More Cat Ba Island hospitality...

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After yesterday’s debacle, we figure things had to get better…we were only a little correct with this assumption. The hotel we were in only had rooms for us for one night, so we had to set out on a quest to find 2 new rooms—we also found out it was a holiday weekend and Vietnamese were coming out in full force for the occasion. We finally find a place on the beach; there were small huts with two hammocks hanging inside. They were cheap and we weren’t picky.

Before settling into our new beachfront home, the girls and I sought out bus tickets to get down to the next town, Hue (pronounced way). The first travel agency wanted to rip us off by 100,000 Dong; luckily, we tried a second one. With bus tickets in hand, we meet the rest of the group and head down to the beach. But we returned to our beach side oasis, all they wanted to give us was a large bungalow—no hammocks. Inside the “deluxe” bungalow were two big mattresses (and nothing else). We decided this was ok; it was right on the beach after all. The Fins decided to try to catch the bus leaving that day, so we say our goodbyes and the rest of us settle onto the beach.

It was a decent beach, but it was overrun with Vietnamese that enjoyed staring at 3 white girls on the beach, which is creepy. Then, to our surprise, the Fins came back! They could only get tickets for the bus the following day. This was good news for us because it meant 6 people splitting the bungalow cost instead of 4—but it also meant 3 people sharing each mattress…

We exhaust the fun factor of the beach; walk into town for some cheap dinner and alcohol to sooth the island’s unfriendly demeanor. I had found coconuts on a tree outside our bungalow, so I was hell bent on mixing rum with the coconut milk (as well as living on coconut “meat” and not buying more food…but that didn’t work). We buy our goods and head back to the beach. It was a good night of hanging out in the bungalow and yes, drinking rum with coconut juice…which is not all that good. We took a late night swim and called it a night. The mattresses were surprisingly accommodating for the 3 bodies that each one held.

Morning came and after we started moving about and packing our goods, a few of the cleaners came to the bungalow and started flirting with Wilson and finally asking him if he had stayed (originally, we checked into the bungalow with only 4 people…and yes, we sorta snuck the Fins in after they returned from town). Wilson of course said yes, I think he was so happy girls were flirting with him that he forgot our “plan” to insist that the Fins had not slept in the bungalow and were visiting us that morning. So when we went to pay for the room, the first question they asked was, “Did you have 6 people in the room?” I tried to play dumb, but eventually we had to say yes. Then they insisted on getting more money from us (this theme runs deep in Vietnam!). We put up quite a fight saying that we rented the bungalow and they never told us we couldn’t add more people (bad argument I know, they also never said NOT to light it on fire, but some things are just assumed). Begrudgingly, they let us go—but they were NOT happy. We gathered our stuff and get the heck outta their quickly.

We wait a bit for our bus to the ferry—at that point realizing Wade accidently took the key for the lock of the bungalow! Haha, the last laugh was ours! Finally, we get to the ferry, which was a quick ride across the bay. Then we have to take a bus to our long distance bus (the driver actually took us to the wrong spot and when we told him where we wanted to go he made us pay 10,000 Dong each—like he was doing us a favor…we found out he was supposed to take us to that bus station…asshole). All of that behind us, we catch our sleeper bus just in time. We had to say goodbye to Wade at this point, and then settle in for the 15 hour drive to Hue…

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Photos

Juhani working on my Coconut plan
I opened the first coconut, Juhani improved on my technique

Next morning
getting packed and getting the hell off the island

Goat got loose
just an entertaining moment for us...guy was chasing the goat

In the back of the sleeper bus
we arranged it so the 5 of us had the beds in the back of the bus...not a terrible way to spend 15 hours--however we did just cram 3 into beds the night before.