Deep inside north Vietnam’s Cuc Phuong National Park lies an abandoned resort. From the looks of it, its been lying dormant for a number of years, with the jungle slowly eating away at the once sprawling structures. There’s a conference center, now inhabited by butterflies. There’s an olympic size swimming pool, now turned into a turtle pond.
After spending a few days in Hanoi, and a weird two days in Halong Bay, I joined up with a group of friends, and the 7 of us, plus our van driver, headed down the coast towards Hoi An. Our first stop on our long drive down the coast was the Cuc Phuong National Park – a beautiful park which has within it mysterious limestone caves, animal preserves, and beautiful hiking trails. After a full day of exploring the park, we finally rolled into a once-abandoned building within the resort complex. The building, although it was officially abandoned, had been taken over by a family or two, who ran it as a sort of makeshift guesthouse. Sparse accommodations, with patchy electricity, but livable nonetheless.
During our single night at the “resort”, we took a night hike through the rain to check out a bunch of insects, had a few beers back at the house, and got a good night’s sleep in the jungle.