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In an attempt to get off the main tourist trail, we decided to make our own way to the coast and stay on Cat Ba island rather than in Halong Bay on a boat. Alex, Bea, James and I had booked the train to Hai Phong where we would then head to the pier to pick up a boat - details were a little sketchy though as we couldn't really find any decent information from our own online searching. Ronny and Breno, after sorting out some bits in Hanoi, were getting a bus/boat package and were going to meet us there. The train was a slow train, so slow in fact that often the traffic on the next road was overtaking us! But it was nice and comfortable, we even had wifi. From the train station we walked the couple of kms to the nearest pier, just missing the hydrofoil to the island (we think), so we booked a bus-boat-bus combo ticket (bus to another pier outside of town, speed boat to the island then a bus to Cat Ba town)…bit of a faff, but needs must. It just so happened that we'd booked on the same package that the Aussies had…we could have had an extra half an hour in bed!
Other than the buses on the Island being a bit smaller than the group size, the whole thing worked pretty well and only took a couple of hours. Sometimes trying to work out what we do in a group of 2 is hard enough, so now with 6 people trying to work out what to do and where to stay bordered on being a little bit stressful. Also, I hadn't marked out any of the hostels I'd looked at on the map, so was trying to recall from memory what road they were on! We ended up getting a great place though, our cheapest room in a while. Now that a bed was sorted, it was just time for a late lunch and Frisbee down the beach. It was just a shame that the beaches closed at 6pm…there was always tomorrow. As everyone else had a bit of time limit, we booked a tour of Halong Bay for the next day - a whole day on the boat including lunch for $16, not bad.
I think this was literally the first 'organised tour' that James and I have done on this trip, and it was great fun. It was actually a little bit cold in the morning, and very foggy…although it cleared up a little bit in the middle of the day, the sun didn't think to show its face apart from a few short minutes. Probably a good thing though as it meant that we weren't roasted on the deck of the boat for 9 hours. There were a few stops offs for kayaking and swimming and a visit to a little fish farm with a huge Grouper kept in the water under the floor boards - I think he was just an attraction…although he stuck in my mind as we were kayaking later…hope he didn't have any cousins not in the farm!
The lunch they provided surpassed our expectations, all freshly cooked, including fresh clams from the fish farm and loads of it, the only thing they didn't provide was drinks - just as well we took our own rum. As the sun wasn't out, the water felt very very cold (and it wasn't the cleanest either), so swimming time was somewhat limited, but I did challenge my fear of deep/open water swimming when I chose to swim the 200 or so metres back to the boat…fuelled somewhat with rum and adrenaline and some support on either side, I made it without freaking out too much, so a step in the right direction. Awesome day.
Slowly the group was breaking up though with pairs having to keep to various commitments. Alex and Bea were the first to leave as they were heading south to meet friends. We bade them farewell from the port and headed up the hill to the highest point on the island, Cannon Fort. It was pretty cloudy again, but it was a good walk and the views were nice. In an effort to tempt the sun out, we headed to the beach for some Frisbee…but I think if anything, it made the sun gods even more stubborn. It was almost like going to the beach in the UK - bloody cold! Ronny and Breno left the day after and we were back to just 2 again. We had planned on going up to the hospital cave (an old hospital from the war, like a big underground lair), but we were quite lazy and when we thought about renting bikes, it was quite late in the day. We got a few things sorted though and booked our transport back to Hanoi for the next day…when typically the sun was shining!
From what we saw of Cat Ba, it was pretty geared up for tourists, so I can't imagine what Halong Bay/city are like given that this is where most of the tourists head to first. With a couple of beaches in walking distance to the town as well, it was a nice place to just spend a few days chilling out. If the sun had been out, we might have been tempted to stay longer! But it was back to Hanoi for a few days of exploring before we began the slow journey south.
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