Our next destination was Cuc Phuong National Park, established in 1962 as Vietnam’s first national park. We visited the Endangered Primate Rescue Center, where they rehab mostly monkeys (chronic drinking of rice wine?), many from the commercial market and prepare them to be returned to their natural habitat. We saw several different breeds of Langur, which is an unusual and colorful variety of monkey.


That night we slept under mosquito netting; I’m sure it wasn’t necessary, but when it’s there, you gotta use it. It rained hard in the morning, making the rain forest’s mossy road especially treacherous for bikers. As "designated wuss" (DW), I stayed in the van for the first part of the ride, grateful for the option.


We traveled by van to Haiphong, the largest port in Vietnam. You may remember Nixon ordering the bombing of Haiphong harbor in 1972, or the exodus of hundreds of boat people later in the decade. Now it’s exploding with new construction.

From there, we boarded a private touring boat and spent 3+ lovely hours puttering around Ha Long Bay. The magnificent limestone formations sprinkled throughout the bay (close to 2000 of them) provide an eerily prehistoric aura. We stopped at an island to explore some fabulous natural caves which were lighted beautifully to highlight interesting rock formations and shadows. The boat docked at Cat Ba Island where we mounted our bikes for our last ride.

Somehow this 22k ride seemed easy despite 7k’s of hills. The scenery was lovely and the villages were typically friendly and ragged. The cool air was welcome relief from the extreme heat we’d been riding in for the past 10 days or so. I actually wished we had a longer ride.

After we checked in to our hotel on the island, I decided to treat myself to a post-ride massage. After all, didn’t I deserve it?

Since the hotel salon was being renovated, I hit the streets to find one that looked respectable. After walking the length of the main drag and perusing the options, I chose one that had several friendly women out front. The negotiated price was 60,000 dong, which is less than $4. A lovely young thing dressed in a white mini-skirt and cami led me up a narrow, gray stairway. At the bottom, 2 boys were cleaving a chicken on the floor. When we reached the third floor, she showed me into a small room that was lit by a red florescent bulb and furnished with a queen sized bed. Steven said that should have tipped me off as to where I was. Maybe, but I was too focused on the smoke from the lit cigarette in the ashtray and insisted on changing rooms.


My hostess showed me into another room containing 2 double beds and 1 florescent bulb (not red), and bade me take my clothes off and lie down. There was a bottom sheet on the bed and a grungy looking pillow. Not wanting to seem ungrateful or overly critical, I did as suggested and was graced with a bath towel.


My “masseuse” then produced a percussion symphony on each of my body parts: pinch, pound, karate chop, drum, finger poke, castanets, move on. Oy vey. As soon as there was a break in the action, I bolted upright, grabbed my clothes, thanked her very much, threw some dong her way and escaped with every ounce of energy I had left. Didn’t even stop for chicken!