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Vietnam Birding - Dinh Quan

Caught the first flight out of Singapore to Ho Chi Minh and upon arrival, our Guide was there waiting for us. Driving out of the airport was a challenge as traffic was pretty heavy and we stopped by to take-away some local coffee and tea before continuing our journey out of HCM city. Finally after two over hours of driving, we finally made our first stop - at a local restaurant, and it was time for lunch!! It was a local style restaurant with a variety of dishes for us to choose from, and most importantly, it was good.

We had a full lunch and quickly set off to our first shooting site. We unloaded our stuffs and setup our gears along the road, then "chiong" (hurried) to our first Hide to watch our first Vietnamese Bird show. It was quite a fruitful achievement on this very first day of our trip. Our Guide was able to gather the main actors of the show, and we were all happy and satisfied. We spent about three hours there as our Guide told us that we need to check-into our hotel by 5pm. 

The afternoon lighting was not very co-operative when we were doing our photoshoot. And because it was our first hide, the photos yield were not very favourable either. Lots of trial and errors and testing out, and usually skills improved as the trip progresses on. Some of the birds seen were the Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Orange-necked Partridge, Siamese Fireback Pheasant, Bar-bellied Pitta, Blue-rumped Pitta, Hainan Blue Flycatcher, Puff-throated Babbler, Buff-breasted Babbler, Emerald Dove and the Siberian Blue Robin.
After depositing our luggages at the homestay, we set out for dinner. We had both lunch and dinner in the same restaurant and food was great!! Our 1st day ended well - happy, satisfied and fulfilling.

We had only one night at this Homestay, packed our bags and checked out the next morning as we moved on. Managed to try their local Pho at a local eatery for breakfast as most stalls were not opened yet. Then we proceeded on to the next Hide for more bird show. Lighting was better when the sun came up from 9am onwards. It was a great morning of actions. The Asian Barred Owlet flew in but perched at a point which was heavily blocked by the trees. It flew off before I could get a record shot of it. Some of the birds seen were the Bar-bellied and the Blue-rumped Pittas, Orange-headed Thrush, Eyebrowed Thrush, Scaly-crowned Babbler, Ochraceous Bulbul, Orange-necked Partridge, Pin-stripe Tit Babbler and some others which were seen earlier before.
We spent the whole morning in this Hide and even had our lunch here. What a great adventure and experience given to us by our Guide and his team. Time was tight and right after lunch, we got to set off to Dalat which was estimated to be 4hrs+ drive away. 

The Dream Team:

Check out the Pittas we gotten for this trip!!
Next: Dalat

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