After an EXTREMELY long and sleepless 12 hour sleeper bus journey we arrived (very tired and little grumpy) in Cat Ba. We were originally meant to be in Halong Bay for 2 nights but after hearing recommendations from friends they advised it was better to stay in Cat Ba as it is less touristy and there is more to do. Cat Ba is an island at the edge of Lan Ha Bay (very close to Halong Bay). We arrived at 7am in the morning, got off the bus and headed to our hotel. We booked a hotel for our stay in Cat Ba as we felt we needed to recharge after the crazy and exhausting Ha Giang Loop. Our first day in Cat Ba we spent indoors as we were absolutely knackered, so unfortunately wasted that day. We met friends in the evening and had a few drinks with them which was nice.
On day 2 we booked a boat tour with some friends and travelled around Lan Ha Bay. The boat tour was nice and relaxing. We kayaked through caves, swam to a deserted beach, hiked to the top of another rocky mountain (well George did whilst I sunbathed on the beach…) and saw the floating villages. The floating villages were really interesting, these people live in houses which float on the water (quite obvious but thought I’d explain!) They live with their families (even dogs were there) and the children travel to school by boat to Cat Ba island. A lot of the families are there for around 5 years. They are known as ‘fishing villages’ and all the floating houses have traps at the front of their houses to catch fish.
Our third day we spent hungover as we partied with friends the night before till 3am. I spent the day at a quiet beach which was relaxing and a nice change to being busy all day. We had dinner that evening in town and had an early night.
On our final day our bus was leaving at 12.30 so we felt like making the most of the morning. We hired a motorbike from our hotel and headed to Cat Ba National Park. The hike up to the viewpoint was around 45 minutes, it was very steep, sweaty and the last 100m we had to basically rock climb to the top (not fun!) The view from the top was amazing, however soon after we reached the top the rain started to come down and wow we had never seen rain like it. Thunder and lightening soon came after the rain and we then realised we probably shouldn’t be at the top of a mountain whilst in the middle of a monsoon.. We left the viewpoint and the rain was torrential. The hike on the way down was extremely slippy and pretty dangerous but very funny. Me being the dipstick I am also forgot to bring my raincoat but as George is such a kind boyfriend he gave me his. By the time we got to the bottom we were both absolutely soaked. We got back to our bike which was in 4 inches of water and drove back into town.
After arriving back at our hotel, we dried off and got ready to leave the hotel to get on the bus to head to our next destination. Cat Ba was a fun place, however there wasn’t much to do apart from boat tours and exploring the island on a motorbike. We had fun seeing friends from the Ha Giang Loop and partying with them. Our bus journey from Cat Ba was around 6 hours which was way much better than our journey to Cat Ba! Next stop … Ninh Binh!!
Adventure Awaits... 