Cat Ba Island

Our second day on the boat started bright and early and after breakfast we were dropped off on one of the islands where we joined all the other boats in the area for a walk up to the top of the mountain for the surrounding views. We then descended to the beach along with everyone else to cool off. We knew there were going to be lots of other boats in the area and were prepared for it but it is just a shame that these tour operators feel the need to do the same thing. We feel like we maybe should have spent a little more money and done some research to maybe get on a boat that spent more time boating and kayaking around the karsts than doing other activities with all the other boats.

Back on the boat we headed to Cat Ba Island. Again we got to sit back and watch the karsts slowly go by which is by far our favourite part of the trip. We were dropped off on Cat Ba Island and headed to the national park for another hike to another view point. We made the call to sit back and relax in one of the cafes while the rest hit the mountain as we were already soaked through with sweat before we even started the climb.

After the others came back we headed to the hotel in the main village. We thought we would be able to hire kayaks and head out on the water but unfortunately the town was more of a port so we would just be kayaking around a few of the bigger karsts and in the harbour. Instead we went for a walk around the island hitting some of the beaches. The walkway was positioned around the edge of the island so the views were spectacular. The town itself was quite pretty with the harbour front having several floating restaurants anchored off the waterfront. We were going to stay an extra night here but considering the weather was not the greatest we decided to cut the trip short and go back to Hanoi tomorrow. S