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Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, Vietnam |
Jungles
of Vietnam. This statement conjures up an image of American soldiers on the war
campaign, wading in knee deep water in heavy downpours and getting ambushed by
Vietcong soldiers....
Thankfully
we live in a different time and were on a different campaign.
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| Bar bellied pitta male |
The
mission was to "shoot" some specialties like bar bellied pitta, black
and red broadbill, Germain's Peacock- Pheasant and Siamese Fireback.
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| Siamese Fireback |
We
were on a specially curated birdwatching trip to Vietnam. No visit to Halong
Bay or Phu Quoc Island. Just pure birding and hoping to catch many lifers and most
of the nine endemic Vietnam species. We planned to land at Ho Chi Minh (HCM)
which is the erstwhile Saigon, and proceed by road to four locations in South
Vietnam. After seeing the map one realizes that we explored less than 1/50th of the banana shaped country!
Within
a few hours of landing at the international airport, which is bang in the middle of the
city, many
of the misconceptions that we had about the country vanished into the clear
morning air of Saigon. Contrary
to what the statistics say, Vietnam does not appear overpopulated at all. In
fact, most roads and establishments seemed empty. Maybe the whole country is
evenly populated with no large swathes of uninhabited desert / jungle.
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| Ho Chi Minh International Airport |
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Downtown Saigon |
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Dalat city centre |
Neither
was it hot and humid, since it was February.
The weather was very pleasant and the AQI an amazing 50! Traffic was orderly,
with separate lanes (even signals) for 2 wheelers. Adherence to traffic rules,
especially the helmet rule was absolute. There was no honking whatsoever. For
150 kms we couldn't find a single pothole or crack in the road. There was no
military or police person seen even once in our trip. No cattle on the road.
Every public bus or private truck or vehicle was gleaming and spotless. Everyone was wearing
clean spotless clothes. There was no visible poverty. Public toilets were
squeaky clean and plentiful. In fact, one would think that we were in a place
in the “first world”.
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All vehicles shine...like the people |
The
Government here is described as a single party authoritarian Communist system. What
we saw was visible happiness all around and everyone seems to be enjoying
themselves while going about their work diligently. Hammocks are provided in
every roadside eatery and it is a norm to be lying in them sipping coffee and
surfing on the phone at any part of the day.
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Hammocks at a cafe |
Obviously whatever system is
in place, has worked wonders in 50 short years since the war. The red National flags
alternating with the communist one were, however, quite all pervasive and in
your face!
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| Country and Party are two sides of the same flag! |
Above
all, the reason why hordes of Indian tourists are making a bee line for this
country is its affordability. In fact, the Phu Quoc island has been developed
as a tourist island with facilities as good as anywhere, at 1/4 the price of
Goa!
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| The Bamboo Resort, Cat Tien NP |
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Lunch at the Bamboo resort |
It
seems like a majorly agrarian economy in the countryside with miles and miles
of neat plantations of various crops. The hilly areas of Dalat hosted massive
coffee plantations and strawberry orchards. Most of the other plantations were
in greenhouses. The garment and shoe factories are probably located elsewhere
in the country.
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Strawberries galore! |
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| Greenhouses |
There
is complete absence of pigeons and crows. The biggest gainer of this
unexplained phenomenon is the public statues which don't get defaced!
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| Unnamed Buddha monument at Di Linh |
There
were no flies anywhere, allowing outdoor and open-air street food stalls to
flourish. Obviously, that was due to the excellent garbage discipline and processing.
A curious sight was a garbage dump on top of a hill, by the side of the road.
The entire garbage was in plastic bags and did not produce any nuisance
whatsoever…. not even hovering kites or adjutant storks!
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| No nuisance garbage management |
Though
statistics tell us otherwise, Buddhism seems all pervasive, though the visible
symbology is more subtle compared to, say, Bhutan. Every restaurant has a small
wooden mandir at the entrance.
Women seem to be doing a lot of heavy lifting.
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Mandir for good luck |
Sitting
on haunches is considered very natural, as in other Asian cultures. The day
starts very early and most shops and eateries are up and running by daybreak.
Similarly, everything closes down by sunset in the countryside.
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Lottery seems very big business in Vietnam |
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| Karaoke bars are an absolute rage |
A
typical farm house had standard picture postcard design with the huge farm/
plantation right behind.
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| Typical farmhouse with plantation behind |
The
CatTien National park which is located across the Dong Nai River and reachable
by a three-minute boat ride, has a variety of jungle habitats including
grasslands. A swathe of the grassland had been cleared at every 100 meters, so
as to afford better visibility of the birds including the green peacock which
is the star attraction.
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| The Green Peacock |
Dalat
is located in the central highland region, and boasts of a very cool and crisp
climate. It seems to be the main “hill station” in this part of the country.
The hillsides were fully utilized for horticultural/fruiticultural activity
except for the reserve forest areas. Even here, quite a lot of the natural
forest had been planted with pine and teak.
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Pine plantations |
The
birdwatching experience was stupendous, thanks in no small measure to our
sincere, meticulous and nearly English-speaking guide Nhu Nguyen
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Much
of the birding happened from the meticulously constructed and maintained hides.  | | Hide with fake human prop |
|
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Collared Laughingthrush: only 70 individuals in the world |
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Indochinese Green- Magpie |
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Silver - breasted Broadbill |
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Black and Red Broadbill |
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Indochinese Barbet |
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Necklaced Barbet |
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Vietnamese finch |
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Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush |
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Germain's Peacock Pheasant |
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Blue pitta |
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Blue rumped pitta |
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Banded kingfisher |
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Rufous throated partridge |
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Bar backed partridge |
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Hanian blue flycatcher |
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Large Niltava  | White tailed robin |
|
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Black crested bulbul |
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Streak eared bulbul |
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Stripe throated bulbul |
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Mountain bulbul |
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Laced woodpecker |
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Snowy browed flycatcher male |
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Indochinese flycatcher |
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Asian brown flycatcher |
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White throated rockthrush |
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Red crossbeak |
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Vietnamese cutia |
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Crocia |
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Black headed sibia |
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Mrs Goulds sunbird |
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The Jewel effect on a foggy morning at Dalat |
Vietnam is indeed truly the hidden jewel of Indochina, birdingwise or otherwise
Camera: Nikon P 900, Oneplus Nord5. No post processing.
Tour operator: NatureIndia https://natureindiatoursblog.wordpress.com
For a very well written and detailed daywise/placewise account of this trip, please visit
http://birdingwithramgopalakrishnan.blogspot.com/2026/03/vietnam-land-of-pittas-and-broadbills.html
Travel
tips:
1. Only Vietnamese Dong is accepted
everywhere. Few large shops accept card payments. Easiest way to understand the
currency is to drop the last three zeroes and multiply by 3 to get INR value.
e.g A jacket mentioned as 150.000 or 15K or simply as 150 is worth Rs 450.
2. English is not spoken or understood by
anyone. The Vietnamese script uses Roman letters with a lot of accent marks,
but is not helpful at all. English signboards are seen at very few places.
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We didn't understand a word...but the smile says it all! |
3. SIM is available in the Airport before
and after immigration, but not so easy to get outside. All hotels have WiFi
and most don’t even need password.
4. Though the loos at the HCM airport were
decent western style, they provide only paper. However, the resorts and hotels
all have the familiar "jet sprays". In the countryside highway dhabas, most had
extremely clean Indian style loos. Paradoxically most Indians can’t use Indian
style loos nowadays!
5. Food is the most discussed matter for any visitor
to Vietnam. The
local food is basically a noodle soup called Pho (pronounced as फ़) or rice with a variety of
vegetables/mushrooms/tofu in myriad forms /meats thrown in, which one can
embellish with sauces on the table. The other thing is Bahn mi (a chewy
baguette bread with some stuffing inside). Eateries and roadside cafes are numerous,
ubiquitous and extremely hygienic and safe.
6. There is no concept of cooked
food/tadka/masala/roti. Sliced bread is
nowhere to be seen. There is no concept of dessert but
fruit after a meal is the norm. Potato is not seen anywhere in the local food
preparations, neither is milk or milk products. Some restaurants keep “Yogurt” which is a
locally prepared Mishti doi. Several of the eateries say Pho Chay (Pronounced फ़ चाय) on their boards.
These are the Vegetarian restaurants. Obviously, they don’t survive due to the neofadist
vegans. We learnt that on the first and
fifteenth of every lunar month, everyone turns veg!!
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View of the bowls after people had finished eating their फ़ |
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Bahn Mi |
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| Chayचाय |
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Local wine on tap - for those who dare😇 |
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The only English fare: Cat Tien NP |
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Tender coconut is served in multiple interesting ways |
6. We could hardly find any worthwhile
souvenir. The much spoken about Vietnamese coffee was too bitter for my taste.
A visit to the night market at Dalat could yield very decent jackets and ladies
clothes.
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| Night Market at Dalat |
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Barbecue Nation at night market Dalat! |
7. Travel for nine of us by Ford Transit was very comfortable. It is sized between an Innova and Tempo traveler. A segment which will do very well in India
8. Establishments not even mentioned on Agoda, like this motel near Dong Nai, are comfortable and well appointed and quite inexpensive, like the rest of Vietnam!
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Motel Bay, Dong Nai |
