Cat Ba Island...
It looks like Halong Bay, except all the mountains are connected by land. It is probably the most beautiful island I've ever been on.
The night we arrived, we got the free bus from the pier to the town, which was soo nice! The views were beautiful, but it was dusk, so it was getting dark quick. Lucy and I checked into a hotel recommended by Lonely Planet with a great seafront view! There are tons of fishing boats in the bay, which is quite a cool sight to see, especially when it was a lift that took you to the top floor. :) $5 each.
Awesome.
Then we set out for food! Everything's a bit expensive on the island, because it's an island, so we settled on a place that looked local, but was still on the seafront. There was a guy there that had a dancing Psy (like the santas at christmas) singing Gangnam Style. Hah! There were little kids he kept playing it for, and then he brought out another!! Lol It was great. Afterwards, we walked around a bit, then went to GoodBar, which was recommended by Lonely Planet as well! On the way there, we ran into Jake and Mike! We had a few drinks, met a lot of people, and played a lot of pool! We met, Chan (an island local), Son (from Haiphong), Jamie (a Kiwi), and Tatu (Finland). We had a ball! At the end of the night, we bought some kebabs from the lady at the outside stand, and just hung out by the road on a few chairs. It was a great night, and we planned to meet up again the next day.
The next day I got a message from Megan, who Lucy & I met on the way from Saigon to Mui Ne, and have been constantly running into (in fact, we're going to Sapa together today, hah)! Well the message said she said that she was in Cat Ba! It was perfect timing because Lucy left early in the morning.. so Megan and I ended up staying together for a few fun filled adventurous days. Unfortunately, her hotel didn't have a lift to the 5th floor, so we got a little work out! :)
On the first day, we rented motorbikes and cruised around the island. There was a group of us, 2 from Colorado, 1 from Boston, lil Miss Canadian Megan, and me! It was an awesome time, we just rode around the island, literally all day long. We stopped at Hospital Cave, which is a hospital built in a cave from the Vietnam war, and we also trekked in Cat Ba National Park.. The motorbike parking for the National Park was in a local volleyball court! Hah! That cracked us up a bit. We trekked to a peak with a tower at the top. It gave a 360° view of the land around the island, it was utterly beautiful. The tower was incredibly dodgy though.. hahaha.. the railings were rusting, and the platform you stand on once you reach the top, is about 5-7 planks set up kind of like a tic tac toe board.. needless to say, you definitely wanted to hold on. After avoiding falling through the tower platform, we headed back down and met some other hikers at the bottom. We sat and just had a chat for about an hour, it was really nice.
We then set off, continuing to the other part of the island where there is a pier with a beautiful view of the bay. Then Megan got hungry, she's always hungry lol! We talk about it a lot haha.. but we headed back to the town to find a local place to eat, after taking some videos of the view back on the way. They say there is really only one road on the island, which is probably a huge underexageration (just made that word up, hope you like it), but on the way back we ended up separating from the rest, and found another one. Megan and I are pretty similar, and we like to go down the road less travelled, so naturally, we decided to hit that one up. We started going down it, and it was insanely dodgy! There were construction areas where it looked like they were quarrying, and there were tons of rocks on the street/dirt path, and at one point we had to stop and wait for a bunch to fall before we carried on.
BUT we decided to keep going anyway..
Best idea ever! Because the road got better, we ended up going through smaller villages, found a beach BEAUTIFUL view, and ended up driving along the coast of the island for about a half hour. It was soo good.
This is getting long.. so I'm going to write about the rest of my time in Cat Ba in a different post.
<3
Oh yeah.. Megan didn't end up getting any food until after we got back.. It's alright though.
Totally worth it.
It looks like Halong Bay, except all the mountains are connected by land. It is probably the most beautiful island I've ever been on.
The night we arrived, we got the free bus from the pier to the town, which was soo nice! The views were beautiful, but it was dusk, so it was getting dark quick. Lucy and I checked into a hotel recommended by Lonely Planet with a great seafront view! There are tons of fishing boats in the bay, which is quite a cool sight to see, especially when it was a lift that took you to the top floor. :) $5 each.
Awesome.
Then we set out for food! Everything's a bit expensive on the island, because it's an island, so we settled on a place that looked local, but was still on the seafront. There was a guy there that had a dancing Psy (like the santas at christmas) singing Gangnam Style. Hah! There were little kids he kept playing it for, and then he brought out another!! Lol It was great. Afterwards, we walked around a bit, then went to GoodBar, which was recommended by Lonely Planet as well! On the way there, we ran into Jake and Mike! We had a few drinks, met a lot of people, and played a lot of pool! We met, Chan (an island local), Son (from Haiphong), Jamie (a Kiwi), and Tatu (Finland). We had a ball! At the end of the night, we bought some kebabs from the lady at the outside stand, and just hung out by the road on a few chairs. It was a great night, and we planned to meet up again the next day.
The next day I got a message from Megan, who Lucy & I met on the way from Saigon to Mui Ne, and have been constantly running into (in fact, we're going to Sapa together today, hah)! Well the message said she said that she was in Cat Ba! It was perfect timing because Lucy left early in the morning.. so Megan and I ended up staying together for a few fun filled adventurous days. Unfortunately, her hotel didn't have a lift to the 5th floor, so we got a little work out! :)
On the first day, we rented motorbikes and cruised around the island. There was a group of us, 2 from Colorado, 1 from Boston, lil Miss Canadian Megan, and me! It was an awesome time, we just rode around the island, literally all day long. We stopped at Hospital Cave, which is a hospital built in a cave from the Vietnam war, and we also trekked in Cat Ba National Park.. The motorbike parking for the National Park was in a local volleyball court! Hah! That cracked us up a bit. We trekked to a peak with a tower at the top. It gave a 360° view of the land around the island, it was utterly beautiful. The tower was incredibly dodgy though.. hahaha.. the railings were rusting, and the platform you stand on once you reach the top, is about 5-7 planks set up kind of like a tic tac toe board.. needless to say, you definitely wanted to hold on. After avoiding falling through the tower platform, we headed back down and met some other hikers at the bottom. We sat and just had a chat for about an hour, it was really nice.
We then set off, continuing to the other part of the island where there is a pier with a beautiful view of the bay. Then Megan got hungry, she's always hungry lol! We talk about it a lot haha.. but we headed back to the town to find a local place to eat, after taking some videos of the view back on the way. They say there is really only one road on the island, which is probably a huge underexageration (just made that word up, hope you like it), but on the way back we ended up separating from the rest, and found another one. Megan and I are pretty similar, and we like to go down the road less travelled, so naturally, we decided to hit that one up. We started going down it, and it was insanely dodgy! There were construction areas where it looked like they were quarrying, and there were tons of rocks on the street/dirt path, and at one point we had to stop and wait for a bunch to fall before we carried on.
BUT we decided to keep going anyway..
Best idea ever! Because the road got better, we ended up going through smaller villages, found a beach BEAUTIFUL view, and ended up driving along the coast of the island for about a half hour. It was soo good.
This is getting long.. so I'm going to write about the rest of my time in Cat Ba in a different post.
<3
Oh yeah.. Megan didn't end up getting any food until after we got back.. It's alright though.
Totally worth it.
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