I was now very short on remaining time for my 30-day e-visa so Cat Tien was the final national park I could squeeze in. I didn’t get a chance to see elephants but I did see some gibbons swinging between branches in the trees above me as I hiked to Crocodile Lake. Freshwater crocs popped their eyes up over the surface of the water now and then but none of them came close to shore.
The coolest part of this park was butterflies. Butterflies everywhere, in every color, large and small, ricocheting off my face as I cycled through the park. To get into the park, you have to cross a river by ferry so motorcycles and other vehicles aren’t permitted. Overall, I found it to be much like the jungles of Phong Nha but without millions of leeches. It was a holiday weekend but there were very few others spotted on the trails through this rainforest so I had a relaxing time looking at all the little critters and birds along the way.
I had passed a group of three people a couple times while cycling so I stopped and walked with them when I met up with them a third time. Two Americans living in Ho Chi Minh were traveling with their friend, a Vietnamese girl named Binh. We all met up again later for dinner and then successfully reignited a bonfire we spotted in a soccer field shortly before. Astonishingly, a big bonfire with a group around it had somehow fizzled out to just some embers in 30 minutes but it was still hot enough to get a fire going again for a while. It would have been nice to stay here longer but I only had a couple days left and I had to return my motorcycle so it was finally time to head to Ho Chi Minh.
Click the image below to open the full gallery of photos I took during my stay in Vietnam