Cat Baaaaaa

We hatched a plan to head to Halong Bay for a while and realax..we had already spent more than most in Hanoi and knew we had to make a move or we were in danger of never leaving. We booked a taxi to take us to the bus station and from Hanoi we would go to Haiphong spend a night there and get the Hydrofoil to Cat Ba Island the next morning. I know, I know it just sounds like more than its worth eh?

We got to Haiphong and got up the next morning full of beans ready for our Halong Bay adventure. We got the hotel to book us a taxi to the Hydrofoil which was supposed to be 10 minutes away so we were laughing. Fast forward 20 minutes and we are still in the bloody taxi on a dirt road in the back arse of nowhere. I started to throw a wobbler on the taxi driver and I was just full sure the bloke was bringing us out to the country to take our moola and leave us there. We were really panicking cause we were on a dirt road heading in the opposite direction from the pier on the map. No matter how many times we asked him to stop he just kept say “Cat Ba” and flapping his arms around like a drowning dog. I was on the verge of tears(really need to learn how to keep my cool in future) and Gary was on the verge of stabbing him. After we just resigned ourselves to the fact that we were about to be mugged he pulled up to a pier with a rusty bucket of a boat and charged us 5 times the price for the pleasure. What could we do - we asked him to bring us to the ferry to Cat Ba- he done what we asked but brought us to one, that no doubt he got a backhander for, and 5 times the taxi fare for…we were two pissed off whities surrounded by Vietnamese so we just handed over the money and waited for the boat to leave. It was like being a real wartime Vietnam- there was nothing but a makeshift windbreaker and shitty dirty restaurant but these Vietnamese just pulled up out of nowhere to have food and headed back off on their bikes again to God knows where. We decided to put it down to experience and promised ourselves that in future before getting into a taxi we would agree a faire as we had done in China- that way they don’t rip you off and you pay a price that you are happy with to get to your destination so lesson learned.

A boat ride and a bus ride later we landed on the main street in Cat Ba with no accommodation booked and booked into a budget hotel- the room was huge with a gorgeous view from a huge window but man was it dirty. We didn’t realize how much till after we booked in so just decided to stay there for 2 nights cause it was cheap and treat ourselves to a nice hotel for the rest of the week. On the second night in the crappy room we discovered we had been sharing the room with a bloody Gekko lizard-they are small enough and pretty harmless but I was starting to feel we would be better off sleeping outside on the street -it was just a bit too smelly for me. I mean we had traveled in Oz for 5 weeks in a camper van and not once did we get a creepy crawlie…I fell asleep and woke up in the same position cause I was so afraid of the gecko coming over and trying to have his way with me in the middle of the night. That was enough for me- Gary was so sick of listening to me winging that he got up the next morning to get a nicer hotel so we moved down the street to a lovely CLEAN hotel…ahh I love clean places so much. The next 6 days were really taken up with getting up ridiculously late and having breakfast and dinner in a restaurant called The Green Mango. There were other places on the island but you know what we were so sick of trying to be big intrepid explorers by eating the food made by the yokles that we were just suiting ourselves for now and eating in a nice western restaurant with western tablecloths a deadly menu and lovely atmosphere. To be honest though it was getting a bit embarrassing. Cat Ba isn’t normally the kind of place that people stay as long as we did so not only were most people starting to call us by our first names but the lads in the restaurant were practically bringing the food out for us before we ordered.

I got a bit sick during the week aswell but it was good to have the excuse not to so anything during the day but stay in bed and read books.

Once we had tried everything on the menu in The Green Mango, had drinks on the pier and watched the sunset over the bay from a rooftop bar we decided it was probably about time to get down to the business of booking an overnighter to Halong Bay. Its apparently meant to be the highlight of a trip to Vietnam for most so we couldn’t wait to see what all the fuss was about.

We had read loads of horror stories about boat trips that people that people had gone on so we weighed up some options either a big boat with people on it where we could meet some and have a craic but run the risk of rats and a poor standard boat PLUS we could be stuck on it with a Chinese tour group or something or a small boat for 4 people with the only downside being if the other two people were asshoels it could make for an awkward two days trying to ignore another two people on a 4 man boat in Halong Bay.

We decided to take a chance and go for the 4 man boat. The other couple were two Kiwis who had just come from a year working in Ireland- they were really nice people and we all seemed to be on the same buzz and hit it off straight away. The boat trip was a mix of really bad and really good though. Firstly it absolutely pissed out on the first day on the boat and we were meant to go kayaking. The crew cooked up lunch and proceeded to get twisted on Vodka before falling asleep (I kid you not) and leaving us to our own devices. Once the rain stopped though we all headed out and done some kayaking around the limestone karsts and it started to lightly rain but it was really deadly….I mean when would you ever think that you would be kayaing in Halong Bay in the rain of a Sunday?? Then it was back on the boat drive around a bit and onto another boat. It was getting pretty late and we were all getting a bit itchy footed cause we were docked by this guys abode on the water and we wanted to be out on the sea for the night. It turned out that the toilet was broken and the crew on the new boat (which consisted of a dwarf who was the Vietnamese equivalent to Tatu form Fantasy Island and another guy who seemed to be a bit mentally challenged) spent an hour trying to fix it. We were all getting pretty pissed off at this stage. So we started to ask them what the plan was for the night. They made us dinner which was pretty good but they didn’t seem to be going anywhere after we had finished. Then we had to have a confrontation with them cause we all felt we had been pretty ripped off after the carry on on the other boat during the day.

Eventually they got the boat running and we moved further into the bay to set up for the night. It was absolutely amazing lads I kid you not. It started thundering and lightening but there was no rain….so here the 4 of us where drinking beer on the roof of the boat in the middle of Halong Bay watching lightening light up the whole area. It made up for the shitiness of the day by miles and I would gladly have had the bit of agro again if I could be guaranteed the lightening again.

The next day the weather was gorgeous and it made some difference to the scenery. We went to some random caves and kayaking again and made for home at 5. It turned out that Jess and Craig were staying in our hotel and were also planning on heading back to Hanoi so we hung out on Cat Ba for another 2 nights (we even brought them to the Green Mango and they were just as obsessed as we were) generally sleeping all day and drinking all night.

Had to make the journey back to Hanoi and then fly to Danag so we could make our way to Hoi An which we were hoping would be the highlight of the trip so we couldn’t wait to go. The 4 us had one last night in Hanoi and then we headed to the airport said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways…..

---

---