Day 223 - Cruising (kinda) our way through the karst peaks

We got up nice and early and made our way to the harbour in order to find a boat to take us to Cat Ba Island. Upon arrival at 9am we were told that the boats don't leave until 11.30am (so they told us), so after buying our tickets and eating some pho (noodle soup) for breakfast we set about waiting until 11.30am!

Around this time they came and took us to our boat, and we hoped that we would leave sometime in the near future, but this wasn't to be. In fact it wasn't until 1pm that our boat even turned on its engine, and after an hour of bashing its way out of a gridlocked harbour (all the boats decide to leave at exactly the same time!) we finally broke free and set off on what was meant to be a 4 hour cruise. We soon found ourselves anchored for half an hour in the middle of the bay before being ushered off to look at Dong Thien Cung (one of the biggest caves in the area). While the cave was beautiful and impressive, the artificial lights and tourist-isation meant our experience was slightly disappointing. Before long we were back on the boat and our "cruise" finally commenced. The scenery we drifted through was stunning to say the least and words can't describe it - the mirror smooth sea was interrupted by a maze of sharp craggy rocks jutting out - immediately our minds were reminded of our time we spent in beautiful Guilin and Yangshuo in Chinese. After an hour or so cruising the phenomenal bay we arrived at Cat Ba Island which is the largest island in Halong Bay, where most inhabitants live off the sea as the land is too rocky to be good for agriculture. Despite our "4 hour cruise" amounting to 3 hours stationary and only 1 hour cruising we have taken the mindset that "this is Asia" and you just have to take what you get and enjoy it!

On the boat we met Lars and Anya, a German couple who were the only other independent travellers on our boat (the others being part of a tour), and when we arrived in Cat Ba town after a cross island tour by bus we all ended up at the same hotel. We set our for a little tour of the town and stopped in at a travel information centre for some advice about onward travel from the island.

The four of us then set out in search of some food, and were delighted with the meal we had at a restaurant just a couple of buildings away from our hotel. Before dinner we had organised for the 4 of us to go on a trip to the Cat Ba National Park tomorrow, and in anticipation of the strenuous hike ahead of us we settled in for the night.

Adlibing Halong Bay.