Spotting the wildelife on Son Tra

 Near Da Nang,  on the Son Tra peninsular there communities of Red Shank Duoc langurs living in the tropical forests. They are only found in Central Vietnam, and in adjoining forests of Cambodia and Laos.  On the peninsular there are about 500 langurs and about 1,000 Assamese Macaque. 


We were fortunate enough to be taken for a tour of the birds and primates of the penisula with a friend who is an ecologist and worked with Dr. Larry Ulidarri of the Son Tra Douc Research and Conservation Project. he researched the Red Shank langurs for 4 years and said that SonTraPeninsula is the only place in the world where these rare animals are living in the wild.

THis photograph is not mine - but they are so hard to see that I had to pinch a photo from the internet. Mine, as you can see, are not as good at all!




This strange shot was taken through Luc's (the ecologist) spotting scope and the one below is from my camera. You can see a large langur swinging through the branches of a large tree where the family had been sleeping.




In the picture, below, you can see a rope bridge that has been slung across the road to help the langurs move around the peninsular. 

Luc planted ficus trees to attach the bridge to. the idea is that the trees wil grown and will form ther own bridge across the road . Luc looks forward to showing off this project to his children one day - if he can find the right girl to marry!

















Views from the peninsula looking towards Da Nang and across the estuary to Hai Van Pass which cuts through the mountains to Hue. 




The peninsula was a military base during the war and is a relatively untouched habitat. We saw only two or three other people during our morning on the mountain so it makes a welcome break from the bustle of Da Nang and Hoi An if you fancy getting a little closer to nature.

At one time, all of vietnam would have been covered with forest and jungle like this area but the indiscriminate use of Agent Orange stripped all the hills and mountains of trees and undergrowth and the whole of central Vietnam is largely naked to this day. A visit to Son Tra reminded me what a tropical paradise this country used to be.

Here is another poor photograph of a Red Shank Douc langur, some eary mornign butterflies and a red Sun catcher.

We saw many more beautiful creatures but I wasn't quick enough to capture them

 Luc does private tours of the peninsular on request. His specialist knowedge of this habitat is unique and he is a charming guide. 

Send a message on his facebook and mention my name.

https://www.facebook.com/luc.nguyen

Me, Pandy and Luc

Single track travel

One of the greatest benefits of traveling by train in Vietnam is that it provides an excellent opportunity to take pictures of the beautiful landscape. You can also take good pictures of cattle and birds and can even capture the expressions on the faces of cyclists waiting at railway crossings or of workers in the field. 

With a better lens, I might even be able to capture a cluster of dragonflies in flight ('cluster; strikes me a very dull collective noun for such ethereal flashes of iridescence - but hey). 

This advantage is not afforded by British trains, nor French nor any others I have, so far, had the pleasure of riding. Why? Because they are not trundling through the countryside at an average 23 miles per hour - that's why.

This aspect of Vietnam Railways didn't really occur to me until I looked at my photos a few days later when I was surprised to find not a single blur of passing trees. As a result, I can take you for a 400 mile, 17 hour journey through South Vietnam.

Unfortunately our journey started at 23:00 in the darkness of Saigon's Station - Ga Sai Gon and we traveled through the night northward toward our first station stop ay the popular seaside resort of Nha Trang where arrived just after dawn.

Nha Trang station - track side

Shortly after we set off again, the breakfast trolley came down the corridor offering two types of hot egg; regular brown chicken eggs and white, foetal duck eggs.

The duck eggs contain foetal ducklings at various stages of maturity - not for the faint- hearted.

Eggs are served with a little handmade paper sachet of salt and black pepper for dipping your egg. My sachet was made from an old bus timetable as you can see!

Here's Pandy on her top bunk cracking her first of two fresh, hot, hard boiled eggs.







Our cabin mates were a couple of businessmen from Loa Cai up in the far North West of Vietnam. They were making the 31 hour, 700 mile journey up to Hanoi.




 As you can see, they are setting themselves up with a good breakfast of four eggs each. 

A peaceful pagoda compound by a river

The lush countryside rolls by our window. There are workers in the fields making an early start in the cool of the morning.





















A woman is gathering her hay into neat piles before building a haystack like the one in the background here.

Rice paddies and fields of root vegetables, maize and corn.

modern irrigation systems criss-cross the rice paddies of Central Vietnam

A headland by a busy port

Getting into mountainous country now

A quiet road in the Highlands

This landscape reminds me of the Scottish Highlands

Typical Vietnamese family houses

Ah, 11am and it's meal time again for the boys on the bunks below.  they return form the kitchen carriage with two chicken joints and the raw ingredients for a piquant sauce; salt, pepper, lime and chilli. With a handy pocket knife, the younger mad sets about chopping and slicing to prepare the sauce.

A table cover of newspaper is spread out and the old guy breaks out the moonshine that he had kindly shared with us the night before. It was OK. Ot tasted like good grappa but was made from wheat or barley. Here you see the finished meal and two plastic cups ( left over from our morning coffees) of the hooch!

Proud of their efforts, many photos were taken and you can see the elegant hooch flagon on the floor beside them!

A duck farm

My word, is it that time again? 12.30 and it's time for meat and rice with some morning glory and some more hooch. Got to keep your strength up boys!

In the picture below you can see some graves scattered amongst the trees. There are more and more graves and grave yards the closer we got to Da Nang; a legacy of the war I suspect.






The photo above is remarkable because it shows a second railway track. We stopped and waited a little while here until another train passed by in the opposite direction.  The track soon went back down to a single line.


So, that's my whistlestop tour of the beautiful journey from Nha Trang to Da Nang