Cat Ba Island Jan.26-27/08

---

Jan.26-27/08 Cat Ba Island (no riding)

Took a 4hr. tour/ferry to Cat Ba island which was awesome cruising through the karsts with stops to visit a really cool cave and a floating fishing village. Met some really nice other tourists on the boat(strange seeing other tourists all over the place after not really seeing any since Hong Kong!)-- some grad students from the UK who were teaching in China and were on a break and Eveana and Julie from Oz who had been in Thailand and were not digging the cold dreary weather here too much-lol! Mr. Son from the hotel who'd arranged the tour told us that we'd be arriving close to Cat Ba town on the island ("a short bike ride") but in reality it was a 2hr. hilly 30km ride away and we arrived at 4:30p.m meaning we'd have at least an hr. of night riding! Note: there's a bit of a scam going on....anyone who doesn't pre-arrange transportation from the harbour through their tour operator(and stay at their hotel in Cat Ba) is left at the mercy of the moped and mini-van guys that are their who charge exorbidant prices to get to town. It was ridiculous-there was a Dutch guy, Eveana & Julie and us who were there. Plus, before we could start riding we had to replace the clips on the back of one of G's panniers that Mr.Son had broken when trying to take them off her bike even though she had asked him not to-luckily we brought along a spare although we don't love the idea of having had to use it so soon into the trip! The negotiations began and none of the tour bus guys who were there would let any of us on their buses(even for a fee) for fear of reprisals from the independent drivers there who were threatening them! Apparently the harbour is controlled by one family from a nearby village. They said that they could take us in a minivan to town for 500,000. They had dug in their heels and weren't budging so we figured we might as well suck it up and pay them until Eveana had an idea and realized that she had a cell phone on her and decided to call the hotel that they'd pre-booked and see if they'd pick us up. They said that they could for 250,000. They arrived about an hour later and then things really began to heat up! The harbour boys were pissed and weren't going to let us leave so we ended up having to pay them off-in the end it cost us about 400,000 so we saved a little. Just sort of a bummer that they're taking advatag e of people-our hotel guy says it happens every day and the cops do nothing as they're in on it. Advice: make sure you pre-book everything in Bai Chay before leaving or if you're biking try to arrive early enough to pedal during daylight! Anyway, the next day I went riding around the island with Dirk-a cool American guy who was on a break from teaching Outward Bound outdoor classes in Hong Kong and was here looking for some rock climbing opportunities and G walked around to the beaches etc and took pics. It's a cool little island with a very chill atmosphere-nice place to kick back for a few days, go hiking or charter a boat to tour the karsts or go fishing. We were happy to walk around(cool little market), chillax a bit and sample the AMAZING food at Hoang Y restaurant! The LP guide writeup doesn't do this place justice-the guy is a genius in the kitchen! I had just commented to Eveana and Julie(who left that next a.m for warmer climes back in Thailand with a bit of a sour taste from the harbour incident and I think some similar type stuff in Hanoi unfortunately) that the food so far in Vietnam had been ok(I always find some little street snack faves like the sickly sweet deep fried doughnut balls with corn in the middle-mmm!) but that I hadn't had a "wow" moment yet. That all changed with this place-we both agree that the trip to Cat Ba was worth it for this place alone! We'd need a week just to properly explore the menu and if you're not veggie like us there'd be loads of other options-I actually did decide to try a seafood dish-super fresh grilled shrimp in a thick sauce of carmelized onion lemon and garlic-wicked(happy Vish?!!)!!! Both nights we had a few drinks at the flightless bird pub-owned by a kiwi as evidenced by the decor(all blacks posters and all kinds of other kiwi stuff all over) with Peter the playwright(hilarious Englishman) and Bruce the smiley Aussie. Watch out for the massage girl "I give you massage boom boom with suckie suckie" who waits for the bar to close as she's pretty persistent! Anyway, the second day we had been thinking about renting a moped and rockin' up to the national park for a walk but it was raining again so we decided to eat at our favespot one last time and hightail it on the 12:30p.m fast boat to Hai Phong before continuing on to Hanoi. Plus, after a couple of days off the bike you really get a hankering to get pedalling again! Got to Hai Phong, checked in to the Hotel du Commerce(the cheapest joint in town!) and walked around town-people were everywhere! So many mopeds-awesome! They're starting to gear up for Tet(new year) celebrations so there's all kinds of cool decorations for sale and people are starting to be on the move visiting relatives etc. It's a good thing that we have our own transport as it's supposed to be really tough to get aound during Tet! We also found what appears to be some genuine outdoor gear(a lot of it is made here)-on close inspection they seem really well made and the tags have no spelling or grammar errors and are all there-the 3M scotchlite ones, the goretex xcr etc. and different languages like spanish, german etc. If they are fakes-they're amazing. Dirk(the American guy)told us that he got a bunch of stuff in Kunming and he has used it for alpinism etc. and it's held up fine. There wasn't a lot of stuff but G found a nice North Face summit series down jacket and I got a handy Vaude cycling rainshell. Watched some news and a bad movie(english channels!) in our grungy room and drifted off.....

---

Photos

Floating Fishing Village
Village on the ferry ride to Cat Ba Island

Fruit Vendors
A visit from some fruit vendors!

Fishing junks heading out
A view from G's walk around the island

Fruit Vendors 2
What a cutie!