Ocean and Fishes: Review of an Adventurous Summer 2013 (2)

This is a rewritten review of my trip to Quang Binh this summer.

Quang Binh

This was totally a spontaneous decision. I was in Hanoi, visiting the old town and meeting with relatives by tagging along grandma. I haven't bought tickets back to Ho Chi Minh city with my sister yet. I thought, why not extend this trip for a bit?

As I pondered around two choices of either Nha Trang or Quang Binh, I chose Quang Binh, heading to Dong Hoi city because incidentally, Minh - my all time favourite photo-hunter-backpacking buddy was there with his father. Searching in frantic for a night bus ticket from Hanoi to Dong Hoi city, I finally found the ticket to my first experience with a bus with beds.

I said goodbye to grandma and my uncle's family, set off on the bus and slept comfortably through the night. Who ever thought of this idea is a genius! Perfect for travellers on budget like me!

It must be two years now since I was in Quang Binh last. 5.30 am, the bus dropped me off in Dong Hoi city. One call and Minh rode his bike to pick me up. We headed to Nhat Le river where he and his father - both photographers were hunting for good photos in the sunrise rays. I joined them too!

Happy hunting, we went back to the office, where Minh's father - QL works and live with his lovely wife and little cheeky daughter. I met the people who work here two years ago and still here, it was good to catch up with them. I left my backpack here and prepared for our trip to Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park just an hour a way by car. The office's driver drove us there, just me and Minh.

The driver - L, took us through on the Ho Chi Minh highway that crossed the outside and north of the park - the Truong Son's West road to Phong Nha - Ke Bang, passing over rice fields, corn, water buffalo bathing themselves, chicken ... all very much "Que"- meaning countryside. The concrete road lead through small hills that evidently have been cut through to make ways for us.. Silver grey rocks just piles up on the side, tall and straight like giant walls.

The scenery changed when we enter the Truong Son mountain, trees here are encouraged to grow and managed, bringing fresh air through our car windows. Oh the smell of the forest!

Come down to the tourist spot of Dong Thien Duong (Heaven cave), L stayed outside with his car (he has been here 7 times?). Minh and I carried our tripods and cameras, headed to inside to harvest some pictures.

For the first part of the walk, we took the shuttle golf cart ride and then walked the 500 steps stair up to the cave entrance. We climbed and climbed in the fragrant of the forests and singing of birds. Good exercise eh!

As I approach the entrance, I was absolutely certain this was the cave because of the cooling air that it was giving out, welcoming guests to enjoy the beauty with in. We came here with one purpose, to harvest photos of extraordinary natural architecture of the karst.

The Heaven cave, apart from the cooling atmosphere possesses a beauty sparkling in the light. I have came here two years ago yet I was still overwhelmed by the massiveness of the cave upon entrance. I climbed down the wooden stair in excitement.

Minh and I have chosen the correct approximate time around 12 o’clock at lunch on a weekday so that we can avoid having people in our photographs. For the next three hours, I kept on snapping pictures using the tripod to aid with gathering enough lights in our lenses…

A little introduction of Phong Nha – Ke Bang NP and UNESCO World Heritage site in Quang Binh. The limestone karst formed here has evolved some 400 million years ago in Palaeozonic time and is considered to be the oldest karst in Asia. The complexity of the park’s karst landscape is probably due to the site being subject to huge tectonic changes. Many geomorphic features vary significantly. The total area is vast 85, 754 ha with extreme formations – 65 km of caves and underground rivers, terrestrial and aquatic habitats, primary and secondary forest, sites of natural regeneration, tropical dense forests and savanna.

The karst formation over millions of years created rivers and various cave types from dry, terraced, suspended to dendritic caves. *Ref. to whc.unesco.org/en/list/951

In the end, after three fastly gone by hours, we had to put our camera away to ensure that we would actually get out of this place. We climbed out of the cave and walked through the forest path down to exit.

L was waiting for us outside already and we headed off on the Ho Chi Minh highway but now heading to the East road. As we got to the top, we stopped for a while to enjoy the vastly green view of the mountain collective. It was astonishingly beautiful!

Back to the office, Minh and I came over to pick up the little girl and I enjoyed a nice home cooked dinner with the family. I sat, writing in my diary and slept sound fully through the night.

Day 2

Early morning, I have climbed through the door of the office to walk to the Nhat Le river, taking a few shots of this beautiful place in the morning. Here is the fishing nets being soaked, ready to catch some seafood. It's so relaxing just walking alongside the water and catching the sunrise.

Today, marked my first ever road trip on motorbike with Minh. Minh’s father – an amateur photographer himself, helped us plan our routes and stops for photographs, driving along North of Quang Binh province. Minh will be the driver since I do not know how to ride a motorbike…

We stocked up water and some food for the day, wear sunscreen and helmets and head off to a good start!

It was sunny but Minh drove quickly through the road alongside Nhat Le river, allowing the nice breeze to cool us down. Nhat Le river in Dong Hoi city pour its water out to the South China Sea. As we drove, the scenery changes. We passed through the port of Nhat Le river, approaching the road that cut across white sand dunes by the side. Oddly enough, learning about ecology and deserts at school, I kept thinking about the primary vegetation that appears here…

On the sides of the road, there are only few houses in the middle of drove passed several Yule forests. The convenient of travelling on motorbike meant that you can stop at any one time on the side of the road to take photographs. We drove through many, many rice paddy, cornfields, water buffalo at work, cows eating grasses… All captured in our cameras.

An hour passed and we have approached a smaller town. Finding the right route was getting difficult. This was the one time, Google map on my phone actually prove the have greater use than walking distance. However, despite our best effort collectively, to find our way to this particular lake on our plan, we got lost and arrived at an abandoned train station. 3G connection here is no good, I have given up.

Minh and I decided after a few wrong turns to continue on with the trip. We came into quite a remote part of Quang Binh province that we have seen so far with the view of Truong Son’s mountain in the distance.

It is truly “Que” as we would have said in Vietnam. What this means was the way that farmers here apply their cultivation method. It is almost completely very traditional. I could see the importance of agriculture in the local economy as there is little else around except vast amount of land covered in young green rice crops. There were cows laying on the grass with their young ones, water buffalo having a good bath to cool down under the boiling heat and ducks clan being fed on the little ponds in the back yard.

Most wet rice agriculture around the country has been “modernized” with better use of machinery and techniques. However, in certain areas like here in Quang Binh, still use traditional method requiring intensive labour with uneven demands for labour input. (There is only two harvests a year). The Vietnamese through histories solved this by having large families working as their labour forces.

Agriculture plays a vital role in the social and cultural of the local community. Wet rice paddy agriculture is one of the biggest source of income for Vietnam and it is carried out across the country in various ways, often rotated with other crops such as sweet potatoes ad corns.

Households grew other products too and sold most of the extras, locally in exchange for others. For example, there were banana trees in one backyard, a watermelon rows in another or longans bunch being sold just down the highway.

We made a long pit stop here before driving back towards the Giang river…

In the afternoon, Minh’s father on his way to working with another company, dropped me off at the fishing port to have a look. It wasn't suprising that there was a strong stench of fish smell at the fish port but here showcase a long stretch of rubbish left by human washed up along the beach. It really makes me think of the impact we make everyday, even in the smallest action of dropping a plastic straws on the ocean.

After, we discovered a sandhill being exploited for sand behind a cover of Yule trees up front. We made a short trekked inside to uncover an absolute heaven inside – the hidden secret was this magnificent lake here.

Near sunset, we drove to a different sandhill next to the river to capture a few snaps of the sun on sanddunes.

What a beautiful way to end what has to be another fantastic trip!

I left in the morning, the family and the office packed food for me to bring back home for mum. I tried to catch the last glimp of Nhat Le river at Sunrise.