in the clear water, then skipped stones for a while, ate the fruit, sang and laughed, and then walked down the road for a while and took a 2-hour nap underneath the
highway in a drainage gutter. ha cut some lianas from the forest and made 2 comfortable beds for us there. we got up late that afternoon and returned to see the hatinhs come back to their cave to sleep, and also saw another group on the other side of the field come to another cave. This park was crawling with hatinh langurs! I have a great deal of confidence in thefuture of hatinh langurs in vietnam based on this survey. watching them scramble across the cliff faces-much the same was that the Delacour's langur does in northern vietnam- was the coolest. heading back that night we only had one flashlight between us and there was no moon and lots of dicey steps, so Ha and I held hands and walked through the forest and across the river back to camp together, laughing and singing and talking "vienglish." I already miss it.

The final highlight was the day that we moved to the last camp. June 8. As Ive said, the hiking was grueling and challenging and kicked my ass every day. Im not trying to make this dramatic-it just was
dramatic! Well, on June 8 I got to do that hiking with my huge packing pack on. Eight hours we climbed over mountains to get to the new camp site-and this would be the day that, although perhaps we got lost before and I never knew it, we would cross some really difficult terrain and then the guide would say that we had gone off the trail and we would backtrack for 30 minutes. I was near tears at times I was so frustrated and exhausted amd exasperated. I questioned my abiltites and dedication and felt that I was coming apart. It was the only day I felt insufficient to be there. We had left at 7am and by 3pm my legs were about giving out as we finally found a little stream that we were looking for so we could set up camp. it was only 4 kilometers as the crow flies, but it might have well had been 4 marathons later. the stream was black and murky yet within a half hour the guys had it running clear and divided into three pools for water drinking and cooking and bathing, the guide had made a bamboo table, built a fire, had the tents and hammocks up, the clotheline up, the pork was chilling in the stream, the banana flowers we had collected were
being cut up along with the veggies we had picked, and my united airlines plastic backpack case was being used as the washroom and kitchen in the stream. that night as the guys went frog hunting
(frog-giggin' we used to call it in the south) manh and I drank green tea and talked by candlelight as the rice cooked and the coolness of the forest air surrounded us. It was so perfect, and it
blew my mind that we could go through such a treacherous, physically demanding day that tried the very tip of my endurance and end it so peacefully and happily and beautifully. It was a rollercoaster of emotions and I remember sitting there on the ground totally in awe of the day and the expereince and life.

so Ill end there-there are a million things to tell, but how do you say it all? sometimes I cant believe how charmed my life is-how lucky I have been to return to Vietnam 3 times-to see some of the
world's most endangered primates in the wild, to meet amazing people, to soak in a culture so different from my own. I leave late tomorrow night to come back home. Im so excited to comeback for the Telluride shows, to see scott and my friends and my family, and yet I already feel sadness. I think I want to do my dissertation workhere in vietnam as there is so much research to be done and the conservation implications are enormous, but I dont honestly know when Ill be back, and thats sad. saying goodbye to manh and ha at the train station this morning was poignant because the 3 of us had experienced it all together, everyday in the jungle, and yet I didnt have the vietnamese or english words to express my gratitude. "every parting leaves an empty feeling, a slight touch of cosmic loneliness." Nigel Barley, The Innocent Anthropologist.

love to all from vietnam,
catherine