The past 2 days on Cat Ba in Ha Long Bay has easily been our favourite part of our time in Viet Nam. It is peaceful, beautiful and relaxed. We were a bit dissapointed when we woke up Thursday morning to a cool, misty day and decided not to take the day tour cruising around the bay. Instead, we bundled up with all our rain gear and headed out for a walk. As soon as we were out and moving around, the air didn't seem so cold and the light misty rain didn't seem so wet. We walked along the harbour and found a trail that snaked along the coast and brought us to deserted beaches and showed us great views of the many limestone islands out in the bay. Without a doubt this would have been different during high season, these beaches would have been full of tourists and that trail would've been much busier. We were so pleased to be out there all alone. In addition, the mist and low clouds made the scenery that much more majestic.

That afternoon, we found a trail and hiked up one of the big hills behind the main street with a nice lookout over the city and the bay.

In the evening, we wandered around the main street, looking for a happy hour with a little bit of life. As it was, each restaurant/bar tended to have one or two people in them each and not much else going on. We settled for eating at our hotel and having happy hour there - Mark was pumped to have Tiger Beer at 75 cents for a huge bottle.

This morning after breakfast, we had the owner of our hotel (plus a friend) give us a quick motobike ride over to the next pier a few kilometers away where we rented a double kayak for the day. It was still misty-raining but we figured visibility was as good as it was going to get. Setting out in the harbour, we paddled through extensive canals of a floating fishing village. It was really cool to see this huge network of small floating houses, connected by planks only reachable only by boat. There were tons of dogs running around between the houses, and they loved barking at us as we glided by. We also had a lot of small kids yelling hello to us and waving furiously as we paddled along. Everyone we met in the fishing boats along the water were quick with a smile, a nod, and a wave. It was really cool to watch the interaction between the residents of the village, paddling from one place to another for an afternoon meal or cleaning the fish from the morning catch.

We paddled out among the towering limestone karsts and across the bay to an uninhabited island with a big sandy beach. We beached our kayak and had a stretch and snack on an island all to ourselves. Then, we paddled around to the next big island, which turned out to be Monkey Island. We paddled all the way around the island, checking out the small caves that were carved into the limestone by the tides and looking for any signs of monkeys. We didn't see any from the water. We then decided to beach ourselves again and have another walk about. Almost immediately, a pair of monkeys emerged from the trees and started coming towards us, while 3 or 4 babies were bouncing around in the branches. Realizing we had no food, they quickly became bored of us and moved along. We walked a bit of the path that took us up onto a big hill of the island, but since the mist had moved in thicker, there wasn't much of a view and we didn't stick around. Overall, it was awesome to have the whole bay and the islands to ourselves.

We paddled back across the bay, returned to the harbour and found our way back to Cat Ba town by foot. We briefly walked with a herd of mountain goats along the way, but they weren't too keen to keep up with us. Back in town, we had a late lunch at our hotel. While we were eating, the 8 year old son of the hotel owner, Ming, was playing hacky sack in the middle of the restaurant. Of course, Mark had to join in once we were done eating, and the 2 of them went back and forth while myself and the Grandmother watched and cheered.

Tonight, Mark and I were determined to find a happy hour. We went into one restaurant that had a 3rd floor bar with a nice balcony overlooking the harbour. They had 2 for 1 drinks and free pool so we settled in, but of course, we were the only ones there. We stuck around for a few drinks because the music was acutally really good but only played one game of pool, we were both pretty rusty. Eventually, though, our stomachs won out and we splurged a bit by heading to the Green Mango for dinner. All the meals we've had in Cat Ba, except for there have been underwhelming, but their food was amazing and the staff was so friendly. Worth the extra $4 we probably spent!

In the morning, we head back across the bay and back into Hanoi. We will brave the busy city for one more day before hopping a plane and heading to Laos. Can't wait!