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Published: September 14th 2010
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Cat Ba Island
Deciding to go it alone is not as easy as we'd first hoped! We tried in vain to get on a local ferry to our chosen island, but instead had to go with another tour boat!.This turned out in our favour as we were able to spend yet more time on a sundeck watching the bigger, more dramatic limestone peaks pass us by. Another perk was a visit to another, different yet equally majestic cave, seems this bay is riddled! Check the pics..........
At last we reached the island and bundled aboard a local minivan for the superb hour long drive to the south of the island (only one large town and a few villages).The scenery was amazing, jungle interspersed with rice paddys, tapioca bananas, and plenty of chickens dogs and pigs for entertainment. The hills were something straight out of Jurassic park.
We were dropped off on the outskirts of the town, and in true backpacker style marched past all the hotels searching out some cheap, rustic beach huts that surely had to be there!
A very sweaty hour and two steep hills later we did indeed find a beautiful beach, BUT the one hut
on offer was little more than a shed with a damp mattress, and they wanted $20 for the privilege!! We about faced, and marched back the way we'd come and with the light fading and our legs ready to give way we found a great room, spotlessly clean with A/C, tv, hot shower etc for $12...very pleased with ourselves we had an early dinner and collapsed. Fascinated by the horseshoe crabs available at every restaurant.
The next morning we handed over our large laundry bag ( normally we hand wash in buckets, but they had a machine, and our clothes really were quite tatty) for the hotel to wash, and went off to search out the local hangouts and find out what we could do. The town itself was more of cluster of hotels and restaurants with everything aimed solely at tourists..there was barely a local in sight. We came across a friendly cafe that was also a base for arranging rock climbing and canoeing...more like it we thought. However everything on the island seemed to be arranged purely by tour agencies and at a price quoted in dollars!!
With no local fishermen to hang out with, and canoes
at $40 a day, we bought a cheap bottle of local plonk and walked up to the (free) monument overlooking the harbour to watch the sunset, we shared the experience with more than a handful of bats!!.Our walk back home was a success. We stumbled across a street-side eatery, where the owner pronounced himself to be the menu, so we ordered some local nosh, and sampled some very potent homemade rice 'whiskey' a great end to the day.
You guessed it, we decided to head off the next morning. This time we did find the local bus- ferry - bus route all the way to Hanoi, and for the most part were the only white peeps around!......
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