Day 15: Close calls

Day 15 started as most days have: behind schedule. We ate some sort of pork tenderloin + egg + rice concoction for breakfast and packed up our things.

Close call #1: Lost keys
As is common practice in Vietnam, we parked our bikes inside the hotel lobby the previous evening. When I got down to the hotel lobby to pack up my motobike, I noticed that I didn't have my key. To make a long story short, only after fifteen minutes of searching and trying to pry the under-seat compartment open with my bare hands did the lady at the front desk inform me that I left my keys in the ignition the previous night. She had them in her desk.

Close call #2: Cops
Somewhere in between Bao Loc and Cat Tien National Park Danny and I got pulled over by the police. The cop signaled me to pull over and whacked me in the arm with his baton as I slowed down. I quickly recalled post number 3: "If the police stop you, just keep talking English or whatever you want and they'll soon give up and let you go in less than five minutes." He pulled out a driver's license and indicated that he wanted to see our Vietnam license. I just said "I don't understand" a few times and he told us to just go away.

Close call #3: Snake
Despite me being stupid (keys) and acting stupid (cops), we managed to get to Cat Tien National Park before sunset. Charlie and I went for a 20k run through the jungle in search of bat caves. We didn't find them, but we did run across a snake on the trail. The part we could see was at least 6 feet long. Luckily, that was the tail end and he didn't see us. We didn't try to examine its total length. But as actuaries, we feel qualified to estimate the total length as 12 feet.

Close call #4: Spider
Just before we hit the sack for the evening, I heard a little girl scream. Actually it was Charlie in the bathroom. A "giant" spider had just crawled across his foot. And it had "huge spindly legs." I went in for the kill because Charlie couldn't handle it.

We also went for a late night wildlife tour in Cat Tien National Park. The three of us and a tour guide sat in the back of a pickup truck while the driver slowly drove through the main trail. The tour guide tried to spot wildlife with a spotlight. We saw a couple deer and some birds. Danny was disappointed that we didn't encounter any rabid monkeys. It was actually a very cool tour even though we didn't spot much wildlife. It was very peaceful and we had a great view of the night sky.

We stayed overnight in a cabin inside the National Park. We all slept in mosquito nets.