Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
Gulf of Tonkin
Friday October 3, 2003

The best part of the trip is going around the harbor. The package that we got included 2 days and 1 night in the hotel on the island with 2 lunches, dinner and breakfast. The food was mediocre and not enough, and the hotel was not my favorite. Cat Ba island suffers from being a small town on a tiny island who's only apparent means of existence is some light fishing and heavy tourism. It is dirty and the vendors are predatory and persistent. Stick with the day trip around Ha Long Bay and you should be happy. I think 5 hours is enough. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and breathtaking for about the first hour and a half. Then it becomes redundant. TOTALLY worth doing, I just felt like 2 days was too much. Others stayed on Cat Ba for two days and enjoyed it very much. Apparently you can rent mopeds there, and there is a national park. Not worth hanging around for if you ask me, but to each their own.

These are the types of boat that we went on...

There is a stop where they take you up to a couple of caves which are quite beautiful.

While climbing up to the caves the boats stop at this dock.

           
After the caving, we went over to see a small fishing village. They live aboard and have live tanks that they sell fish, crabs, shrimp, and small sharks from.

The boat stopped to go check out another small cave, but we stayed on the boat. People came around selling fruit and coconuts and stuff.

She busted me taking a picture of her (obviously). The coconut was refreshing...

(that's me)
The boat stopped for 20 minutes or so to let everyone swim. It was very refreshing, but with a super high salt content.

A fisherman gets out of the pounding sun for a rest...

Had to get one of us...

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Copyright 2003, Dana M. Brash. All Rights Reserved.