Ba Be National Park, Vietnam – March 2nd – 4th, 2017

The first thing we did when we arrived at our homestay in Ba Be was strip - not in a sexual way, no, that wasn’t possible when the stank of the last seven days was on us. We only brought five pairs of underwear each, so… you do the math. Luckily, the homestay let us use their washing machine and within two hours of arriving all of our clothes were clean and hanging out to dry. We literally took over the upstairs balcony and consequently also blocked the magnificent view with our clothes (the other guests reluctantly forgave us when we explained). That night, we hung out, showered thoroughly, blogged, and enjoyed the meal prepared by our homestay family (once again tofu and tomato, oily vegetables, and rice).

Our homestay at Ba Be National Park. The bottom-left photo shows the view from the patio and bottom-right shows the owner fishing. 

The next day, we employed the homestay owner to take us around Ba Be Lake on his boat. After traveling the length of the lake, we headed upstream on a river to Puong Cave. The cave was surprisingly large with active cave formations and thousands of bats! The roof of the cavern was completely covered in them! There were so many, that by looking up you risked guano face (aka being pooped on). After visiting the cave, we ate at a local restaurant along the river (surprise: more of the same vegetarian food), walked to a small waterfall, viewed Fairy Pond (which was literally just a pond), and visited a pagoda. Overall, it was a relaxing enjoyable day on the water and it was nice to see the scenery undisturbed by humans. In most of the north, the mountain forests and jungles, regardless of how steep the slopes, had been clear cut and terraced for farming. At the national park, the government subsidized the locals every year to keep them from destroying and/or hunting in the jungle. Even without legal hunting, there were pretty much no animals (even birds) in the jungle. This is true not only in Vietnam, but throughout Asia (sad…).

Boat trip on Ba Be Lake. 

Puong Cave.

Pigs, dead little fish, eggs, temples, and ladies making chopsticks.

Although a short trip at Ba Be, we were glad we decided to visit (and even more glad to be off the motorbikes). We needed a little downtime in nature before moving onto Hanoi the following morning.