Disappearing Wildlife
I guess I should first explain why I am in Vietnam. This isn’t my normal visit to see the people and the sights/sites. I am here with my friend, Rod, from South Africa who has a bird and primate safari business. This is different than the other trips with Rod, though, because we are on what Rod calls a “recky” which means we are in Vietnam to do some reconnaissance for possible future business for Rod involving primate safaris. I came along because Rod offered to have me along and I like traveling with Rod and the idea of finding the unknown in Vietnam was appealing. The deal is that I pay my costs and understand that we may not find anything other than adventure.
Yesterday we drove 320 kilometers north of Saigon basically out in the middle of nowhere. Except there is nowhere in Vietnam since it is packed wall-to-wall with 90 million people and this nowhere is a small city of 300,000 people. This morning at 4:30 AM our Vietnamese guide took us out 60 kilometers further to go to a national park which birders in the past reported to have many different types of primates. We reached one park and assumed the other one must be attached, but our guide who is a bit of an oddball finally determined that the driver had gone the wrong way. So we drove back to the city and headed the other way for another 60 kilometers. By now we knew we had a couple of turkeys in the front seat, so Rod got his GPS going to help the search.
We arrived at the right place around 8:30 and were escorted upstairs for tea and discussion. Everything was in Vietnamese, but it did not seem to be going well. All we were asking is where can we find the monkeys and I assumed they would just assign a park guide to our group for the search. I asked something and the park guy said that there was no problem. OK, I didn’t think there would be any. Unfortunately, we soon learned that there was a big problem for us. They would not allow us to enter the park because we needed a license from the party committee. I believe we just ran into a communist bureaucratic wall, by George. I don’t think we ever got a straight answer about why they have a national park that is off-limits to anyone, but it has something to do with being a militarily strategic highland (the park is a beautiful mountain across a river) and there was some issue with minorities (the highland people). I dunno anything. So the paper pushers pushed us out. On the way out we ran into a mzungu named Simon from England. We were all surprised to see each other and after introductions we learned that he is there with Birdlife International for two years and he can’t get permission to go into the park either. Later we laughed because we were there for just a day and poor Simon will be there for two years and he believes he will never be allowed in. Simon did report that the park is full of birds, primates and other wildlife which was good to hear.
Our first day was a wipeout, but we decided to drive back to the original national park and maybe we would see something there. We didn’t get back there until 10:30 or so and we quickly learned that park is losing wildlife quickly. They had an elephant chained to a tree and it was very sad to see. The park guy told me they had 100 wild elephants in 1999 and then only 50 in 2004. I was saying to Rod that I am suspicious of these park personnel in some parks because I wonder if they are more pro-poaching than anti-proaching. After hearing that our chances of seeing wildlife were small, we decided not to enter the park and we drove around a bit.
Suddenly we came across a small tourist village which seemed way out of place. There was no obvious reason for tourism. We asked the guide and he told us that people come to that village next to the park to eat bushmeat such as deer, birds, etc. It is quite obvious already that the Vietnamese eat everything that moves with whacky stuff on the menus, a severe lack of wildlife in the parks as well as wetlands without birds that would be expected. Even pigeons are few although pigeon is on every menu. So it appears the park is supplying a system of bushmeat tourism. The village did have some stuffed monkey toys hanging about and this was as close as we would get to primates other than humans today. It’s not what we planned, it wasn’t necessarily fun, but that is what a recky is all about – someone has to do it.
I did come away from the first park at least hopeful that their paranoia keeping visitors out was good for the wildlife, but now I am not so sure it isn’t just a front for keeping anyone from seeing the place being raped. Tomorrow is a travel day all the way back to Saigon (it takes 7-8 hours to drive the 320 kilometers!) and then we fly north to Hue for another park with better potential on Wednesday. In the meantime, I will take some notes on what the 90 million Vietnamese are eating. Speaking of eating… I was eating lunch at the hotel today and there was a group of mybe 50 workers eating at about six large tables. They were having fun. When they left I noticed that the floor was strewn with all kinds of garbage like chopstick covers, soda cans and food. It was worse than any eight year-old’s birthday party. What’s up with that?
Tags: Asia, vietnam
vagabondrick
>>Even pigeons are few although pigeon is on >>every menu.
hmmmmm makes you think …. :o)
Hey Rick:
Just wanted to congratulate you on (in this order)
. meeting and being happy with Pamela
. experiencing all the world has to offer
. sharing your experience with others
I’ve read every one of your entries with great interest– your insight give this armchair guy a real feel for the rest of the world.
Best wishes will all that awaits you.
Thanks Man!
Ronnie G
Hi Rick,
I’m Monica Williams’s sister, Margaret. I met you and Chris many years ago. Monica has been telling me about your travels and your blog and she finally got the link over to me. I’ve sat here all night reading all the entries. I felt like I just watched a movie – your blog has it all – travel, love, sadness, beauty, political issues, struggles and of course happiness. I thought I would read an entry or two – but I was kept in suspense — especially when I started reading about Pamela. She sounds wonderful.
Oh – I am also interested about your work in Kenya. What are the plans there?
Enjoy your travels and your home in Kenya.
Margaret