View from the summit that overlooks the Gulf of Tonkin. Notice how the mountain rises steeply just a few km from the coast.

Bach Ma National Park (http://www.bachma.vnn.vn) is located in Central Annam. This park offers views that are even more breathtaking than those at Doi Inthanon, Thailand. Endemic hunters go there to see the Annam Partridge.

The park is a well run and has modern accommodation. There are cemented pathways along many of its trails and the trails are well-maintained. Though the trail system there is quite extensive, it is difficult to get lost as they are well-signposted.

Along the Thuy Dien Falls Trail, there is even a new 3 storey cement lookout tower that gives fabulous views of the entire ravine. It is a great place to scope birds. There were quite a few raptors in that ravine.

Bach Ma National Park’s climate is quite unique. Nowhere else have I experienced such a drastic change in temperature over such a short distance. You see, the mountain range rises very steeply from the coast. From the summit, you can clearly see the shoreline behind Cau Hai village which is just several kilometres away. At lower Bach Ma, it is characteristically hot and humid. But once you take the Land Rover up 12km to Villa Bach Ma at upper Bach Ma, the weather is cool and it can get fairly cold at night.

Birding up at upper Bach Ma can get slow at times. Tall trees on both sides of the chicanes make it tough to bird watch there. It is definitely not a place for beginner birdwatchers as one has to work hard to find each bird. As upper Bach Ma lies on mountainous terrain, be prepared for quite a bit of strenuous climbing.

Due to the HQ’s remote location, your meals have to be pre-ordered. The food that is served in canteen at lower Bach Ma is barely tolerable. Fortunately, the food served at upper Bach Ma is truly commendable. At Villa Bach Ma’s restaurant, for each meal, I had 4-5 delicious dishes to go with rice. You can choose either the 35,000 VND or the 50,000 VND set meal.

WEATHER : There were short spells of rain almost every day. The higher than average amount of precipitation was due to the laden winds blowing in from the Gulf of Tonkin.

GETTING THERE : From Hoi An, I asked the Sinh Café bus driver to let me off me at Cau Hai village. Cau Hai is about 2/3 the way from Hoi An to Hue. Once you alight from the bus, several scooter taxi drivers will hound you for a fare. Do bargain hard for a reasonable rate. I paid 10,000 VND for the 3km ride to the park’s HQ. The ride to the park HQ will take you through a small farming village. It is amazing that the living conditions of Cau Hai’s residents are world’s apart from the rest of Vietnam’s city dwellers.

If you are flying in from abroad, Silkair now flies direct from Singapore to Danang, which is a nearby business city. You can engage transport from there to take you to the park’s HQ.

ACCOMMODATION : There are several places to stay at Bach Ma National Park. At the base of the mountain, beside the park’s HQ, doubles are available for 120,000 VND/night.

About 12km uphill, at upper Bach Ma, there are more options for accommodation. If you secure your accommodation from the base of the mountain, you are likely to put up at the national park’s quarters for 150,000 VND/night. There are 3 other private hotels there. The most high-end option there appears to be Morin-Bach Ma Hotel. It is beside the zero km road marker and that is as high as the tarmac road goes.

 From left : At upper Bach Ma, the older rooms have more character than the newer rooms.

BIRDING HIGHLIGHTS :

 According to the rangers, Annam Partridges can be found in two areas :

1. the Pheasant Trail. From the trail’s signboard to the waterfall area and back, it takes about 50 minutes. But its trailhead is a 3 hr walk uphill from the park’s HQ. Do consider hiring the Land Rover to bring you up.

2. the last 1/3 of the Thuy Dien Falls Trail at lower Bach Ma.

I came across a group of 3 Annam Partridges along the Pheasant Trail at 11.30am near the middle section. The partridges were not calling then. They were at chest level on a steep slope about 10m away from the side of the path. I saw only a bird each time for about 15-30 seconds each. When I saw the first, it moved silently away. While I was checking the field guide, another began to move and went in the same direction. The last one must have been hiding too because it began to move as soon as I turned my eyes to my field guide. After they had left, I found a deep hole on that slope at the area where the birds were seen. The opening was large enough to fit a football. Perhaps those birds were hiding inside.

The area around the canteen at lower Bach Ma is good for Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrushes, Masked Laughingthrushes and White-Crested Laughingthrushes. The posts, at either side of the tarmac road that leads uphill, are home to pair of Brown Fish Owls. The canteen vendor is very familiar with the owls and he can point them out to you.

About 50-150m downhill from Villa Bach Ma, there is rather shaded area where a family of more than 8 Rufous-Throated Partridges would use to cross the tarmac road every evening just before sunset. Along this same stretch, there is also a pair of very active Red-Headed Trogons.

On the jeep ride up, I was pleasantly surprised to come across a Siamese Fireback at around the 10km marker (from Morin-Bach Ma Hotel). Several kilometres downhill, at around 11am-12pm, a Blue-Rumped Pitta was mulling around at the centre of the tarmac road! It quickly hopped away from our oncoming Land Rover.

On the top 1/3 of the trail that leads from the Orchid Collection House to the Summit Building, there were a handful of very vocal Ratchet-Tailed Treepies, a Silver Broadbill and a Silver Pheasant.

Do pay attention to the Sultan’s Tits that fly about the carpark in front of Morin-Bach Ma hotel. Unlike the usual Sultanea subspecies found in the rest of South East Asia, these intriguing ones belong to the Gayeti subspecies. So, instead of having a regular bright yellow crest, these Sultan Tits are endowed with a shiny dark blue crest.

The Greater Racquet-Tailed Drongos there are interesting simply because they are also different from many of those found elsewhere in SE Asia. They belong to the subspecies Rangoonesis and are easily identified by their unusually large tuft of hair above their beaks. The one that I saw had such long and curling tuft of hair on its beak that I wondered if Elvis had drawn inspiration for his hairdo from that bird.

LEECHES : There were lots of leeches around, especially at the final section of the Thuy Dien Falls Trail where the endemic Annam Partridge has been seen. At upper Bach Ma’s trails, several backpackers were visibly upset when they realised that they were bleeding from their leech wounds.

MAP/SKETCH : See Sketch of Lower and Upper Bach Ma National Park.

SCOPE: Not much use in the tight forest trails or for finding Annam Partridge. The slopes can be very steep. The scope is best used around HQ area and at the lookout towers.

LESSONS LEARNT :

Just because it is cloudy and rainy at lower Bach Ma does not mean that it is wet at the summit. According to the rangers, upper Bach Ma is above the cloud level so it may be experiencing very fine weather even though the weather might appear bad when viewed from park HQ. This does not apply during the wet season as upper Bach Ma is often rainy and fogged over for long periods.

The combined price of the ride uphill and downhill by Land Rover was quite expensive at 360,000 VND. If you are flexible with your timing, ask around and try to share that cost with other travellers. Most of the park rangers claim that Internet facilities are not available nearby. In fact, there are 2 Internet cafes located in Cau Hai village.

 
These kids were playing "house" at the watch tower. They seemed to enjoy emulating adults as they went about sweeping  the floor with the branches. Life may be basic there, but these kids were happy indeed.