The 2nd day of our 3 day cruise around Halong Bay started with us taking our bags ashore with us to the island of Cat Ba Island. Cat Ba Island is the largest island within Halong Bay and makes for a great stop-over place when doing cruises in the Bay. It’s a surprisingly big place – we were in the bus from where the boat dropped us until we reached our resort (nice to say that!) for about 20-30mins. The island is home to 8,000 – 10,000 people and is somewhere you could spend a decent amount of time.
The group had 2 options for the morning activity on Cat Ba Island – either hike to the top lookout position and climb a richety old watch tower which apparently had more rust than steel, or ride a push bike around the island culminating in an optional tour of a cave hospital used throughout the war. Ben went with option 1 – the rest of us chose the bikes.
The bikes weren’t necessarily new. And when I say they weren’t new, I more mean that the Penny Farthing had just been retired as a form of transport. Still, they had 2 wheels and we got them moving. Laura & Hannah haven’t done a lot of bike riding since they were young, but picked it up again nicely with Hannah taking the lead trying to assert her dominance over the peloton. But just like almost all breakaways, she was reeled in by the pack. At the half-way point of the bike ride, we had the option to be guided through a makeshift hospital created in a cave space which was used throughout the war. Well, we were told it was makeshift, it turns out it was painstakingly appointed and just amazing what they were able to do. The cave is enormous and was built beautifully with rendered rooms, each having a purpose. Whether that be for surgery, doctor’s office, recovery and so-on. Just amazing ingenuity and thankfully for the locals, something the opposition never found in war time.
Relaying Ben’s story of his hike – it consisted of a challenging hike up a not-insignificant hill which could have utilised a good set of hiking boots more than Ben’s sneakers and what many of the others were wearing, thongs. The lookout hadn’t seen a lot of TLC and apparently sea water can cause erosion to unprotected metal. Who knew? Still, Ben climbed the look-out without fear for his safety for what was a magnificent view of the island. The group also provided a community service by loading themselves up with mud all over so the next group won’t have to walk through it. Very nice of them.
After being dropped at the resort, part of our premium package, we checked in, had lunch and sussed out the resort a bit. To describe it – it’s built on a small harbour with a private enclosed beach. A huge pool complete with 2 water-slides is positioned near the beach area and the restaurant. Moving a bit higher up the resort there’s another pool, an underground pirate-themed bar (which we found out later blasts out the national pasttime, karaoke) and then the 4 stories of rooms in a semi-circular fashion line the cliff face.
After a decent lunch, we were picked up again and off to the boat we went. Time to go and see Monkey Island (no, not the game). Monkey Island is another decent sized island in Halong Bay and home to a lot of small monkeys. It basically consists of a beach, a few cabins, a walking trail up to the top and on the other side, a protected resort. The monkeys are the main attraction, and even though a few of us did the hike, we didn’t see any of the buggers. Not until we got back to the beach did we see them. Probably 8 or so all up varying in age & size. Pretty cute little things. We had another kayak and swim and back onboard the boat we went.
Back to the resort, had a few goes of the waterslides and checked out the town and that did us for the night really. Deb wasn’t well but provided a good opportunity to check out the royal wedding.
We checked out in the morning and then back to the junk we went. We struck up a friendship with a few other groups and made plans to catch up back in Hanoi which is where we were now headed.
Back in Hanoi we kind of expected to see another Saigon, but it’s not – it’s very different. Still busy, but a different kind of busy. It has a very different feel, a lot less pushy but still full of commerce. Markets, street stalls & shops, everyone is there to sell. We walked the city and had organised to meet up with a few of our new friends at one of the city’s best restaurants. The dinner was delicious and a great time was had by all 9 of us or so.
We checked out the night markets on the way back to the hotel and then back for a well-earned rest. It’d been a fantastic few days and can’t recommend seeing Halong Bay highly enough – just a beautiful part of the world.