Friday was my last working day at Save Vietnam’s Wildlife. We started as we’d done for the rest of the week, cleaning out the two quarantine buildings (which we got done in record time), then sat down for a bit of a breather.
Out next task was a fun one – putting hay into the nesting boxes of the Owston’s civets in the breeding enclosures. As they are nocturnal animals, this required us to gently coax the civets out of the box so we could put hay in – and not all of them were willing to go! Some gentle but insistent nudging with a board behind their bums helped, and I hope they found the new bedding comfy. It’s starting to cool down at night now, and so the keepers will be adding blankets and hay to all nest boxes to keep the animals warm while they sleep.
In the afternoon I did some grunt work, moving logs that had been taken from Hoi An’s enclosure and moving them elsewhere to be washed and reused (no need for the gym for a while!). We sat and watched her for a bit, as the new logs and platform were designed to make it a bit easier for her to get around. She’s an old girl, and finds climbing more difficult now than she did previously.
Then possibly my least favourite task to finish off the day – taking all the crickets out of one of the cricket bins, so they could be fed to the civets, and washing the bin. I’m generally not squeamish, but grabbing handfuls of squirming crickets was not pleasant – I did get slightly better at it as time went on, and it was a long job!
I hadn’t planned on doing anything in the evening for my final night, but dinner and card games was suggested, which i happily agreed to! We went just outside the gates to a local restaurant and had some delicious food (inc spring rolls, which were different to the ones I’ve had at home – a long, thinner roll cut into sections and deep fried), and a couple of cans of Vietnamese beer (I’d already tried the one called Beer Saigon, so it seemed right to try the one called Beer Hanoi). The owner’s young daughter toddled around us as we ate, giving out sections of breadsticks and happily babbling away. We were also visited by an adorable kitten, who reminded me of my kitten at home by immediately wanting to eat what we were eating.
We played UNO after eating, which I’d not played for years but enjoyed a lot. Some keepers from one of the other centres also turned up for dinner, and one of their group joined us for one last game, before we decided to give up our table and head off to the staff kitchen back in the park. There, I failed to completely grasp the game Cambio (it relies on both memory and bluffing, two things I am absolutely crap at). I said my goodbyes and headed home about 9pm, as I needed to pack.
Off to Hanoi tomorrow, for sightseeing and a fancy hotel. I won’t miss the hard mattresses here, but I will miss everyone I met – they have been nothing but friendly, welcoming and happy to teach me how to care for the animals they rescue. I want to come back to Vietnam at some point, and if I do, I’ll be dropping in to see how everyone is doing. Farewell SVW – I’ve had the best time ❤️
Pestering pangolins 
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