After three days in Ho Chi Minh City, we were more than ready to replace the cacophony of horns and motorbikes with nature’s symphony, so we took a local bus 4.5 hours north to Cat Tien National Park. It is a large area of protected lowland tropical forests whose floral and fauna diversity has been recognized by the World Wildlife Fund and is most notable for its gibbons. We kept our adventures on budget so we only heard the gibbons, but we really enjoyed our day bike riding through the park as well as checking out some of the local trails. 

The village of Cat Tien is super tranquil and small. And clearly, it’s not a hot spot for international travelers either because all the kids are still curious and excited to meet you. This soccer playing welcoming committee dropped their entire game to shower us in “hellos,” high fives and even hugs almost as soon as we arrived.

We arrived to the park when we were told it opened at 7:00, although it was disappointingly actually at 6:30. We paid our entrance fee of 60000 Dong each ($2.40) and the first order of business was to take a boat across the Dong Nai River. 

There is no extra charge for this boat, but we soon found out that anything else in the park, including the Crocodile Lake hiking trail we wanted to do was extra….a very steep $10/person extra for a 10k trail so we improvised and did something else. After the fact, we ran into people who had done the trail and they said it really wasn’t worth it and they didn’t see any crocodiles so we were happy we skipped it. 

The entrance to the park. From here you could here the gibbons singing in the trees. The sound was pretty magical. Unfortunately by the time we rented our bikes, ($6/each) most of the gibbon activity had waned. However, the sounds of the jungle down this simple path were pretty incredible.

The fittingly named garlic tree

Instead of Crocodile Lake, we opted to head onward to the Hundred Trunk Tree, a gnarled twisting of tree webs over a crystal clear swamp land, which turned out to be very beautiful. After what was turning into a very sticky bike ride, it was a blissful place to cool off, grab a snack we’d packed and enjoy nature. We were completely on our own. 

Also, the wildlife was abundant. We witnessed the chirping of frogs and saw several birds we’d never seen, including one that looked a lot like a toucan. Also, the park had a large number of interesting trees dating back 100s of years…

Including this copious old growth monstrosity with astounding trunks contorting and dancing in all directions.

We had our lunch we’d brought from the hotel underneath Uncle Dong, or at least his tree. You might be asking if Mr Dong is the guy who created the money. Maybe. But, he was also a former prime minister who visited Cat Tien Park so he got a tree named after him. We enjoyed having lunch on his tree tentacles. 

The quick trail to another famous tree called the Tung Tree, which with its whipped ribbony trunk, looks like a Latin America ceiba to us.

After lots of trees, sweat, and 32 kilometers of biking, it was time to head back through town.

Upon returning to our homestay, at the Singing Gibbon, we were drenched from head to toe in sweat, so when our hostess offered to make us a coconut smoothie right from the tree out front for $1 each we jumped at the opportunity. But what was more amusing was seeing her whack into that thing with a machete and use all parts of it to create our ice cold delicious concoctions. WOW!

Heading back to our little bungalow for a cold shower and some well deserved A/C, which cost $17/night including breakfast and an extendable mosquito canopy.

The view from our bungalow where we woke up each day listening to the sounds of crooning gibbons blended with obnoxious chickens.

We had dinner both nights at the backpacker hostel down the road because there weren’t many choices…this is how we ended up with a veggie and rice noodle plate for $1. 

Getting to Cat Tien National Park

We chose the budget option of getting to the national park on the “Be” local bus taken from the Nga Tu Ga bus station in Ho Chi Minh City. It cost $9 for both of us for the 4.5 hour ride, which was the same price as our agonizing Grab (taxi) to get across Ho Chi Minh to the station during rush hour. It was air conditioned which was really all we cared about. 

Some of the views out the window. Unbelievable….we are truly so lucky.