The Trek

Leaving Nha Trang, we teamed up with a neat danish couple, Frederick and Pernille - with whom we started touring around for a couple of days, also doing a small trek in Yok Don National Park.

This is how the Trek looked like for Leszek ( in the middle)

and for us:

The Trek was nice - our Guide Miuk (who didn't speak a word of english) spent his time jumping off the track every two minute, ripping out a root, picking up a fruit, peeling a plant, digging for nuts - while we spent our time eating all the things he gave us, hoping there was no fatal misunderstanding.

Miuk

The highlight of the trip came later. After dining and having quite a bit of ricewine with the guides, Frederick (being a fishing and hunting addict) couldn't help inquiring if we couldn't join them when they went fishing next time. As it turned out they preferred fishing at night, so we ended up walking through a jungle in moonlight - only equipped with a bottle of ricewine, a fishing rod and ... an AK 47 machine gun, since one of Miuks friends who walked along was ranger and responsible for keeping the national park free of illegal hunters and lodgers - obviously at all times.

While we wondering about how politely he usually does this - the ranger was suddenly alarmed by a weak torchlight 500m ahead of us. So he instantly instructed us to duck into the bush, and without hesitation loaded his gun and charged off into the jungle. We eventually stopped wondering about the extend of his diplomacy.

After a few minutes hiding in the bushes, he came back - claiming that these were his friends (we never found out if that actully excluded illegal lodgers and hunters with enough ricewine or money in their pocket) - but at least no shot fell and we slowly moved our of our cover.

Eventually the day ended with a strange picture - at night in the middle of the jungle, a plastic bottle of ricewine and a machine gun lying in the grass, frederick standing on top of a dam fishing and - last but not least - a swimming competition in the river with Miuk and the ranger. A nice finish :)

This was more than two weeks ago. more to come....