Cuc Phuong National Park is 150km south of Hanoi. The national park stretches in the provinces of Ninh Binh, Hoa Binh and Thanh Hoa and was the first established national park in Vietnam.

The national park covers an area of 22,000 hectares with forest on limestone mountains mostly and valleys in between. Cuc Phuong National Park is part of a system of forest stretching from Cuc Phuong, to Ngoc Son-Ngo Luong Nature Reserve and Pu Luong Nature Reserve. There are ethnic minorities including the Kinh, Thai and Muong inhabiting sparsely in these areas. Some communities still exploit produce from the forest, and their activities may involve illegal logging and poaching.

We start our tour with visit to the Primate Rescue Center and Turtle Conservation Center at Cuc Phuong National Park where we learn about the conservation and the control of wildlife trafficking in Vietnam. Then we drive further into the jungle to visit the Prehistoric Man Cave where we learn a bit of the humans here 7,500 years ago. We have have interesting encounters with the wild at this cave, too.