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After the night train back to Hanoi from Lao Cai, we got a bus to Halong bay. We'd payed for the bus plus a boat to take us direct to Cat Ba island.... didn't turn out that way! Instead of the direct boat we got put on a tourist boat which we got told would take us round Halong Bay and take about 5 hours until it would drop us of at Cat Ba. Annoying at first because all we wanted to do was to get to cat ba and find some accomodation. Turns out we had a fantastic 5 hours.... wonderful clear skies with the sunshine beaming down on the bay. We visited a cave on one of the islands, it was a cool cave but unfortunately they'd overdone the lighting effects and made it too touristy!! Halong bay is beautiful and we were very lucky we got good weather for it. As the boat headed towards cat ba island to drop us off, we witnessed a lovely sunset over the bay . Once at cat ba island, we caught a bus to cat ba town and found a hotel on the front of the bay. That evening we ate a nice restaurant called Green mango.
Our first day on the island we did abit of exploring, we walked along the coast and found 3 lovely beaches. Our first beaches we had come across since we had set off on our travels. On our second day on the island we hired some mountain bikes and explored the island further. We did a fair work-out... around 50km round trip. We got back to cat ba town and grabbed a snack at noble house. Peter ordered cheesy garlic bread.... it was served as basically a cheese and garlic sandwich! haha
The next day we walked upto a monument on top of the hill overlooking Cat ba town, brilliant views. That afternoon we went on a boat around La Ha bay, which also took us to monkey island. Before getting on the boat a bus picked us up, Lucy got on first and banged her head as she stepped up towards the back steps. Two seconds later, Peter did exactly the same!! haha. We kayaked around monkey island which was fun, the sea was quite choppy at times but we survived. When we got back to the beach we had a beer at the bar and saw a few monkeys.... One even drank a can of beer a guy gave it.... (must check out the photo of this)
That evening we ate a Vietnamese restaurant called Huang Y.... specialises in seafood!! Lucy had squid in garlic with veg and rice, the best meal she had on the island! Peter thought he would try something different to normal.... he went for fried fish with tomato and garlic sauce. Don't think he was expecting it to come like it did. The owner put the plate down infront of Peter, a whole bloody fish.... eyes, head, tail.... all of it!! Peter looked puzzled and Lucy was laughing her head off. The owner showed Peter how best to cut the fish up. Peter made abit of a pigs ear of it to be honest. oooo well at least he tried something different!
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