Day 33: Halong Bay & Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

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Saturday, Feb 28th

Talita woke with a bit of a sore throat. After breakfast we checked out of our cabin, said goodbye to our fellow passengers (they were going back to Hanoi) and got on a smaller boat to Cat Ba island an hour away. Cat Ba island is the biggest and only inhabited island in Halong bay.

We hiked about 3km to a local village where we had lunch. We returned to the boat to go to another part of Cat Ba island for kayaking and then on to Cat Ba town where we would spend the night. However, our boat wouldn't start and we had to wait an hour for another boat to bring us a new battery. Off we went again!

Half an hour later we arrived in an area where we kayaked in the bay, just us two. It was great to paddle between the islands and into secluded bays. We returned to the boat and after another half hour we arrived at Cat Ba harbour. 20,000 people live here in town and on the water in floating houses. We checked into our hotel then went to the roof to drink some Vietnamese tea and enjoy the view of the harbour.

After dinner we enjoyed a movie in our room. It was awesome to just lie on the bed and veg.

Today's highlights:
1. Walking on Cat Ba island.
2. Kayaking on the quiet bay.
3. Enjoying Vietnamese tea and looking over the hundreds of boats in the bay.

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Photos

Rice paddies
Cat Ba Island

Vietnamese green tea
Cat Ba Island

Local water pipe
Cat Ba Island

Strange fruit (and Long)
Cat Ba Island

Sjoe! Rustig baby!
Talita almost tipped the kayak trying to take this picture!

Comments

[Janine]

awesome!!
Sounds like you guys are having an adventure of a life time!! And thanks so much for the updates, almost feels we are there with you - he he.