Anna When our Ha Giang adventure came to an end, we left for Cat Ba island. Cat Ba island was really beautiful. I think, for me, it was the most beautiful place we have visited. We rented a scooter and drove around the island. The beaches were astounding as were the sunsets. We stayed in a lovely hotel with a wonderful view of the water. The owner had this adorable little puppy that followed us to our room and refused to leave. It was the cutest dog I had ever seen!
We had so much fun discovering the island on our own. The island is not that big and everything was easily accesible. We went to cannon fort where you have an amazing view of the harbour, definitely worth it. We also climbed all the way to the top of Cat Ba National Park. It’s quite the hike to be honest as it was very hot and it was quite humid. The view however is definitely worth all the hassle. When you reach the top, there’s a watchtower where you have the best view of the island!
Besides discovering the island, swimming and stuffing our faces with food, we also went on a boat trip. My boyfriend’s birthday was coming up so I booked a trip with Cat Ba Ventures (highly recommend them!) to explore Ha Long Bay and Han La Bay. It was a 2 day trip and it was just amazing. The group consisted of approximately 18 people, I believe. Almost solely Europeans with 2 exceptions. Most of them came from France or Germany, it was a really nice group of people. The crew on the boat was really lovely and everything was perfectly planned and thought out. The food was impeccable and in abundance. I fell in love with the Vietnamese cuisine more and more every day. As for the trip, I had never seen such beautiful sights. We kayaked in almost deserted waters, just us. We visited blue lagoons and a deserted island where we could snorkle. The boys jumped of the roof of the boat, which wasn’t exactly allowed but it looked freaking cool. Oh, how I enjoyed life on a boat! We had our own little cabin with a remarkable view of the sea. We watched the stars on the deck while playing cards and drinking with the French guys, what a life! The next morning we got up super early to catch the sunrise and damn sunrises do hit differently at sea. Furthermore, it was my boyfriend’s birthday and the crew made a wonderful cake for him. It was so sweet! We kayaked some more, swam some more and enjoyed the sun. One teeny tiny downside was the fact that we encountered some jellyfish, which was a little bit scary but nothing happened. So thank god! All in all, I think I planned a wonderful birthday for my boyfriend.
After our little getaway to Cat Ba island, it was time to head to Ninh Binh. We booked a boat from the island and then a bus. However, it wasn’t all that easy to get on our bus when we arrived on the mainland. They claimed all the buses were full and we couldn’t get on them. We didn’t trust what was happening so I insisted they let us on the bus as I claimed it was our bus (I wasn’t sure to be fair). In the end, they did let us on the bus because I wouldn’t take no for an answer, so off we went. They dropped us in a remote corner of the city which was just marvelous.. As we now had to walk (in the dark) for over half an hour with our backpacks to get to the city center. We made the mistake of staying in Ninh Binh as we didn’t know that you actually had to go to Tam Coc. However, our hotel was really nice, it was run by two brothers, hence the name “Ninh Binh brothers hotel”. They were very accomodating and served a really good breakfast. Only downside was that you had to ask for toilet paper when you ran out. After a little while it gets quite embarrassing to ask for it when you really need to shit (again..). As there is not much to see nor do in Ninh Binh, we spent most of our time in Tam Coc. The landscape in Tam Coc is really beautiful as it is often described as the Ha Long Bay on land. We cycled through the area a bit, which I highly recommend. It is an easy way to discover the nature there and a bike costs a few euros for a day.
We also did a boat tour, where you get to see the lovely scenery of Tam Coc and you go through a few caves. Our boat driver rowed with her feet which was pretty cool! Furthermore, we visited the Bích Động Pagoda and the Mua cave which are both a must see! The Mua cave’s beauty is actually at it’s top, we had to climb a lot of stairs to reach the top but the view you have there of the valley below is stunning. Definitely worth all the sweat as we climbed the stairs at midday. We thought it would be nice to get our picture taken there and when we saw a Dutch couple we thought it was easy to ask them. So the guy took some pictures of us and damn did we ask the wrong guy.. He took pictures of us with the view behind us. He made us the center of the picture so you couldn’t even see the beautiful view. So we had to wait until they left to ask someone else as we didn’t want to seem rude. Always a gamble when you ask someone to take your picture! But the next guy took some nice pictures so all’s well that ends well.
