DIARY - Wednesday 23rd January 2008 At least this morning it is dry, but flipping cold, I guess around 5 degrees. The landscape is amazing, limestone hills thrust up from the fields hundreds of feet looking like conical hats. The road from Ba Be to Cao Bang is through the national park where there are security guards to make sure the locals don't cut the trees down. They can fish but not hunt, the guard who speaks good English tells me they have a lot of trouble with poachers and it has been known for the guards to be shot. The government say the guards can't shoot back though, but he intimates that what the government don't see the government don't know about.
Cao Bang itself is literally a shit hole of a place if I can be so literal. I know it is the end of winter and spring hasn't arrived yet, but everything is filthy and run down. The home stay has a monkey tied up by a chain outside the building. It was left by a Frenchman some months ago who had kept it as a pet and didn't want it anymore. I was really upset, it's life was hell, it was physco and lunged at me as I passed. There was a young dog, mangy and sick, that, as soon as the monkey did a poo, ate it up quickly. It set the seal on the home stay for me. I really didn't like it. Although the young couple were friendly it was a poor place. The heating consisted of a round enamel dish with a few embers of charcoal in, on the concrete floor. There was a cat snuggled up to the side of the dish, the mangy dog wanted in and the monkey howled. But these people have to live in conditions like this all year round, I am just passing through. It is so cold and I sleep in my clothes for the third night in a row.