Delight sounds the identical in each language. Not the phrase, however the feeling. That was a stunning shock discovery after I took my new-found ardour for bird-watching abroad for the primary time in Vietnam.
I’m a brand new twitcher. After I moved to the Aussie bush a few years in the past, my passing admiration for birds grew into a correct pastime. I’m no professional, however I’ve come to like seeing what lives the place, observing totally different species and studying their habits. My guided journey to the Thung Nham Hen Valley, two hours south of Hanoi, was the right choice for an enthusiastic newbie like me.
I may go on endlessly concerning the cognitive advantages of awe-inspiring nature experiences or how connecting with nature makes you extra conscious of your affect on our planet; that’s all very true and essential. However principally, I’d wish to make a case for packing binoculars and going bird-watching in your subsequent journey.
Wow moments go straight to the center and transcend language.
You don’t want plenty of package. My binoculars are pretty cheap, however they do the job, and it’s thrilling to have the ability to get an up-close take a look at an impressive hen in flight
It’s a shortcut to a state of childlike glee that’s simply so good for the soul, particularly if you go searching and discover that you just’re sharing that second with strangers from around the globe who all really feel precisely the identical.
Wow moments go straight to the center and transcend language. That’s why meals and tradition are so nice for bringing individuals collectively. Now I do know that Vietnam is unbelievable in any respect three sorts of wow – meals, tradition and nature.
I’d already been to Vietnam a few occasions and beloved it, so I used to be actually excited to get out of town and away from the extra well-known locations this time.
We rose early for our bus journey south towards the UNESCO World Heritage Website of Tam Coc, an eco-tourism park in Ninh Binh, it’s a inexperienced panorama full of towering limestone cliffs and shimmering waterways.
We handed small cities and farms alongside the best way, locations the place water buffalo nonetheless labored the fields, and the scent of ripe rice stuffed the air. Tam Coc is a refuge for over 45 species of birds, together with egrets, herons, storks and kingfishers, and one of the simplest ways to view them is by taking a ship journey out onto the park’s lakes and wetlands.
We boarded a small conventional boat steered by an area elder with a giant grin and an ageless sparkle in his eyes. He deftly guided us out onto the water, and inside 30 seconds of stopping on the nesting areas, we noticed a procession of fluffy child herons toddling alongside atop a flotilla of water lilies. We gasped in delight, and the sound rippled out by every of the little boats surrounding us, making us chuckle – first on the humorous little birds after which at one another.
Sharing that second of pure pleasure with our Intrepid chief and boatman has stayed with me as a lot because the sight of lots of of lovely birds gliding overhead, touchdown, taking off and nesting within the bushes. It was a unprecedented day, my face ached from smiling afterwards.
So pack your binoculars and go hen watching in your subsequent journey. It’s an ideal excuse to get off the crushed monitor, a chance to see the locations you go to from a brand new perspective and a extremely particular technique to join with native individuals and share their love for his or her land.
Uncover your individual wow moments in Vietnam with one in every of Intrepid’s small group adventures.
