4th June - Halong Bay to Cat Ba

Woke on top deck to the same apparently unnecessary shouting and calling from the nearby boats that had shocked us awake for the last few very early mornings.

After a skimpy breakfast, we sailed the short distance to Cat Ba island for a nice 'hike in the national park' - otherwise known as a very steep walk up slippery, lethal rocks without any supervision and under strict time restraints. It was particularly tough after last nights shennanigans and was very hot and hard but there were lovely views of the national park from the top. It was very green and a bit misty though so we couldn't get any decent photos.

After a sweaty wait at the bus stop and a hair-raising bus journey where the buses only seemed to overtake on blind mountain bends, we were looking forward to checking in at the hotel and having a shower. No such luck as the schedule dictated we eat lunch in our dripping, dirty clothes before being shown our rooms. At least the food was marginally better that on the boat.


After a long-awaited and very lovely shower we got to go and explore Cat Ba island town. We wandered past the many karaoke bars nearby and made our way to the sea. It was a natural harbour so it was perfectly calm and wavefree and just full of boats. We took a walk around the tourist and proper market then went to take a look at the fishing bay.

We stopped to watch a truck loading a full trailer of ice onto boat, block by block and via kind of toboggan run. Further on we saw the actual ice factory and observed them set up an even longer version atched them set up longer version which ran from a hatch in the factory wall, over the road and directly onto a little boat that seemed to be a floating ice-crusher. We were totally tickled by watching this and wished that we had a camera with us.

We stopped for a Bia Hoi overlooking the harbour, watching a nearby group of boys playing football and having to use a boat to fish their ball out of the sea. We chatted and caught up some more before doing some further wandering. Another stop for Caphe Sua Da (a coffee which brews in a little tin contraption sitting over the cup and is sweetened with condensed milk), looking at floating seafood restaurants, fending off their reps and laughing at the kids scooting around the nearby square in electric cars.

We wandered until dark. It was very pretty and we enjoyed watching the hills get swallowed up by the night and the bright lights come on. We couldn't exactly remember what time we had to be back for dinner so headed to the hotel so we weren't late.

It turned out that we were late. Matt's watch had stopped and so we were served dinner by a very disgruntled owner and were clearly the envy of the next table who'd had to share the same amount of food between fewer people. We chatted to a guy who was teaching in China and on a Visa run and then headed back out to make the most of our stay.

With the aid of the red lights that now illuminated the line of provocatively dressed attractive young ladies sat outside, we deduced that karaoke was not as popular as we'd initially assumed. No-one seemed to take much notice and the most attention seemed to come from the canny young stall holdwers who'd set up shop with a prime view!

Down at the harbour it was really busy with Vietnamese families milling about and making the most of the children's activities including pottery painting (they looked like garden gnomes), more electric cars and hook-a-fish from paddling pools. The harbour was lit by the tacky coloured lights they seem so fond of and the big fountain was gushing and glittering.

We took in the sights for a while, including a massive jellyfish in the water, and played a very short game of frisbee with a hat that we found. It skimmed into one of the beautifully tended patches of greenery and was retrieved by a lady who appeared delighted that we let her keep it. Given the openess of their nit-picking, we had no intention of keeping it ourselves but she skipped alomg happily with it on her head.