Merry Christmas!

Thanh and I had decided earlier in the week that we'd make our longest trip yet on Sunday, this time to Cuc Phuong National Park, south of Hanoi.  Thanh's girlfriend, Van, joined us as well (which I think is a true test of love; sitting on the back of a scooter like she did yesterday, for a good 6-7 hours, can't be all that fun.  Even moreso when you consider that she doesn't speak English to fully enjoy my charmingness).


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We stopped on our way out of town for our usual breakfast of pho bo. And, as usual, it was delicious.

Then began the one of two lowlights of the journey, our trip south on AH1, the main highway south of of Hanoi.  Fortunately, being early Sunday morning, traffic wasn't nearly as bad as usual and it wasn't yet hot, so the 90 minute drive to our exit wasn't too bad.

The road we took after leaving the freeway was a small rural two-lane affair.  I got stuck behind this mini-truck which was hauling coal, lumps of which kept dropping off as he bumped along.  

Along the way, we crossed a large river which looked no deeper than a bathtub.  On it was this enormous barge swinging a wide left in what looked like an impossibly narrow channel underneath the bridge. 

And on the other side of the bridge was this man on his little boat, taking it all in.

Of course, we were parched given our harrowing freeway drive and it being Sunday morning and all, so we decided to stop for a ca phe sua da.  We travelled a bit before turning into a shop which had a "Trung Nguyen" sign, since it's apparently the best coffee in Vietnam (which will be handy information when it comes time to load up on Vietnamese coffee before coming home next month). 

Little did we know when we stopped, however, that they'd be celebrating Christmas (aka Kinh Chao Quy Khach!) inside. 

Christmas (the retail event; not the religious holiday) has become extremely popular here over the last couple of years.  Les says it's almost like New York City there are so many Christmas decorations on display.  Apparently holiday business for this place was so good they decided to see if it might spill over into January...or July.

We hopped back on our scooters and continued toward the park.  Along the way, someone was herding a flock of ducklings along the road.  There were a couple of hundred on both sides and they were pretty cute.

At the next town we came too, there was some an interesting take on drying corn.  It looked like each pile was covered with a cow pie, but there was no trace of a cow, much less one who could make its deposits quite so neat and orderly.  I'll have to ask Thanh if he has any idea what this was or why it was being done.  In the meantime, I'll be staying away from dried corn for the time being.

(More dried corn...without the "topping")

Eventually we arrived at Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam's first national park and the nation's largest nature preserve.   I'll have more about that tomorrow.