Just as I had fallen into slumber, a voice whispered in my ear, “Kelly, honey, just keep your eyes closed and move onto my bed. I have to kill something flying over you.” Still half asleep, I oblige. Julie pounces onto my bed. Armed with her flip flop she begins beating the ground over and over again on a killing mission. Her victim is a thick two-inch long cockroach with wings. I can see it smooshed on the floor as I write this in my journal. If you could see this insect, you’d be as grateful as I am for Julie’s stealth night attack....
It was the morning of our second day in Bach Ma National Park in Central Vietnam. This lush area was developed by the French in the 1930’s as a getaway from the brutal summer heat. During the “American War” many of the villas the French had built were destroyed, but their ruins still remain. Yesterday we hiked about 12 miles with the help of our guide, Nhan, seeing five lakes, waterfalls, and misty overlooks. Portions of the trails required hanging onto a wire in the side of the mountain to maintain balance on the slippery descent. The park is alive with the buzzing of cicadas, the croaking of toads, and a zillion different bird calls. It is constantly humming. From the top of the park, as the mist clears you can see all the way out to the sea.
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Yesterday, after a simple lunch of white rice and a green leafy vegetable (pronounced rao mone), we began our ascent to a beautiful Buddhist temple on a mountaintop. Before we reached the summit, we saw a hill that was used as a helicopter landing pad for the Americans during the war. Below the landing pad was a long tunnel built by the Vietcong. Nhan took out a flashlight and crouched down to enter the tunnel. Julie put on her head lamp and we followed. The tunnel was large enough to fit one person almost standing straight with about half an arm’s length on either side. There were broken wooden boards in tiny sections of the tunnel that had served as the VC’s mattresses. I felt like we were walking through history and tried to imagine what it was like in that tunnel when it was occupied by the VC.
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Being inside the tunnel with only the light from one torch and one headlamp was eerie, but we were okay, moving forward, and prepared to hit the other side in 15 minutes. That is, until I saw something flying. Everything got a bit confusing after that. Nhan first told us it was a moth, but this was no moth. When it flew at me, I knew it was a bat. Then there it was, sitting on the ground, Julie on one side of it and me and Nhan on the other. Julie refused to walk past the bat which had conveniently planted itself smack in the middle of the path. We froze for an instant. Then Nhan tried to shew the bat out of the way. Vietnamese Dracula took flight, right for Julie. I heard her scream and the light from her headlamp shot all over the tunnel walls and she started running. Nhan tried to calm us both down and told us to turn off the lights so they don’t attract the bat. So now we’re standing in the dark in a tunnel with a bat whose location is unknown to us. I feel something on my leg and I start screaming. And then we’re bolting towards the exit trying to get the hell out of there as fast as we can. Once out in the daylight we are shaken with fear and hysterical with laughter. Nhan – could you have warned us about the bats?
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And for the record, this version of the story leaves out the leaches who found Julie’s foot on today’s hike. Bach Ma – so glad we went – and so glad to be back at our hotel in Tam Ky City. More photos from the weekend to come soon...
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