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Cat Ba Island and Halylong Bay Tour
With the weather on the poor side and the temperature in the low teens, activities on Cat Ba where limited to eating drinking and exploring. We made the most of all these activities from day one and managed to see a fair bit of the southern part of the island.
Day one we spent the day on the beaches, of which there are three, creatively named Cat Co 1, 2 & 3. As it was not nice enough to bathe, we settled for a paddle and took in the scenes of mist shrouded rocky island jetting from the water. This is an amazing sight as the islands seem to go on forever, and estimations of the number of island range from 2 - 3,000! With this in mind we knew we wanted to see more of Haylong and decided we would book a boat trip after exploring Cat Ba first.
On the second day, we had planned to rent motor bikes to get around, unfortunately it rained overnight making this a dangerous option so we decided to go on foot. Our first port of call was the Gun Fort built overlooking the town. The fort was used during the second world war and again during the American - Vietnam war as an anti aircraft and anti warship gun placement. As with the rest of the island the place was deserted, giving it an even more chilling and spooky feel.
After the fort we took another chartered mini bus (regular VIP style by now) to the national park. A large part of the island has beed declared a national park since 1986. The park is also the only place where you can find the endangered golden-headed langur, only 65 left making it the rarest primate (we never saw one). With only limited time, a guide took us to a lookout tower on one of the peaks within the park, at 331m the tower offered stunning views of the island and the national park. Getting to the top however, was somewhat problematic as Alice and myself were not kitted out adequately, me donning moleskin chino's and plimpsols. Struggling on, we made it to the top the peak and back down again with our fine clothes and nerves in tatters. The last stop of the day was to the Hospital Cave 10km outside of Cat Ba town, this was a secret hospital and hideout for the Vietcong during the 60s/70's war with america and again during Vietnams 17 day war with China in 79. The hospital is made up of 17 rooms including a swimming pool and cinema and housed up to 200 men and women for up to 8 years at a time! Ho Chi Min took time away from the war with America to personally visit the hospital and stay for a week. Ben and I were even allowed to see where he slept, the girls beng left behind in a cleaver ploy by the tour gide to scare them from a secret entrance.
On the Third day we went on a boat tour of Haylong Bay. We had arranged, off-hand, with the tour operator that he would make some provision for us to be dropped off earlier than normal so that we could catch the last boat back to the mainland. As is customary in south east asia, we had no expectation that this would ever actually happen as the arrangments were vague at best. Contemplating the prospect of another night on the wonderful but freezing Cat Ba we boarded the boat and set off on our tour.
The boat tour took us accross the southern tip of Cat Ba and into the mass of islands that makes up Haylong Bay, As we weaved in and out of the outcrops we saw some stunning sights and took pleanty of photo's before huddeling below deck in the warm. The trip included Kayaking, needless to say the cold was a sound reason for us to opt out and Alice was spared (this time). After a cave visit we turned bout and headed back for Cat Ba.
After an hour of sailing, our tour operator came up trumps, Ben, Dani, Alice and mýelf where rounded up and pointed in the direction òf an aproaching speed boat (not very fast speed boat mind you). In true Bond style, we made a transfer while still underway and departed our previous vestle at no great speed heading for the shore. Once docked at the shore, our faithful tour opperator was waiting with a fleet of motorbike Taxis to whisk ús to our next adventure.....
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