Nui Chua National Park

Low scrub, sun and wind, bare stone. This is a land that people often call the driest in Vietnam.

A few steps toward the sea, the picture changes. There is a coral reef with more than 300 species. Sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs every year. Seagrass sways in clear water.

That is Núi Chúa. In 2021, UNESCO recognized it as a world biosphere reserve. A biosphere reserve is a UNESCO-recognized area where nature is protected and the people living there keep working the land.

Núi Chúa National Park was established in 2003. By the founding decision, it covers nearly 30,000 hectares of land and sea. The biosphere reserve is much larger, more than 106,000 hectares, because it also takes in the buffer zone and the communities around the park.

This is not a park to look at from a distance. It is a park to walk into.

The most popular trail runs from Hang Rái to the Stone Park. In the morning, walkers cross the hill at Hang Rái, about 3 kilometers. There, an ancient coral shelf juts out into the sea. When the waves and the tide are right, seawater spills over the stone shelf and falls back. The park's tourism pages call this the "waterfall on the sea". The name is a picture for visitors, not a freshwater waterfall in the forest. Hang Rái also has a rescue station for sea creatures, with material for learning about sea turtle conservation. In the afternoon, the walkers go on to the Stone Park, about 4 more kilometers. It is dry-forest country, with huge boulders lying between the scrub and the sea.

In the Stone Park, the plants are low, tough and small-leaved, with thick stems. They are not sick or weak. They have adapted to dry land and save as much water as they can. The sunny, windy zone of the former Ninh Thuận province is really home to thousands of species that are used to the sun and wind. The park has recorded at least 1,514 plant species and 763 animal species.

A longer trail starts in the village of Đá Hang. It passes Am Dú Lake and crosses several kinds of forest, from dry thorn scrub to closed forest of stiff-leaved trees in a mildly dry tropical climate. It ends at the Five-Tier Waterfall, Thác Năm Tầng. The trail is 5 kilometers each way.

Experienced trekkers can climb to the summit of Núi Chúa, which stands 1,039 meters high. In the morning the distance is 8 kilometers, and in the afternoon it is 14. The climb takes real strength.

What stands out most about Núi Chúa is a living paradox. Dryness and abundance share the same space. Forest and sea lie side by side. Sun and coral. Thorn bush and sea turtle. Few places on Earth set two opposite worlds so close together.

Perhaps that is why sea turtles still return here each season. The sand is empty, the water is clear, and the nights are still. Something very old remains whole here, in the sun and wind of what was Ninh Thuận.