Because of our late booking (less than two months before departure) it was not possible to have Nguyen Hoai Bao (Bao) as our guide during the tour. Since it is said that there are only some good birdwatchers in Vietnam, we were a bit anxious who would be our guides. Bao managed to have Mr. Le Quy Minh (Minh) guiding us the first week (Phong Nha, Bach Ma and Lo Xo) with the help of Mr. Nguyen Hao Quang (Quang). Minh proved to be an excellent birding guide, knowing the target species very well. He has worked for the Bach Ma National Park for more than 10 years. Minh also was nice company, with a good sense of humor. He used an I-Pod with speakers for play back. In the second week, Quang was our guide, this time accompanied by mr. Nguyen Nhat Truong (Truong). Both are former students of Bao, learning on the job for birdwatching guide.
They have done their graduated papers in ornithology and know the Da Lat and Cat Tien area very well. Quang knew the target species and there stake outs and discovered many good species for us. He also was very nice and helpful. For play back he used his mobile phone. He didn’t have all relevant sounds and the speaker of the phone wasn’t that loud. So we were happy that we brought our own MP3 player with the most important bird sounds, mainly collected form the CD Rom Birds Of Tropical Asia and from the fantastic website www.xeno-canto.org. Truong was obviously the less experienced birdwatcher, but he was of use arranging all sorts of things. We brought one telescope, which was usefull in all terrains.
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