Getting Lost in a Forest

Why did the squirrel get lost in the forest…

It followed the wrong root!

13th February 2020

So on our second full day in Ninh Binh somebody had the smart idea that we would go for a trek around the national park. We started the day the same as before with a banh mi for breakfast and a coffee and off we wandered over to the other hostel. Now we could tell immediately that we had made a mistake deciding this trek, one because it had stormed the night before and second of all because it was very very humid. Once in the taxi it was a short 40-50 minute drive with a lovely driver who was correcting the girls Vietnamese in the back seat, especially all the animals we drove past.

After we arrived at the national park we were told some information we missed, like how the walk to the main part was twenty kilometers each way and that there were no local taxis in the area to get us home. So after a small barter with the taxi drivers they were going to drive us through the park (as instructed by the reception) wait for us to walk around the forest and then drive us back to our hostels. So off we went on our walk. Now the start of this walk went as fine as any other, we followed the path around without any injuries or missing persons. However, we did have the horrible attack on Beth from the evil mastermind known as the leech, luckily she survived unscathed and we were able to continue on our walk. We made it past many trees, many rocks and many…many steps, but finally we made it to the tree that took us all the way in the middle of nowhere. It was very peaceful and very cool just sat, staring at this tree that had survived a thousand years and who knows how long it would stand tall.

Now, once we had taken our break at the tree it was time to walk back. Some would say Beth had been told that we should turn back at this point instead of walking the full route, but like in most cases of our relationship, I chose not to listen to her and led our group through the route ahead. I felt like this was a fine idea until about 5 minutes in we hit our first of many flights of stairs. Sadly this was the largest and it was uphill so nobody had any fun. After a while we had continued down the path until sadly there was no longer a path to follow, just a mud trail with arrows drawn into the ground. This was the issue with coming the day after a storm, the mud trails become very muddy and very slippery and just a tad bit dangerous. None the less we carried on and luckily I only ended up on my backside once.

We were definitely not in the appropriate footwear, with me in new white trainers and Beth in her black dolly shoes. We were not prepared for the mud ahead of us but we just about managed our trek around the forest and luckily we just about made it out alive. Luckily there was a tap in the gents to wash the mud off my shoes to stop it getting all over the taxi drivers car but sadly that couldn’t be the same about my shorts and mud soaked legs. Once home it was time for a shower, food and a couple of drinks before another early night, starting to see a pattern with us? And then to prepare for the next day.

– Dan