Cat Ba 1

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Second day in Halong Bay. I found out that there was a climbing outfitter in town near where we were staying and made plans to jump ship from my tour. I did, however, take the short trek to a hilltop fire tower in the Cat Ba National Park - nice valley views. After lunch with my tour group I parted with my new friends and got to know the next group coming to my hotel for the night.

I'm realizing I haven't been talking much about the people I've been hanging out with, so I'll try to add a coupla photos here and there from now on. I roomed with a kid named Conor, from Belfast, who was traveling for a few weeks in the middle of a 6 month volunteer gig in Borneo. Nice guy - and quite the haircut.

Anyways, there was a pretty diverse gang in the next group, people from Holland, Chile, Australia, France, Ireland, UK, and even one from the States, which is pretty rare, maybe 1 in 20 travelers I meet.

There was a cool bar around the corner from our hotel, and pretty much everybody went there after dinner. The music here is generally pretty terrible. It's like every establishment that caters to westerners has a single, atrocious soundtrack. But it was a hot night, and the beer was cheap and cold, so it mattered little. End day 2 on Cat Ba island (still no power).

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