Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Keen to get out to Ha Long Bay, we decided to steer away from the main tourist route and took a boat out to Cat Ba Island and book a tour from there. Getting to Cat Ba was yet another difficult experience travelling independently. We took a bus to the ferry port (no problems) and literally had to argue with a woman to get a reasonable price for a boat ticket to Cat Ba. Eventually we got on the slow boat, which turned out pretty well as we met a young Vietnamese student who wanted to practise his English, so Chris had a tutroing session with him as his English is so good! I think Chris learnt a few things from him.
Cat Ba was a welcomed break from Hanoi as we checked into a great hotel with amazing harbour views for $6 a night. The place was really relaxed and it was good to chill out here for a few days. We headed to the beach the next day. Cat Ba has 3 beaches, originally named Cat Co 1, Cat Co 2 and Cat Co3. We also went to the hospital cave which was used during the Vietnam war-amzing stuff. It was quite a complex within a large cave-around 500 people used it and it contained a cinema and swimming pool alongside operating rooms.
We booked a day trip out to Ha Long Bay on a pretty old Vietnamese Junk. It was great cruising around with hardly anyone else or other boats. We did some light kayaking from the boat through some caves and sat on deck taking in the spectacular scenary.
From here we headed back to Hanoi to get the bus to Nimh Binh.
- comments