By Mike McCarthy

We were up early to make the trip from Danang to Phuoc Son. My colleagues and I had a lot to do in three days of field trips. We were touching base with officials we had worked with over several years and bringing several of our projects to an official close. Being new with the organization, I looked forward to the time on the road. Close quarter traveling is one of the best ways to get to know people. With a lot to accomplish, we had decided to travel to Phuoc Son and back to Danang in the same day. Hence the early start. We set off at 5:00 AM, stopping on the way out of the city for "op-la" (for the uninitiated, that's steak and eggs cooked "camp ground style" in a small metal pan). Suitably fortified for what was to come, we left Danang and headed for Phuoc Son. When my wife and I moved from Hanoi to Danang, we had been told that we would need a four-wheel drive vehicle for our work. At the time I thought that a two-wheel drive ought to be OK for anything we would be doing. I secretly thought the people insisting on the need for a four-wheel drive vehicle were wimps. That was before the drive to Phuoc Son.

It took most of an hour to leave all traces of Danang City behind. By this time we were driving along the most beautiful river I have ever seen (as a fisherman I have seen quite a few). The peace and quiet felt so good. There is something wonderfully soothing in the combination of green forest and rushing water. The road was a kind of cobblestone and people were actually laying it as we went. I had never seen anything like the miles and miles of this cobblestone road we traveled over. We reached a point where normally we would have taken the high water bridge, but it was under construction, so we used a low-water bridge instead. Our driver was familiar with the route so it didn't take long to reach the alternate bridge. Across the river the scenery was even more spectacular. We were driving along a steep valley with the river rushing hundreds of feet below. As we progressed upriver, the road climbed and the valley became steeper and steeper. In places the road was actually falling away into the river and at this point, the road was turning to mud and ruts. We were scraping the underside of the vehicle and I was especially grateful at this point to be in a four-wheel drive!

On the far side of the river where they hadn't logged yet, were some of the biggest trees I have seen in Vietnam. Many of them were in full bloom with a profusion of yellow and white flowers--so many that the trees seemed to be solid flowers. (Later we received a gift of wild honey that the bees had collected from some of these trees and an orchid plant to remind me of the exotic flowers of this area.) In the river below were unique rock formations and a lot of white water. The formations that looked like teeth sticking up out of the water were most likely the result of erosion. Still, in the U.S. I have done a lot of canoeing and I have never seen rock formations exactly like these--so sharp and jagged. In other places were giant boulders the size of small houses. By a 70-foot waterfall, we passed another four-wheel drive vehicle that had broken down. Some of the occupants seemed to be Japanese. This was the only other vehicle we saw on our four-hour drive. Unfortunately we couldn't help them because we didn't have any tools or parts with us. We figured someone would come along.

It was hard to believe when we came to the end of the road that there was a town there with a guesthouse, government offices, a school and some shops. We had lunch with the town officials. One of them mentioned that the soup had fish in it. At the mention of fish, I was all ears. I asked if the fish came out of the river and was hoping the answer would be yes as I had dreams of coming back to kayak and fish. He said yes. I asked him if he fished and he replied yes with a big smile. I asked him how big the fish in the river were and he held his hands out over a meter apart. (Fishermen are notoriously spatially challenged). He said the fish in the river have very big teeth (those are usually the best to eat). I knew I would be back. Our country director, Bob Huff, asked, "How did they ever get all this stuff in here?" We never got an answer. Perhaps the road in from the other side of the town is better. We didn't know. In any event, we did know that the other road would be a lot longer for us and with business to do, we couldn't be particularly adventurous, so after our pleasant time with the officials and the very nice meal, we went back out the same way we had come. Most visitors stay over at least one night in the guesthouse, but we still had a lot to do. Our driver said this was the first time he had ever gone in and out the same day.

This mountainous area is home to several minorities--one of them the Ktu. A German company has just recently started mining gold here but we saw no one panning for it on the way in or out. We did see people on the river along the way out. They had on blue clothing similar to the Blue Hmong. They were canoeing down a flatter stretch of the river in a woven canoe about fourteen feet long. On the way out we stopped for a break at the waterfall which dropped down off the cliff above and went under the road. The vehicle we passed on the way in was still broken down near the waterfall. No one had come along to give them a hand. We did see two logging trucks on a side road back in the woods. The trees they had cut were about four feet in diameter at the stump. If it weren't for the steepness of the bank on the other side, it would probably be logged as well. I hope they never get over there.

On the way in I had sat on the left of the vehicle and the left-hand side of my head had taken a beating. On the way out I sat on the right and the right side of my head was beginning to match the left, so after our break at the waterfall, I decided to walk and jog for a while. I made just as good time as the vehicle. There was a footpath along the side of the road that was in better shape than the road. When I finally tired of walking and jogging, I had to wait for the vehicle to catch up. It wasn't that I was so fast (those days are long gone); the vehicle was just going very, very slowly, negotiating the ruts and boulders. A little further along I saw a blur of color go across the road in front of us. I said "what was that!!!?" I thought I was the only one who had seen it (the driver seemed to be asleep), but one of our staff members [Dr. Tue] said he had seen it too. I was glad of that--I thought perhaps I had bumped my head one time too many. Then we saw two more of these colorful things. They hesitated long enough before going into the woods so we were able to get a better look. They were rooster-like birds but prettier than any show pheasant or bird of any kind I had seen before. The colors--red, yellow, gold, white and blue (almost indigo)--were almost fluorescent like the colors of a tropical fish. They were the brightest colors I had ever seen on anything moving that fast. By the time we reached the low-water bridge, it was late in the day. The sun was low and there were five or six children swimming in the river. They seemed to be having such fun in their magnificent environment--diving off the rocks and swimming in the pools. The people seemed so much at peace; I wondered why anyone would ever want to leave for the city.

The beauty of the river and the valley could not be captured on film or in words. I was sorry to leave it behind so soon. I look forward to going back and finding our host official in the hope he will take me fishing. I'd like to spend a week or two canoeing or kayaking the river and trying to find fish with big teeth over a meter long.