New year on Cat Ba

31st December. Cat Ba

Breakfast was at 7, followed by kayaking from the boat. We pottered around a bit first, paddling to sections where there were holes in the rocks you could paddle through. There wad an alcove to visit but it only opened once the tide went strewn a little. When we went back there and bought our ticket from the kayak, ask the Chinese tourists had arrived. What a noise! They climbed about 20 to a boat, maybe 10 boats, with loudspeakers shouting instructions in Chinese, changing and singing, shouting and waving. Everyone seemed terribly excited. I suppose I want showing the right spirit by scowling at everyone for ruining the leave and tranquility, but I got even more grumpy when they started throwing candies, wrapped cookies and who knows what at the monkeys to eat. Poor creatures had no chance of a healthy life. The monkeys were in an enclosed area, cliffs on all sides that you could only enter from a gap in the rocks. Very pretty if you could block our the noise.
We returned to our boat, showered and headed back to port, arriving just after 11.30.

All the boats looking at rocks that look like chickens

The ferry to cat ba left st 11.30 and the next was only at 3! We sat at a coffee shop. The French couple, who are living in China, were with us. They went to check and found there wad a speed boat we could take and as there were for of us it would but not be add expensive. It was just over a million dong which was about R700. Although it was now already 1 o clock it still seemed worth it. The trip was fast but fun.

Waiting at the other end was a single taxi...did they alert him to our arrival? We negotiated a price and we drove through the village of Cat ba and soon pay it he dropped us off at a jetty.

We got a boat for 300,000 dong which took us to our like resort on its own beach

Leaving the village

The floating villages on the way

Our resort

It felt good to arrive somewhere we could relax for a while.
I did smile at one of the instructions...The Chinese must come here...

Don't spit indiscriminately

Roy brought some good champagne from Cape Town and during dinner the resort was playing Wham...which was a little sad considering George Michael had just died.
Later the resort brought our sine very and biscuits as a gift and made a bonfire. Was lovely. We chatted to two South African girls. We realised later there were 8 South Africans here for New Years...strange.

We didn't quite make midnight, but had a lovely evening regardless.

30th Dec. Halong Bay

30th December

Breakfast was pancakes, and soon after we climbed onto the back of some three wheel vehicles and taken to the harbour where we got onto a similar boat to the day before.
The trip was again beautiful and Tu, our guide, came to sit with us upstairs a while. It was cold but the view was with it. Tu has a very nice innocence about him. He was showing me pictures on his phone of other trips he'd done when he told me a story about someone who got drunk and at a market and crashed his motorbike into a truck and killed himself. Here was a photo of his father and the death ceremony where they were giving him his last rice wine drink and then they slaughtered a dog for him. Here, let me show you the video, Tu said. I told him firmly I really didn't want to see it. How awful.

We stopped for kayaking in a bay sheltered from the wind. We tied up to the jetty of a fish farm, where two dogs living on the island of planks and walkways barked at us. They had some shelter built for them and she was either pregnant or breast feeding; both terribly thin. After our paddle I gave him, the thinner, a left over egg and rolls I'd kept for him (or any thin dog I saw). He took a while investigating it before he'd eat so perhaps it was his first egg.

We paddled around the island which was pleasant enough.

And soon after we headed back, lunching on the way. It was very frustrating that both ways we were served lunch at the time when the view was most spectacular. But schedules must be followed.

At the harbour we split up into our various cars and drove the hour plus back to Halong Bay where we boarded our sleeper boat, only to see two of the couple's we'd just been with and a new French lady.
Now this boat was what we had expected. Lovely. Again we were so frustrated we'd been duped into the previous nights crappy hotel instead of being here. It is hard to describe how beautiful Halong Bay is. Truly magnificent.

The trip was idyllic. There were lots of other boats heading home.

When we arrived at our sleeping place I didn't mind that there were so many other boats around. In fact it felt quite festive.
Dinner was a grand affair with prawns beautifully displayed, enough vegetarian food and lots of seafood. A most enjoyable evening.

Our neighbors were playing loud music which is quite a "f... you" in a place like this, but at least they liked Bob Marley so it didn't offend me as much.

29 Dec. Bai Tu Long Bay

Hanoi to Bai Tu Long Bay

We were collected at our hotel and dragged our bag through the busy streets of Hanoi to the Ethnic tour offices. I sensed a problem.... They started selling us that we should change our two night boating in Halong Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay to a night on an island at the lodge rather. After insisting we wanted the 2 nights on the boat as booked and paid she then said we'd be doing the same trip both days and it would be boring. Without much choice being given we agreed to the island. She described paradise.... but first the 4 hour bus trip to Halong Bay in their own bus with another 6 people. We had a stop where I bought a roll. I'd asked one of the other ladies what she paid and it was 20,000 dong, about R7. I gave 50,000 and the lady gave me 5,000 change. I had to argue to get the proper change, which I'm sure was an already inflated price. Not nice.
We got into a separate car then for a further hour or more drive. Feeling annoyed about the whole thing we were met by our guide and joined a large group of Europeans onto the ferry type boat. This really wasn't what we had planned or booked. So we bought some beers.
It was very pretty at the harbour.

We got fuel from a petrol boat.

Lunch was on board and then enjoying the view.

When we arrived at the island a small truck took our luggage and we cycled about a kilometre to a beach where the two Americans swam. It was not great weather.
We then cycled about 7km to the village and our hostel which can be described very well with the word Awful.
And nothing to do or see anywhere even close.
Fortunately it was nice chatting to everyone as the Springroll demonstration was a bit dull.
Tu, our guide who is very sweet, when hearing we were from South Africa, was surprised we were not black - he looked a little awkward as he hinted at asking. Then later he said "Does your skin color change". I wanted to giggle thinking he expects us to turn black living there, but I think he was meaning do we tan a lot because he then explained the Vietnamese girls prefer to keep their skin lighter.

28 Dec. Ba Be back to Hanoi

Ba Be back to Hanoi

At breakfast of pancake we discussed the goings on of the night before.  At 11.30 Roy finally lost it with the drivers sleeping in the room below us and banged so loudly on the floor the whole house, including the Belgian guests woke up! Roma thought it was the other guests and at first I was too embarrassed to admit it was Roy, but seems they were pleased the party below us finally got the message and shut up!

We then walked along the road we'd take home.

Up a hill and I was too nervous to risk climbing the rusted lookout.

Our much unloved driver collected us along the road and we started the nausea induced trip home. He really is a bad driver, jerkily taking bends and accelerating and decelerating constantly, for the full five hour drive. Roy wondered how many tourists he would tourment with illness in his career as a awful driver. At least it got us girls laughing through our greeness.

We nicknamed Ying our origami guide as she managed to get in the tiny seat behind us...And popped out when we stopped like a girl in a cake, our is it a clown in a box?

They build these really long thin building here. Notice the brown one on the right.

We arrived at our hotel in rush hour traffic and I was embarrassed we stopped to let us out and get our bags from underneath everything at the back while the traffic piled up behind us. It took a while to clear!

As requested, we got our same room again, then hit the streets. Busy! More so than this picture shows.

Met a really sweet dog, chewing a water bottle like Ella does.

We saw shops selling coffee that is regurgitated by the weasel and supposed to be really good, but it's no longer foraged in the forests like it's portrayed, but rather farmed with the poor creatures in battery type cages, so we won't but any.

Roy bought some kebabs got 10,000 dong each (about R6)

A lady put her hanging bowls with fruit on my shoulder, hoping to get money for a photo. It was the traditional ones you see hanging from a plank over the shoulder. I was sorry for her as it was incredibly heavy.

We chose a really fancy restaurant for dinner because of its view.

The restaurant at the very top.

The place was so posh but then they had modern pop music playing which totally ruined the fancy vibe. Quite funny. Wines on the menu were mostly South African, with a very average red going for over R500 a bottle. I had veg and mushroom which was delicious.

Now Roy is enjoying a gin and tonic on our deck. It's 10.30 and still very noisy out there!

Think I might go join him.

27 Dec. Ba Be

Hiking and boating at BaBe, 27 Dec

So already I'm not too sure what day of the week it is. Which is a good thing when on holiday.
We had soup for breakfast which Ying had made and was lovely.
Spent the morning hiking through the forest and farms.

Water break

The leaves and seed of the same plant.

The scenery was just beautiful.

We walked through a farm where I got to play with the puppy.

To feed the buffalo in winter

We picked some green tea leaves which Ying brewed for us when we got home by putting them in the kettle and then boiling it.

Also for feeding buffalo

We saw this delicate little water canal for sending water down to the farm.

And then some buffalo

And just as we were getting hungry, we crossed a bridge into town.

Town was not too pretty but the numerous dogs around made me happy of course. 

Lunch was here.

Made in this kitchen.

Interestingly, they served msg like salt on the side, while Ying assured me there would not be msg put in our lunch, which was truly delicious fried noodles and egg. The bathrooms not so much...literally past the sad pig styes and chickens was a grungy longdrop.

After lunch we got onto the backs of motorbikes, mine being driven by a tiny girl who looked about 13, and were taken to where the boats left from. The ride there, though short, was really fun.

After a pretty but cold boat trip we reached the cave.

We were taken back to near our village from where we walked back to our homestay. The schoolgirls and boys were all riding their bicycles home past us, stopping to pick fruit, like apples but much smaller.

Ying, who is from Sa Pa told us an interesting thing at dinner.  Sa Pa girls are famous for how much they can drink.

The friends at her table were wanting to test her and she said she will always win. I asked how they do it and she said they are trained from age 10 to drink the rice wine spirit, slowly building up from there. Wow! Age 10!

Went to bed nice and early but the guys sleeping below us are really noisy again tonight. Besides their loud talking, now their smoke has also been coming straight through the big cracks in the floorboards. It's now 10.30, two hours after we went to bed and I'm feeling a tad grumpy, but at least I've got my blog updated.