29th June 2017
Getting to the airport from our room was relatively easy, it took around an hour to get around the Kathmandu's version of the M25, the ring road was as busy as normal (the everyday comings and goings on the dusty roads here are almost as crazy as India's roads, you still have dogs and cows running riot and mopeds loosely and dangerously loaded up so they're the size of small flatbeds) but we arrived in plenty of time to catch the first of our two flights to get to Hanoi, Vietnam! We booked our tickets with Malindo air, and the economy seating was surprisingly luxurious, the first night flight took around four hours then we had a five hour lay over on Kuala Lumper! This was by far the largest and cleanest airport we'd ever been in! Five hours later and a BBQ sauce smothered Burger King (I hate sauce) we jumped on the second flight which was pretty much the same as the first, in comparison to other journeys this was a comfortable one (we've been on longer bus rides).
Arriving in Hanoi we got our three month visas with little trouble and withdrew some Vietnamese Dong, £1 is equal to around 29,000 Dong, I think it'll take us a good few days to get used to the new currency! We snatched our bags from reclaim (there's always a hint of relief when we see our backpacks on the conveyer-belt), and set foot on Vietnamese soil! It was overcast and grey, however the humidity was pretty overwhelming at first! We jumped on a bus towards the centre of the city, the historic old quarter! The bus had air conditioning, the eight lane motorway was free flowing and the roads were of the tarmac sort, we appreciated these luxuries after the dusty chaotic streets of Kathmandu! Once in the the old quarter we scavenged around the unknown streets for a place to stay, we found one place where the women apparently had a brother who worked in Stanford-Le-Hope, we chose that place dumped our stuff off and went for a walk. There're only 2 million cars in Vietnam, but there is over 32 million motorbikes! Everywhere you look there's motorbikes, always hundreds causing chaos in sight!! We found a small café and weighed up our options (first impressions were good and a lot more civilised than India and Nepal, apart from in locals restaurants, they throw all rubbish on the floor, so there's tissue and chicken bones everywhere, apparently it's the polite thing to do)!
Cat Ba Island
We decided not to bother exploring the capital too much as we'll be there for a month with the host we've organised. We booked a bus and ferry to an island called Cat Ba which neighbours the Unesco world heritage site of Ha Long Bay! The mini bus picked us up from our room, which saved a lot of hassle. The minibus battled through heavy rain and traffic to the port, it took a few hours. It seemed like we arrived at an old dockyard, there were a few rusty yet robust looking container ships and that was it! After a little while, a small off white colour ferry roped up to the jetty. In traditional Asian style, boarding was a free for all, no manners, patience or courtesy, we squeezed and pushed on! The seating was luxurious plastic stalls and due to the rain and the spray of the sea everyone kind of huddled around middle open air style square boat.
Weather seemed to be against us, just as it was in Nepal, the rain was on and off but fierce when the clouds did burst! Due to the grey cloud cover the ferry passage wasn't an interesting one, on the other side around and hour later we crammed on a small cramped bus (surely they would know how many people would be arriving at the other side), after a short journey we were dropped off in Cat Ba town and the hunt for a room began! After around an hour we found a suitable place (again all the rooms are cheap and large), however because it was the weekend we could book for one night (we are discovering that people here are either extremely friendly or just shake their head at you!). When the rain eased of we went for a wander to grab some food, after a having a proper look around it was clear to see it was a weekend getaway for locals (also school holidays, so there were Vietnamese tourists everywhere), also a party place, there was restaurants, karaoke bars and beer houses everywhere, there was also a few floating restaurants! The seafront was around a mile long, and when looking out we saw fishing boats scattered plus the notorious limestone giants rising from the ocean, behind was the low mountains of the national park, it's a charming place even in the dull, wet conditions (plus beer and food was of great quality and extremely affordable)!In the late afternoon the sun made an appearance and we headed out off the main strips to the beaches! There are three small beaches, a road leading to all three and there's a walkway that runs around the cliff face which as much more appealing! Each of the small beaches were heaving with Vietnamese weekenders, you could hardly see the sand! However we feel if the beaches were quieter they would've been a blissful place to relax!
As Cat Ba is a small island, there is pretty much zero public transport, the best and only way to explore is with a motorbike. I've heard some nightmare stories about crashes and we've seen a lot of people limping with skinless shoulders however you feel a little foolish feeling nervous about riding one when there's 12 year old kids buzzing around on them! So, we rented one (the roads here weren't busy so we felt a lot safer, there was no way we would've gotten a bike in India!) and after only a few minutes I was confident on it. It's almost impossible to get lost as there're only about 4 main roads on the island. Despite the on and off unpredictable rain, bombing around the island was an amazing experience, it felt brilliant to be independent, we covered so much ground and the surrounding lush green scenery and rice fields was spectacular!
Cat Ba National Park
After a good hour or so we stopped at the national park, firstly we saw a few animals in extremely restricted cages then we discovered there was a small hike to a view point, despite Kirsty's inappropriate footwear (sandals, also known as Asian work boots) the uphill muddy path through the forest took us around 20 minutes and the views from the top were impressive to say the least! The descent was difficult for Kirsty and her trusty sandals (those things have been through hell!), we made it down and was relieved to be back on the bike for a breeze to dry off the sweat from the small hike!
Hospital Cave
Next on our little DIY tour of the island was the hospital cave.During the Vietnam war this place was home to all of the citizens of Cat Ba. It was a secret hospital which can not be seen by air or whilst on the ground, the narrow staircase led to a camouflaged door way, it would've been impossible to pinpoint this place if you were invading! As well as a hospital this cave served as a safe house and bomb shelter for both civilians and soldiers, at one point during the war it was home for all of the inhabitants of the island!The three levels (one is off limits, I wonder what could be up there!) we're pin drop silent, and our footsteps echoed in the gloomy corridors as we walked around this eerie facility, the creepy manikins didn't help with the horror film setting feeling. The first floor was the actual hospital with multiple large rooms, the second floor had a swimming pool and although it's smaller than the first it was used as cinema and the third floor was off limits but it was used as offices for officers! We spent around half an hour in this cave. The temperature inside was a lot cooler and we welcomed the break from the pretty intense humidity!
Fort Cannon
The day was almost over but we had one more place to visit for sunset, Fort Cannon.
The small fortress was originally built by the French but used in World War Two by the Japanese, inside there're trench cuttings, dug outs and bricked underground tunnels, also inside are large (deactivated) artillery with manikins operating the guns! As it was getting dark, it gave the place a spooky feel, you can't help but imagine how frightening it must be to be at war and held up in one of these little strongholds! The view from the fort was impressive to say the least, one side you had the jungles and the national park side of the island and the other side was the ocean the limestone islands, hundreds of boats, the bright multicoloured lights of the town plus a truly stunning sunset, it was the perfect way of rounding off our first full day on the island!
As we had so much petrol left in the tank we kept the bike for another day, the mornings hotel hunt left us with no choice but to stay in a crazy old soldiers hotel backroom (the room had an old wooden rickety bed and a small fan and that was it!), located adjacent to the restaurant's kitchen, the door didn't have a lock but he assured us (around twenty times) with a batten in hand that our stuff would be safe with him. It was our third and final day on the island and we set out to find some little gems and maybe a quiet beach, the novelty of exploring on the bike didn't wear off, nearly all we did on the last day was cover every inch of the vague paper map we was given! We stumbled across a typical beach hut style hostel which had all kinds of accommodation from dormitory rooms to hammocks on the beach! We probably would've stayed at this place if we had known about it earlier! The beach itself was a sorry state, first impressions were good however when we got closer (all ready to swim) the water was filthy, old fishing nets and litter, it's no wonder the beach was deserted! We spent the rest of the day just riding around.
Towards the end of day we found a small harbour where we was able to rent a kayak, we was only able to have around two hours which wasn't really enough time, as there's a beach to aim for which takes 45 minutes, we didn't make it to Monkey Beach so we just paddled around and in between the dwarfing limestone towers! We were the only boat in the water it seemed, this had us a little worried as we were quite a distance from the small harbour, plus the ocean was becoming choppy which made rowing back hard work, it was a great little venture however we a little relieved when our feet touched solid ground! We dropped the bike back and made our plans to go to Ha Long Bay! We will definitely be renting a bike again! Last night in a little backroom of a hotel, the bed broke whilst we were just sitting on it, we told the crazy old man manager and him and another bloke came in and eventually fixed it with a lot of hammering of nails! The manager apologised profusely! A couple of cockroaches came darting out when the bed collapsed, the situation was too comical to get annoyed over, it gave an eventful little end to our time on the island!
The only qualms we had with Cat Ba Island were with the hotel hunting, it was a nightmare trying to find a place to stay every morning, almost everywhere we asked was full, we found this tedious task frustrating plus it's horrible not being able to settle in one place for a few days! The other problem with constantly changing rooms is remembering to pack everything, usually we are good and never seem to leave anything behind but I somehow left a small bag of washing somewhere and Kirsty lost a shoe! The only other thing was that we wasn't able to find a secluded beach on the island, there're 3 decent beaches and apart from the spoilt pebbled beach that was all the island had to offer on the beach front!
Ha Long Bay
The morning after our night in the back room accommodation (we survived the night without the bed snapping in half again!), we were up early and hopped on the only form of public transport on the island and headed for the docks.We were heading to Ha Long, we figured we could book a cheaper tour of the limestone karsts from the tourist part of the city.The ferry to Ha Long was same as the one to the island, the day was dreary and when we arrived in 'White Town' we realised we may have made a calculated misjudgement! The accommodation we booked was tucked away up in a small neighbourhood, it was expensive to get there by taxi however we didn't really have a choice (the definitely a language barrier, we are finding it a difficult to communicate and get around!)! The couple we stayed with were lovely and their modern apartment was compact and cosy. We didn't realise how big and busy the city of Ha Long was, we were expecting a few beach resorts and a constant view of the ocean! We made the most of our time in the city though, we eventually found the tourist area and book up a tour of Ha Long Bay, we feel it's the only way to see anything! The main tourist area was quiet, with many cafès, Western restaurants and hotels, however I feel in a few years it'll be a bustling place as there was a lot of building work happening! We also visited the local beach, although it was heaving with Vietnamese holiday makers (swimming fully dressed) and the skies were almost black threatening a storm, it was vast enough to find a quiet spot! Whilst having a quick dip we heard the rumble of thunder and those black clouds burst! The rain pelted down, the lightening flashed like strobe lighting and the thunder sounded like Lancaster bombers swooping low, this caused mass panic on the beach and through the rain all you could see was hundreds of people sprinting for cover (it's amazing how quick everyone vanished!)! We found some shelter pretty quick but we were already drenched to the bone, after trying to wait out the rain for almost an hour, we decided just to brave it and head back as we were already soaked (the buses still had the air conditioning blasting, it's the first time we've been really cold in quite a while)! Also during our time here we visited a large western style shopping mall. On our first night the host invited us out for dinner, the local beer house was the destination, all the furniture was plastic tables and chairs and the place was brimming with busyness! The couple ordered for us which resulted in us trying lots of delicious local cuisine including fermented crab and shrimp sauce! It was a fun evening and it ended in a smaller beer shop, where the draught golden lager was around £0.30 a glass which was amazing!
Ha Long Bay tour
So far the weather during our time in the north has been unpredictable and constantly changing, from perfect blue skies to black clouds and rain storms! This made us anxious as we had paid for a tour which was quite expensive, luckily the day was almost clear! We booked the 6 hour full day tour and after some waiting around the large white double decker boat departed! The sold out boat chugged along slow and steadily and after around 30 minutes we started to see why we came for (pretty much as soon as we got moving a little makeshift motorboat came up beside us, trying to sell us everything from beer to bananas!).Natural Limestone towers rising out of the dark green ocean dominated the landscape, as far as the eye could see there were hundreds of tiny islands, secluded little beaches and they said that King Kong was filmed somewhere on these waters! They did not stop talking, the man leading the tour was softly spoken and seemed to have an insane amount of information, however it was difficult to hear and keep up with what he was saying! The first stop on this tour was a humungous cave, the cavern was the size of a large warehouse! The entrance to the cave was narrow and the bottlenecked crowd (Asians seem to have no awareness or manners when it comes to queues, it's just ME FIRST, ME FIRST!) shuffled through, after giving some dirty looks we eventually squeezed through up the makeshift slippery steps! Inside the air was cool and the brightly lit and colourful bulbs gave the place a feel of a fantasy film from Disney, only around 30 minutes was spent here before heading back to the boat for lunch!
Rice, seafood, vegetables and nuts is what was on offer and the food was good, everyone around our 6 seated table was satisfied! The last part of the tour was an island with a beach, it took a while to get there but along the way on the emerald ocean, the scenery of this 2000 square kilometre Unesco world heritage site was idyllic and the steady motion of the boat had for a relaxing afternoon! The small islands and huge rocks were all different shapes and sizes, we passed one of the famous shaped rocks named 'The Two Fighting Cocks', the limestone figures can also be seen on some of the Vietnamese currency!
Part of the trip that wasn't included in the price was kayaking. But we paid extra to hire one and was so happy we did! You could only rent them for around an hour. After the typically unorganised routine of doing anything when there's people involved, we were on the water! The gentle rowing heightened our already tranquillised mood, we passed through a cave into a grand untouched lagoon, and although there were many yellow and orange kayaks you could still appreciate basking in the green surroundings with the presence of monkeys!
The last stop was the island. As the boat approached we could hear the crowds from the beach! Jam packed, we couldn't really see much sand because of the sheer numbers, so instead we headed up some stairs to a small viewpoint on top of one of those soaring limestone steeples! The view from the top was more of the same, just boats and more limestone natural moments of the sea, but it was equally as beautiful and made for some excellent photos!We made our way down and back to the boat, the trip was running late so we seemed to get back to the starting point fairly quick. We jumped on a bus and headed back to the city of Ha Long! We said our goodbyes to the couple we were staying with, grabbed our backpacks and waited by the main road for a bus heading for Hanoi (there were all kinds of transport heading for the capital, from taxis to mini vans to huge luxury coaches!), we hopped on a local bus which turned out to be more comfortable than we expected and jumped on board and commenced the 5 hour journey, it was time to meet & greet our next host!
