Fri, Jan 26 – Birding Day 2 in Dalat

We met Hil and David in the basement-level breakfast room at 5:50 AM.   Much larger that the dining room because everyone seems to eat there.  A large Japanese golfing tour were all there lining up for eggs.  Fortunately, Bob and Hilary managed to get there first, and got their orders in while I opted for a baguette with pate and fruit.

 

The day started out cool (50s) and clear, warming up to 70.  We took off in the bus a short way to a Hoa Son Dien Trang, a private (I think) park in some lovely woods with camping, picnicking, and cafes. The designer might have studied under Gaudí, as it was full of whimsical sculptures!      It also had a lot of new and interesting birds, and we spent the next few hours logging them in.

Paper flowers for Tet

Bamboo hand sculpture with Tien birding

 

There are many opportunities to frame your shot accordingly!

Another framing option

Tien celebrating finding and scoping a bird for us

We returned to our hotel at noon and met up for lunch.   Hil and I split a pizza, and Bob had a tuna salad, light on the tuna, but full of onions and peppers, and he liked it.

 

Endless greenhouses surrounding Dalat

At three we took off again to a lake resort area to the south.  We parked and walked along a road and immediately saw a flock of small birds. David and Tien began calling out bird names and locations.   It’s very exciting when you find a mixed flock, but also frustrating as there are so many things to look as it is easy to get very confused!   One bird, the Verditer Flycatcher, was so beautiful, bright turquoise, that I couldn’t take my eyes off of it, and missed some others, but it was worth it!

 

Verditer Flycatcher

Ice cream shop

The government is building a wide and fast road to the area and it became obvious why when we saw large mansions being built on the water.   There were also several busloads of tourists wandering around buying ice cream and looking at the water.  

 

Bom parked at the end of the road near a mansion under construction and a uniformed guard came out and began shouting at him. He wisely pulled away and left us to bird.   Kind of ridiculous as we were just live parking for a bit, but. Oh, well.

 

Rush Hour

“San Francisco” view from Hil’s room

We returned to the Du Parc Hotel at 4:30 amid a swarm of motor bikes – amazing how the vehicles seem to weave chaotically but successfully for the most part.  

The remarkable elevator in this hotel - none of us had seen one of these in 50 years! No operator but you do it yourself and be sure to close the iron door so that it works for the next person calling it.

Dinner in the small dining room.  We are planning on birding the road  near the hides tomorrow and then spend the afternoon touring Da Lat as we all agree it is a lovely city.

 

Thu, Jan. 25 - Birding Day 1 in Dalat

 Up at 5 and met just before 6 to take off for a full day of birding.  We are in Dalat for 4 days as there is so much to see.  The hotel provided us each with a bag of breakfast - croissant, boiled eggs, fruit, water, sandwich. We headed through the town which is quite lovely with a large lake in the middle and flowers in bloom all around.  There are many coffee shops and hotels as this is such a spot for Vietnamese tourists.  Bom drove us up and up into a pine forest and into the area near Bidoup Nui Ba National Park.  Tien had booked 2 different hides for us - these aren’t his hides but ones we could use to see some very special birds.

Peering through the blind

Saigon beer box full of mealy worms

We were at over 5300’ - cool but as the sun rose, the sky was crystal clear and bright blue.  In the hide, however, it was still out of sunlight and cool/cold.  Tien spread his requisite mealy worms and birds soon started to flock in.  We saw a huge range of birds during the 4 hours we were in the hide. Plus Bom arrived at one point with hot coffee for all of us.  It was really birding in the lap of luxury!

One of the focal birds came in pretty early - an Indochinese Wren-babbler itch a long curved bill.    We saw Scimitar Babblers and Mountain Fulveta that we had seen a few days ago but many new birds joined them.  A whole flock of White-cheeked Laughingthrushes flew in.  There were easily a dozen of these large, colorful birds with bright white cheeks.  A Blue Pitta wandered around the left edges of our viewing area twice.  And then a brilliant yellow, about 14” big, almost cartoonish looking bird flew in and walked about - wow.  We all inhaled sharply or exclaimed!  This caused much excitement and we got multiple viewings of the Indochinese Green Magpie.  The drawing in the bird guide does not give it its full due.  It is almost comical to see.  It made me think of a bright yellow Woody Woodpecker with red and green highlights.  How could this bird be real!

Indochinese Green Magpie

We also saw 2 different types of squirrel and a shrew.

Northern Smooth-tailed Treeshrew

Eastern Striped Squirrel

Red-cheeked Squirrel

We continued watching until almost 11:30 when Katy and I decided we had to stand up and wander about a bit.  We thought that 4 hours was probably enough.  We walked out to the van and walked down the road a bit and warmed up in the sun.  As we got back to the van, Bom was already setting up lunch! We had fresh small baguettes and the very popular La Vache Qui Rie soft cheese as well as peanut butter and jam and left-over hard boiled eggs etc from our breakfast bags.  Bom also cut up a perfectly ripe mango.  I found eating mango slices with peanut butter on the baguette was superior to putting jam inside the bread!

Roadside picnic

We rested briefly before heading just down the road to another hide for a different very special endemic bird.  This was the Collared Laughingthrush and is only viewable in a very small area. This hide was also just off of the road and smaller.  We sat down and the viewing area was downhill which was great but we were very aware of how carefully we needed to get up and down so as NOT to tumble down the hill.  Tien set out mealy worms again and called the bird (he does excellent bird calls) and almost immediately 3 of the Laughingthrushes appeared.  We also had flycatchers, White-tailed Robin, and others.  We only stayed about an hour as fatigue was setting in and we had seen the primary birds twice.

Collared Laughingthrush

Black-headed Sibia

Snowy-browed Flycatcher 

Bom drove us back to Dalat and the hotel.  We’ll meet up for dinner and list at 6:30. It occurred to me that not everyone may know what the list is.  On birding trips there is typically a detailed list of all of the possible birds that you may see.  Each night the list is reviewed and ticks made against what we’ve seen that day.  There is also a mammal section for this trip.

Remarkable musician topiary in one rotary in Dalat

We just asked for chocolate ice cream but it involved a most elaborate production!

Wed, Jan 24 – Driving to Dalat

 

Sweet bean gruel, sticky rice, noodles, & banana leaf pork

Our last long driving day!   We met up with Hilary at 7 AM for a very large and varied buffet.   Hil and Bob opted for the egg station, and I tried various Vietnamese specialties:  delicious “Sweet Bean Gruel”, (very) sticky rice with red beans, and a gelatinous mass of rice with pork wrapped up in a banana leaf, plus some great French bread and jam.

 

We checked out at 8 AM and worked our way through the city amid swarms of motor bikes and buses.  There was pretty continuous houses and retail quite a way out of the city, until we reached more sparsely inhabited areas of rice paddies, some just planted, some emerald green, and others already harvested, and the stubble being consumed by cattle and water buffalo

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Our great driver, Bom, and David

Roadside cattle drive

  The cattle are herded along the highway and seem to know to keep out of the way of vehicles.  The traffic customs are pretty scary:  one enters from a side street without stopping or seemingly looking!  If you pass a truck into oncoming motor bikes, they know to slide onto the road edge and everyone seems to get through, although I don’t know how.  At least we haven’t seen any accidents, fingers crossed!

 

New and harvested rice paddies

Arabica coffee in bloom

Our trip today started at 1400’, and we gradually worked our way up until we reached a pass at 4400’ at around noon.  David thought we ought to stop for food and toilets, so Bom pulled off at metal Quonset hut place that had sit-down toilets (yes!) and an open-air kitchen that produced a very good lunch!   We got a large bowl of rice, some chunks of chicken that were really tasty, pork, and stir-fried spinach.  Simple but hit the spot!

 

Hil & Tien, a great birder!

Burmese Shrike

Lunch spot

We continued driving until around 3:00 when we entered the city of Dalat at 4500’.  There were miles of greenhouses for the cut flower trade that serves both Vietnam and large exports.  Dalat has a year-round spring-like climate with many old French villas and new Vietnamese villas so people can escape Ho Chi Minh City’s steamy heat.   We’re staying at the Hotel du Parc, an old French 1932 colonial style hotel.  Bob and David set off for a little birding while Hil and I walked around the hotel neighborhood, and found a patisserie and a coffee shop for a snack.  

Tiny side streets which only fit a pedestrian or motorbike

Front of the hotel

 

Fancy cake place near the hotel - we restrained ourselves since dinner was near

Dinner was at the hotel which had a wide variety of items from steak to pork curry and a real Negroni cocktail!

Tuesday, Jan 23 - Yok Don National Park

 We yawned our way down to meet David, Tien and Bom at 4 AM this morning.  The intent was to get to Yok Don National Park before dawn as Katy mentioned yesterday. We got on the van and a hotel staff ran up with bags of breakfast for us!  Wow, that was impressive that someone would make all of that up for us at that hour.

The drive to the park took about an hour.  It isn’t that far but many parts of the road are under construction - replacing, paving, etc.  Bom had to slow down to a crawl much of the time to get past bumps and holes.  The gate of the park was shut when we arrived about 5 AM but Tien got out and went to talk with someone - he has done this many times before.  We drove through and down one road as far as we could go.  It was still dark so we couldn’t see what anything looked like yet.  We got out and David and Tien looked for owls and nightjars.  Soon, an owl was calling and we saw 2 Brown Boobooks sitting and then flying.  It slowly started to lighten and we drove back down the road to another spot where Bom pulled over and set up breakfast.  The hotel staff had put together fruit (watermelon, dragonfruit), hard boiled eggs and corn amongst other things.  We had 6” baguettes and our peanut butter and strawberry jam and of course, David’s vegemite (an acquired taste).  Bom made us coffee and we enjoyed our side of the road feast.

This park is the largest in Vietnam and is made up of a complately different type of forest than we’ve been in.  This is a dry deciduous forest and former home of elephants and tigers.  Katy and I felt it was quite similar to forests we have visited in Southern Africa.  The park also borders Cambodia and there is a park on the Cambodian side as well.  The park is bisected by the Srepok River which is a major tributary of the Mekong Delta.

Walking down the road in a very different and dry forest

Something has “glued” these leaves (about 6” long) together.  We decided NOT to disturb it.

Fascinating tree with white frilly flowers that burst out of green pods.  We saw a Cambodian striped squirrel gorging on the inside of the flowers

We then started wandering down the road to see what might be up with the dawn.  The most exciting thing was a pair of White-rumped Pygmy-falcons.  These are small beautiful birds and a life bird for Bob!  We also saw a Purple sunbird - with gorgeous colors and a Burmese Nuthatch, another life bird for Bob. Another stunner was the Black-headed Woodpecker which looks like no other woodpecker you’ve ever seen - not red, white, and black but black, yellow, red and green.

The disturbing thing about being in this national park was that we were constantly passed by motorbikes and some heavy duty dump trucks.  We figured that 100 motorbikes and 100-200 people passed us while we were there.  Apparently, there is some place that people farm in the park and these were all people going to do that.  Many riders were couples with the woman in back with a wicker basket attached like a backpack.  The constant noise and being sure that we were out of the way was wearying.

By 9 AM, the forest was pretty quiet.  We walked into the forest for a bit and saw a few more birds but finally decided to wrap up our park visit about 9:45 and head back to the hotel.  It took an hour+ again but now we could see what was going on and there were crews paving the road in a number of spots.

Part of the Kok Don park sign includes bird watching! So now we know how it is spelled in Vietnamese though pronunciation is a bit harder.

We arrived back at the hotel and everyone went for showers since we hadn’t taken the time at 3:30 AM……. We met up for lunch at 12:30 and ate in the hotel restaurant.  The staff here are extremely nice but their English is quite limited.  Again it is safest to point at the menu where each item is in Vietnamese and English.   

After lunch, Katy and I did a bit of exploring out of the hotel.  We didn’t wander too far as we really don’t want to try crossing a big street by ourselves.   You truly take your life in your hands as no one stops.  There are occasional stoplights but otherwise traffic keeps moving and pedestrians are lowest on the totem pole!  We went down the street and turned right towards a street market.  We stopped by one vegetable stand and then headed to what looked like a shopping center.  Inside, there are varying degrees of separation but some stores lead right into the next.  We wandered about and then realized that there was a grocery store at the end.  Since we have been eating rapidly through our supply of dried mango, we thought we might find some more.  

The front of our 18 story hotel in Buon Ma Thuot

 7

Virtually every tiny village we have been through has a shop with the Apple logo - I doubt that Apple has actually licensed or franchised with them all.

Vegetable and fruit offerings just around the corner from the hotel

Specially designed gift boxes and bags of goods for Tet

Katy and I went up to the 18th floor Roof Top bar which we were hoping was outside but was not.  It may be that it is just too windy here to have an outdoor bar up that high.  The room is large and has an amazing assortment of chairs in varying styles and colors.  No one else except on e staff was there but we had a drink and then went down to meet Bob and David for 6:30 dinner and the list.  We are off to Dalat in the morning.

Sunset out the 12th story window

One of the sets of bar chairs

A variation on the bar chairs

Mon, Jan 22 – Long Drive to Buon Ma Thuot

 

 

We got to sleep in and did not meet Hilary and David for breakfast until 7 AM!!   Nice breakfast of French toast and yogurt. 

Very cool ceiling at the Mang Den hotel - we hadn’t even noticed it the night before!

We packed up and drove out to do a little birding along a side road near the hotel.  We managed to get great views of both the Necklaced and Indochinese Barbets!     These large green birds, decorated with a rainbow of other colors, sit up on the top of the canopy and call persistently to attract females.  Tien pulled out his very good telescope so we got leisurely views.  

 

We took off then at 9:30 as we had a long ride ahead of us.  We are heading southeast and staying in a hotel in the city of Buon Ma Thuot.  Tomorrow, we plan to leave at 4 AM, drive 1.5 hours to Yok Don National Park in order to arrive before dawn to see some night birds and other specialties.  

 

We passed through miles of rubber tree plantations; tall skinny trees each with an “umbrella” wrapped around it to protect the area to be tapped for rubber from rain.  The trees are very precisely planted in neat rows, and still largely owned by the French.

Decor ready for Tet or Lunar New Year in front of the lunch restaurant

 

Lunch spot

                Hair-crested Drongo - with curled tail

We stopped in the town of Plei Ku for an excellent lunch – I had stir-fried beef and Bok Choi with noodles – delicious!   Bom continued driving us on the excellent roads that we have found throughout Vietnam.  Long stretches of landscaped center strips, endless shops, beauty salons, Honda, Subaru, etc. dealerships.  The middle class is doing quite well!

 

As we continued south, we passed through more agricultural areas:  coffee, cashews, papaya, passion fruit, betel nut palms and black peppercorn spice plants among other produce.

 

Rubber Tree Plantation

Buddhist Temple

At 4:30 we finally reached the medium sized city of Buon Ma Thuot and checked into a tall business hotel and relaxed in our 12^th floor room until 6:30 dinner.  Not to be prudish, but why do so many of these hotel rooms have a large window from the sleeping area into the bathroom??  Do people really want to watch their sweetie take a shower??  There are blinds to lower but why a window to begin with?  

Hordes of motorbikes in the evening from HH’s room

View from our room at night