Leaving Vinh Long

We're leaving tomorrow. We plan to travel for the next 4-6 weeks. Our first stop will be Cat Tien National Park. We're really looking forward to seeing Cat Tien because visiting the natural areas of Vietnam has been one of our favorite things to do here.

A couple of days ago we went with three of Hoa's cousins to a very small forest/swamp preserve in Dong Thap province near Cao Lanh called Rung Tram, which seems to mean "indigo forest." "Rung," anyway, does mean "forest." I wasn't able to get a lot of information from the people at the preserve given the language barrier. We took a short boat tour through the swamps into what I think was a melalueca forest where egrets and herons were nesting. It was very cool. But our photos, as usual, don't do the place justice. We also saw a bird called a "watercock" (chim trich) that was very beautiful, it's a type of rail. I'll try to attach a photo. I'm having trouble uploading photos this morning -- I don't know if the problem is here at the internet cafe or at pbase. I'll try again later.

Yesterday we went to visit Hoa's aunts. We're staying with Hoa's cousin Bich Thuy and her family, and for some reason we don't get together with Hoa's aunts. We had a very nice time, and Hoa's uncle Thuan was grilling beef and huge prawns on a grill on the floor in the house. A couple of other drivers Thuan works with were there. The food was great, as usual.

I'm going to make it short because I still want to try to upload photos to clear the memory card so I'm ready to travel. And I need to pack this afternoon, because we're going to Bich Thuy's daughter Tram's birthday party tonight.