Into the Wild – Camping at Bu Gia Map National Park

My phone is ringing, “hey Khoi, wanna backpacking to Bu Gia Map National Park?” – a friend asked.
“Yes” – I answered.
And that was how my first trip of 2016 started after I thoughtlessly answer my friend’s question. I just thought it would be exciting, and my wanderlust spirit said it would be exciting. A few days later, my friend gave me an exciting plan of 10 people trekking through a jungle, camping beside a stream, having dinner with ‘bamboo rice’ and boar meat, and sleeping under the stars. “Having been going through bad days since the beginning of the year, this trip would start my better days”, I hoped.

Bu Gia Map National Park

The park belongs to Binh Phuoc province, located right on the border of Vietnam and Cambodia. With an area of 26,032ha, Bu Gia Map National Park is the home of 724 plant species including 278 medicinal-valued kinds and various species of mammals and birds.

Before the Journey

You have to contact the managers of Bu Gia Map National Park (no.’s here: +84 651 372 4235 or +84 989 218 912). They will assign a tour guide to lead your group to the camping destination. Without the tour guide, the jungle rangers and border guards won’t allow you to access the jungle.

Things needed to prepare for the trip:

• If you go by motorbike, notice fuel for a long run.
• Bring a mask, there is much sand and dust on the way you go, especially at the entrance of the jungle.
• A good travel backpack, because you will need to carry many important pieces of stuff for this trekking and camping right in the middle of a big forest.
• There is a long way in the jungle with many slippery stones, so a suitable pair of shoes would be ideal to support you. The boots are great!
• Foods for breakfast, the tour guide, and his assistant will prepare your dinner if you registered.
• Energy drink for trekking, alongside water you can order from the tour guide.
• Tent if you don’t want to hire from the jungle managers.
• Cooking tools: A pot, the tour guide may cook for you a special soup made from plants in the jungle.  Chopsticks, folks if you don’t want to use your hands picking foods.

A Long Long Way to the Spot

Bu Gia Map National Park is about 240km away from Ho Chi Minh City. Hence, it will be ideal if you can go early in the morning, the weather is better for a long way. Our team started at 6 am and tried to meet the tour guide at 1 pm. Unfortunately, we lost about 50km so it was late when we arrived, and were more tired. “Can you image a bad road with red dirt and a lot of potholes?”, it was how I found the wrong road.

At Binh Phuoc province, on the way to Bu Gia Map town. Rubber trees alongside the road

Rubber trees, the typical tree that can be found a lot at Binh Phuoc.

My experience from the lost:
– Must remember preliminary the route before the trip.
– Maps on smartphones are quite trustworthy.
– Ask frequently and differently the locals on the way as they may guide you in different directions.

Here is the route that you can go to Bu Gia Map National Park from Ho Chi Minh City by motorbike, or car:

From Ho Chi Minh City, you can follow highway 13 to Binh Duong City. At the So Sao intersection near Dai Nam, turn right to Phu Giao. Heading forward to a roundabout, then turn left to the way with a sign leading to Binh Phuoc. Going straight to Phuoc Long town, you can ask the locals for the way to Bu Gia Map town or Dak O. Then, you will go 25km from Dak O to the central Bu Gia Map.

Sleeping Under The Stars and Waking Up in The Heaven!

From Bu Gia Map Town’s welcome gate to the entrance of the jungle, the road is under construction so the main vehicle that can be used here is a motorbike. You can contact the tour guide to hire one.

The red dirt road at the entrance of the national park, it was about 1:50 p.m.

The red dirt road at the entrance of the national park

2 hours of trekking in the jungle is really exciting to me. Although I have gone 290km by motorbike from Ho Chi Minh City to Bu Gia Map National Park, the tiredness can’t prevent me from the interest in camping beside the stream, sleeping under the stars, and waking up in a straight forest.

The gate made by bamboo trees

We are trekking to the camping spot

A stream appear on the way to the point. I have thought it was the camping spot but no :(( It was still about 1 hour to go =.=

A ranger station inside the jungle, the second time I thought that we would stay here.

The rangers grow vegetable themselves to support their daily meal

Grilled fishes, delicious!!!

Just come to the camping spot and we are preparing a fire camp

Here is the result

Guys are pitching

The tour guides are preparing the meal. That night we had grilled boar meat and rice cooked in the bamboo

Night in the jungle comes very soon. At 8 pm, without the light from my phone, I can’t see anything but the fire camp. That makes my first time spending a night inside a forest more special. I found a place to lie down, looked at the sky filled with a lot of stars while listening to the song of the stream, then opened an e-book to read till my eyes got tired, and fell asleep.

The next morning was amazing. The jungle appeared like heaven. To elaborate, green trees, the sound of the stream, fresh air, and all the simple but very hard things that couldn’t find in the city, were surrounding me. It’s hard to describe the appearance of the forest that morning, so I will let the pictures do:

First seen of that day, heaven in my eyes

This is how we camping

The stream in the morning, and one of my team member is brushing his teeth

The tour guide is boiling the water taken from the stream to prepare our breakfast

Boiled water is used for instant noodle

And here’s the breakfast. We need the energy to trek out of the jungle. It is more tiring than the way in.

The team is ready for the way out

Slippery stones on the stream. And the best way is just to get in the stream 😀

The view from the other side of our camping spot

Meet the team ^^

The Secret Waterfall

As the team hit the camping point late the day before, and we need to get out of the jungle in the early morning, no one take bath in the stream. Instead of that, the tour guide took us to a secret waterfall after 2 hours quite tired getting out of the jungle. Fortunately, it seemed that our decision not taking bath in the stream was right. Although the way to the waterfall is quite bad and sandy, it is ideal to swim in the waterfall after you crossed that very red-sandy road.

The red dirt road to the waterfall

Bad road with many stones and potholes

Our motorbikes after crossing the road

And here are our shoes. Awesome!

The Secret Waterfall (it’s what I call 😀 I forgot the name)

View from the cave

Other Pictures Taken on The Trip to Bu Gia Map National Park

Panorama view taken in the jungle

A view when we’ve been trekking in the national park

A rubber forest, we met it right at the directions guide board

Thac Mo hydroelectric station that we met on the way to Bu Gia Map

Dak An church near Bu Gia Map town

At Binh Phuoc, on the way to home