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Our next stop was Cat Ba Island. We’d been dropped off in the wrong part of Halong City to catch the ferry to Cat Ba, and after our bus ride we couldn’t be bothered negotiating our way to the ferry terminal, so hopped on a tourist boat. The first stop on the tour was a stalagmite/stalactite cave – the size of the cave was pretty amazing, although the pink and blue soft lightening was a bit odd.
As we sailed to Cat Ba we passed floating villages. Agriculture on the islands of Halong Bay isn’t so good, but the fish are plentiful, so people have constructed entire villages on the water.
When we finally arrived on Cat Ba there was a mini bus waiting to take us to the town – I think we managed to jam 17 people (including luggage) into the 12 seater!!
I think this is where my cold was starting, so we had an easy dinner and an early night.
Next morning we were up bright and early and wondered over to the beach.
Like most of Vietnam there was money to develop the infrastructure but no on going funding for maintenance.
We wondered around a cliff side walkway to a secluded beach and had our earliest beer of the holiday – clocked in at 8am. A bloke rocked up and gave Reid a full body massage for about 45 mins –I think it only cost $6!!
Later in the day we jumped on a tour to Monkey Island. It was a bit strange – we were dumped on an island with a small strip of beach and told not to wonder too far cos the monkey’s have rabies. We had a go in a kayak – the whole time Reid was freaking out about falling out – turns out his fears were unfounded, the water was only about knee deep in most places. I attempted to swim, but after wading out 50m eventually settled for floating.
We were treated to a pretty amazing sunset from Monkey Island
That night we had one of the worst meals of our trip. I was trying to be adventurous and ordered crab and I got exactly that – a big crab on a plate
By now we’d already had a fair selection of spring roles, and they were generally pretty greasy so I attempted to order rice paper roles – we just got uncooked spring roles. I think Reid had beef – I can’t remember it so it can’t have been that bad??
Later we caught up with Chris and Jo again at the Flightless Bird bar (run by a Kiwi bloke) where Reid and Chris were offered $10 boom boom from the girls at the massage parlour down the road.
The next day was our last on Cat Ba – we rented scooters in the morning and rode around the island. I never really mastered the bike but Reid loved it!!
Our trip back to Hanoi was much better, although no less half arsed.
We caught a fast ferry to Hai Phong, there weren’t enough seats for everyone so they bought out little plastic stools. I think they would have sold tickets to everyone who wanted to go and only stopped when the ferry actually left the island, otherwise it was ALL aboard. The ferry travelled pretty fast, and the wake behind was pretty big and the waves smashed into the river bank – it must have been causing some much damage.
That night we stayed in Hanoi – this time we found the best part of the Old Quarter – it was so alive. This was one of the best times of our trip, we found a great hotel, we had a cook-your-own street BBQ, which was so tasty, and found 3000 Dong beer (approx 13c).
