We’re in Cat Ba town on Cat Ba Island, the largest island in Halong Bay in the north of Vietnam. We’re here with a small tour group. We’re writing this message from an internet cafe that advertised itself inside our bus as “only an internet cafe and game room on Cat Ba Island.” Funny how word placement makes all the difference.
Yesterday, we had a bus ride from Hanoi to Halong City. The bus was way better than what we’re used to, which was great. Then we boarded a nice boat for a 4-hour cruise out into the bay. The scenery is really spectacular. After a swim off the side of the boat, we went to a very large cave with three chambers. Many of the the rock formations in the bay have caves inside. This one was just huge. They have it subtley lit, so you can actually see stuff. It was great. Then we went back to the boat for dinner and chatting.
We had decent cabins to sleep in, although an Irish couple in our group had a rat in their cabin. We are unaware of any rodent visitors to our cabin. This morning we docked at Cat Ba Island and dropped our stuff at our hotel. Then we went on a smaller boat that took us to a place where we got off and hiked to a village. From there, a subset of us went on a very steep, very muddy climb to the top of the largest mountain in the bay. It was the sort of climb that required you to use your hands in the ground to keep from slipping down. The view from the top was really spectacular, though, which was good because I wouldn’t have been too pleased if it had been mediocre after all that effort.
We’re back in town now and have had a great dinner at our hotel. We’re walking around the town now and a crazy local guy has decided to accompany us everywhere we go. We think he wants us to hire him for tomorrow to be our boat guide, but we’re not sure. He is also very eager for us to go into the New City Disco, but he’s sorely out of luck there! Once we finish here, it’s off to bed. I’m falling asleep in my chair.
Tomorrow will be an easier day with more cruising and swimming and then the bus ride back to Hanoi. Once we get there, we’ll immediately get in a cab to the airport for our flight to Saigon.
That’s all for now.