Kicking Back on Cat Ba Island and saving a few Jellyfish

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22nd April 2009

Today went exactly as we’d planned. We breakfasted at the hotel, met our Spanish friends and walked to 2-3km along the coastline and finally ended up at Cat Co Beach. We did stop off for a swim in the cool sea along the way. The scenery was magnificent, steep cliffs and islands covered in dense vegetation. I even saw a few birds which was a nice surprise. I was especially pleased to finally get a good photo of a Blue Rock Thrush which seemed to quite common on Cat Ba.

At Cat Co Beach we noticed many large jelly fish stranded and dying on the shoreline. The ancient animals were victims of boat collision. I did manage to find a few alive but stuck in the swallow waters. This I couldn’t ignore so very carefully so not to get stung I gingerly pushed them back into deeper waters with my feet, of course I wore my sandals which protected me from their sting. I managed to save about half a dozen and it was very rewarding seeing these poor animals head back into the depths.

We found a little beach resturaunt and ordered noodles and beers; they were the best we’d had in ages. When fully satisfied we all crashed out on the beach and dozed in the sun for a good hour, we were only woken when the wind picked up and the wind blown sand started stinging our exposed skin. Pili and I left our friends lay on the beach and headed back along the coast and caught a beautiful sunset over the bay lighting up the water with deep golden rays scattered among the floating fishing village.

After the resent stresses today had been just about perfect. Later in the evening we met up again with our Spanish friends and spent another evening drinking rice wine and beers in the same bar and the previous night.


23rd April 2009

Today was a none event really, we walked around the Cat Ba Lake at the end of town, we were a little disappointed with all the litter that had been dumped into the water, lots of plastic and bottle and we even found dirty syringes, I guess most of the regular tourists overlook this tainted part of paradise. We spent the afternoon writing and washing some of our more unsavoury clothes, we also booked our boat/coach trip to Ninhbinh via Haiphong. Tomorrow we head back to the mainland and more adventures.

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