14th – 15th October

Another early start the next morning, I grab breakfast and check out when a guy comes into the hostel saying ‘Cat Ba’. Me and a French girl, who turns out to be another Celine, follow him out where he packs our backpacks onto the back of his motorbike. As we walk past René’s hostel, he shouts at me to go grab her and meet them round the corner, as the bus can’t fit through the busy Old Quarter streets. We then all pile on to a normal coach this time for our journey to the ferry. The journey wasn’t long and the ferry journey over to Cat Ba Island was even shorter, only about 15 mins! Cat Ba Island is in Lan Ha Bay, next to the famous Ha Long Bay. This region is famed for its beautiful landscape of limestone karsts rising out of clear blue water. The landscape appears before us as we reach Cat Ba, as picturesque as described! Driving through Cat Ba Island to Cat Ba town was also amazingly scenic, it made me chuckle when we had to keep stopping for goats in the road.

The 3 of us were staying at different hostels, but all of them were a gruelling trek up a hill with our heavy backpacks! Checking in to Luna Hostel was a relief, this is a brand new hostel opened by a local guy and an Irish girl. The rooms were comfy and there was a nice rooftop terrace where breakfast is served and you can have drinks. 

We quickly freshened up then met for lunch, my ‘salad’ was a little disappointing, but didn’t bother me too much as I was excited to explore Cat Ba National Park. I was hoping we could use grab, but the island was a bit small. After debating what to do for a while, a taxi happened to pull up next to us and offered  a decent price to get us to the entrance and back. We jumped in!

Hiking in Cat Ba NP

We paid to get into the park and did a trail René had read about up to a view point that looks over the park. We saw deer on the way! As well as loads of interesting plants and trees with twisty vines. And once again we found ourselves hiking upwards, and getting sweaty 😂. But it was soooooo worth it for the stunning view at the top. WOW 😮 I was amazed at the emerald beauty of a landscape in front of me! A vast sea of jungle. 

Hospital Cave

On the way back we stopped off at the Hospital Cave, an interesting part of history from the Vietnam/ American war (so called depending what side you were on). A hospital had been built inside the cave during the war as a secret and safe place to treat victims, out of the firing line. Clever! The guide who showed us round was very passionate and talked us through the many rooms, both to treat patients and for the military to use as a safe place to plot. 

Stunning Sunset 

Our cab driver then dropped us off at the top of Cannon Fort, also used in the war. This was the perfect view point to watch sunset over Lan Ha Bay. We got loads of pretty pictures, eat your heart out National Geographic! We then had a little look at the fort itself. Of course the issue with watching sunset somewhere is after it rapidly gets dark, so we ended up walking back to the town down quite a long hill in the dark, with everyone with scooters zooming past us. We made it back down and went back to our hostels to get ready for dinner.

Celine had some other friends that she was meeting, so René and I met up to claim our 2 free beers from the company we’re doing the tour through before eventually finding pizza, a bit of western food is needed every so often!

Sailing Away

The next day was awesome and definitely a trip highlight. We spent the whole day sailing through Lan Ha and Ha Long bags on a boat with a rooftop for soaking up the rays whilst chilled music played. It was like being on a really non-fancy yacht 😂. The scenery it just out of this world – hundred of limestone karsts in the clear water. We passed a floating fishing village before making our way to Monkey Island. There are monkeys on here that have taken to stealing people’s snacks and water bottles, as with a lot of tourist attractions in Asia and Africa. A group of us ‘hiked’ up to a ‘view point’ at the top of the hill on the island, which near the top was more like scrambling and even rock climbing to get to the highest rock that had sharp edges all over it and you couldn’t sit on. Trying to climb up this route caused another moment of me having to chuckle at the health and safety procedures in Asia! However, the view was epic and so worth the dangerous climb. When we eventually made it down, we had quick swim in the pristine waters before heading back on the boat. 

After a while we made another stop to swim from the boat and snorkel. We had great fun jumping off the top of the boat! He snorkel equipment was not great, but neither was the underwater view, the visibility was terrible. But the swimming was good fun.

We had a great sea food based lunch included on the boat, it was yummy and there was sooooooo much food! After lunch we did more sunbathing as we sailed through from Lan Ha to Ha Long Bay. In Ha Long bay we stopped for a kayaking trip. Another amazing experience taking in the breathtaking scenery. We went through the bay and under caves, it was great fun!

A couple more quick jumps off the boat before heading back. Sailing back was more sunbathing, making the most of the beautiful weather, and having a complimentary beer. A fab day!

We were all quite knackered after a day i the sun, so spent a while chilling in our hostels. I felt a bit funny too. I met Rene for dinner, but we decided not to stay out too long. I then again got the inevitable Asian bad stomach and spent the rest of the evening in bed with Netflix.