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Cat Ba Island and Hue Vietnam
We arrived on Cat Ba quite late in the evening after the boat trip.We were told the return journey would start at 8am the next day, this wasn't time for us to see the island properly so we decided to stay an extra night. After trawling the streets we found some cheap accomodation for $7 a night so booked up.
We had a lie in the next moring and then set off to hire a scooter to tour the island on. The scooter was $5 for the day! We set off to the beaches. Cat Co 1 was small and had a very posh hotel on the edge of the beach so we moved on. We found Cat Co 2 to be the nicest, it has two coves and at the back of the second cove are little beach huts that you can stay in. As we arrived we saw somw familiar faces in Troy and Christina the Canadian pilots, they were staying in the huts! We had drinks with them on the beach and got frazzeled by the sun (even with factor 30 on!!)
In the late afternoon we took the scooter round the island. It was amazing!! e saw children travelling home from school to tiny villages. And we saw some amazing deserted beaches. Then suddenly out of nowhere we hit a rock in the road, Ads swerved to keep control but the front tire birst!!!! We were a fair distance from the tourist area. Too far to get back on a burst tire. So we remained calm and drove slowley and we came across a small garage which waved us over when they saw the bike! Sooooo lucky they were just round the corner! Across the road a smiley lady offered us water while the tire was fixed. It cost less than £3 to replace! We realised then that the key was no longer in the bike, it must have fallen out when he hit the rock! So we drove back to find the key. From a distance we spotted a large bottle in the road containing some weird liquid. On the top of the bottle someone had tied our bike keys!!!! What a legend!! How lucky were we!!
We met Christina and Troy and their 2 friends for dinner then went to bed. The next morning we caught the boat and bus back to hanoi. We arrived in hanoi around 4pm and ran to the camera shop, they replaced our memory card as it was not compatable with the camera, weird that they put the wrong one in to start with but we were just happy the camera was now working!!! We grabbed some food and a shower at the hotel and caught the sleeper bus at 6.30pm to take us the Hue.
Ads described the jourey to Hue as the worst journey of his life. What they didn't explain to him when buying te ticket is that it is impossible for a 6ft guy to fit into a tiny metal bed on this bus. It wasn't even wide enough for him to curl up. The journey was soooooo rediclulously bumpy. I don't know what the driver was doing but he was all over the road and beeping his horn every 2 seconds for the entire journey. We also ended up in the beds on the back of the bus in the top bunks. To say it was bumpy dosn't do it justice!!!! we where getting some serious air and then crashing back down on the metal edges on the bed. DO NOT CHOOSE THE BACK OF THE BUS IF AT ALL POSSIBLE!!!!! The journey was horrendous and went on for a back renching 15 hours!!!
The train is about 20 dollors more but I would pay it if yyour over 5 ft 7!!!
We arrived at our hotel at 8.30am $8 a night with aircon and wireless, and we slept until 12pm. We got some lunch and rented a bike again. We drove to the Citadel which is the old City which is surrounded by a wall and canal. Within the Citadel is another Citadel which the emporor and his family lived and entertained in. They are gradually restoring this for tourism and it was amazing to see. It must have been so beautiful when it was first built. Definitely worth a visit. The emporor even had his own tennis courts! We then got back on the bike and had a cruise around the city. This is the best way to catch a glimpse of the real city. It started to get a little busy on the roads with thousands of scooters, its crazy, so we decided to head back and get ready for a meal out. We found and amazing restaurant called Le Caramel in the South side they had every kind of food you can imagine and also had an outside grill. We were like greedy little pigs, we ate soooo much and the entire meal cost around £8 for both of us!!!
Today we catch the bus to Hoi An (not a sleeper bus thank god!!!) which is a 4hour journey.
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