Vietnam birding over Tet (1 Viewer)

My wife and I are contemplating a SE Asia trip to include a few weeks in Vietnam, but are Vietnam dates would inevitably span Tet. Can anyone comment on what sort of logistical problems this could present? (Assuming we don't have a full time guide/driver)

Thanks

Bob

Before Tet, people travel to their home place, long distance transport (trains, planes) are pretty booked out in this time.
During the Tet day and a couple of days after, people stay home or visit relatives. Everything is dead then, deserted streets in Hanoi and Saigon are an impressive sight.
The rest of the tet week, people increasingly like to travel, so popular spots like Dalat or Sapa, but also national parks like Cat Tien, Bach Ma, Cuc Phuong, Tam Dao or Ba Via are packed with people. You may have some noisy nights then, but birding will not be affected much.
About a week after Tet everything is back to normal.

The best thing to prepare is to book ahead hotel and travel during this time, or avoid travel on the main north-south routes.

Thanks, Dalat.

Do you think it might be best then to do something like spend all of Tet at Cat Tien or would I literally find no food available at least at the beginning?

Bob

Hi Bob,
I think no problem to spend Tet in Cat Tien, I'd just call ahead to make sure you have rooms reserved. Service may be not on full gear during the main tet days, but the main hassle in Cat Tien might rather that it gets crowed the second half of the week...
Perhaps you could stay the Tet days (say 18 to 21.02) in Cat Tien and then try to avoid the crowds by moving to Di Linh at 21 or 22. You can stay in Bao Loc or Di Linh, which are not touristy towns, so should not be croweded, and you can bird around the Deo Suoi Lanh pass 2 days or so. Dalat is also an option, the town will be crowded, but birding sites are away from the crowds, so as long as you make sure to book hotels you'll be find.

Enjoy!

OK, Florian, as the trip is mapping out, its Cat Tien for Tet (or at least the start of it). There seem to be decent places just outside the park like Green Bamboo Lodge, Green Hope Lodge) that appear much nicer (or at least positively reviewed) than accommodations inside the park. I gather this is on the opposite side of the river. Does this work OK for birding in the park?

Also, would we be able to get to Di Linh area from Cat Tien, and get to birding spots from Di Linh, via taxi?

Thanks,

Bob

Hi,

I don't know the places outside the park on the other side of the river. I had a look at the reviews, and yes, they look like nice places. But be aware that most reviewers seem to be normal tourists, not birders. To get to the park, you need then to cross the river by ferry every morning. For tourists who get up and 7 or 8, this is not problem, but crossing very early, e.g. with first daylight, may be a problem if nobody of the ferry guys is around. But I think if you arrange with one of the ferry guys the day before (against a small tip or so) this should work. I myself still would stay inside the park, as you are more flexible then (e.g. can out at night for owls or so). The accomodation inside is ok, nothing exiting, but ok. Depending if good accomodation or birding is your first priority, I'd choose inside or outside the park.

If you budget permits, this hotel inside the park is probably the best option http://www.vietnamforesthotel.com/ Seems pretty expensive for the standard of accomodation (which still is probably way above the park accomodation or the places you mentioned), but the location can't be better.

For Di Linh, yes you can go by Taxi from Cat Tien to Di Linh (arrange the taxi with the NP people). A cheaper way would be to take a motorbike taxi to the main road and catch a bus there in the direction of Di Linh / Dalat. In Di Linh, there are some small hotels (better hotels in Bao Loc, but thats ca. 45 min from Di Linh). In Di Linh, you can arrange a Taxi or Motorbike Taxi to bring you up to the pass and drop you off / pick you up. Its about 30 min from Di Linh to the birding areas.

By way of follow-up:

We contacted Green Hope Lodge, where the manager, Pham, assured us he could get us 6AM boat rides across. So we stayed 5 nights at Green Hope Lodge, and one night at a room in the park HQ area. Green Hope Lodge worked out fine for us, as we were able to cross each AM at 6, and Pham always made sure we had tickets for the next day. We very much enjoyed Green Hope, and would urge other birders to consider it. We stayed one night within the park in the hopes of getting an early jeep to the Crocodile Lake trail, but they would not provide anything before 6:30. (BTW, I can confirm it is NOT necessary to pay the extra 140,000VND PP to use this trail if you can convince them you are not going all the way to Crocodile Lake.)

I was pleased with our birds at Cat Tien, which included Germain's Peacock-pheasant (best views 7-800M SOUTH from HQ toward grassland area), Green Peafowl (a few K further along this road, a little after the first building),Siamese Fireback (on road en route Crocodile L Trail), and both Pittas. The local guides have established a "pitta restaurant" for photographers, somewhere behind the "big tree" and back towards HQ area. We stumbled upon a Blue-rumped Pitta that actually allowed itself to be seen, and shortly after found an obvious photo setup where a Bar-bellied Pitta, not knowing we had no mealworms, came close.
We also had White-rumped Piculets, a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo that hung around HQ, and marvelous Gibbon concerts each AM. The restaurant in the park has an extensive menu but only a few items available, altho large Vietnamese groups who had apparently pre-ordered for Tet had quite elaborate meals.

We took a taxi from Cat Tien to the hiway (my wife doesn't do motorbikes) and then a bus to Di Linh. The bus fare included a minivan to our hotel, Juliets Villa Resort, a delightful place about 5k out of Di Linh on the road to the birding spot Deo Nui Sanh ( a name which no one at our hotel recognized). We took taxis to and from the tea shop. Birding was slow, with only flight views of Orange-breasted LT.

Bus was easy to Dalat, where we stayed at Villa Pink House, and just used ordinary taxis each day. But we definitely struggled with some Dalat specialities like Cutia. On the plus side, I'd love to go back to Dalat.

Thanks for your help Florian

Hi Bob,

Glad to hear you did well, and thanks for the feedback, very appreaciated. Interesting info about Pitta restaurant, Green hope lodge and the Juliet Villa in Di Linh!

Deo Nui Sanh ( a name which no one at our hotel recognized)

Click to expand...

:-O Yeah, one of those place names that only exisit in birders' trip reports. It's called Deo Sui Lanh or simply "road from Di Linh to Phan Thiet"