We arrived on Cat Ba island late aftenoon and had a short bus journey to Cat Ba town through Jurassic Park-esque landscape. Cat Ba town sits on the edge of a huge natural harbour filled with blue and red fishing boats. Behind the town the hill sides rise up to a rugged green profile.

Cat Ba Island is very popular with Hanoians at the weekend in the high season and high season has just started. A couple of hotels we try have no rooms available and those that do want $25 for the rooms. Keen for a better deal we keep searching but find nothing cheaper but at least the room has a sea view.

At 6pm we meet at Slo Pony adventures and book ourselves a 1 day cruise of Ha Long bay (a morning of kayaking followed by an afternoon of rock climbing). At the meeting we met Stacey and Maxine from Brisbane. Stacey teams up with us for the rock climbing afternoon.

Ready and raring we meet back at Slo Pony for the cruise at 8:30am. On arrival Slo was downcast and informs us there is a typhoon approaching and boats are not being allowed to leave the island. Deflated and reimbursed we hatch a plan for the days activities. A trek and rock climbing. We got a lift to the Butterfly Valley on Cat Ba island and walked into a lovelly green pasture surrounded by steep hillside and straight in front a fairly impressive limestone crag. Helena and a couple of others set off on their trek and whilst Stacey and I climbed on the crag.

The trek started with being introduced to peanuts fresh from the ground. This was a bit of a shocker for me as I didnt know they grew in the soil. We enter the jungle, it's dark and very humid and work our way up to a ridge of volcanic rock, the guide points out creatures in his best vietnamese english that includes lots of gesturing on both sides. We see red/orange crabs in the undergrowth, snails of every shape and size, lizards, big stick insects and big spiders in big webs...oh no! So we cautiously duck or weave around the enormous webs. The guide suddenly becomes very animated stamping and shouting and jumping around. We discover that there was a spider that had made him jump... so if he reacted like that i decided I'm staying well clear and button up my shirt to the top!! The guide also points out "small bird, small bird", after a lot of confusion - all we can see is a ball on a vine and perhaps a birds leg stuck out but it's not moving and it doesn't look like a natural position. The guide is so pleased with his find that he pulls out his camara to start taking photos still telling us "look, look, small bird" and then we see something else... something eating the bird that had been bound to a vine, maybe a centerpeed. Urrrggghhhh and ewwwww! The guide finds a stick so that he can show us better by poking the beastie and we quickly ask him to stop - we dont want that thing being knocked off the vine as we were below. It was a relief to leave the jungle due to the humidity. We were drenched with sweat.

It was very hot but the rock had great friction and was well featured. We climbed 4 routes (6a, 6a, 6b, 6b) in total all of which were great fun.

Throughout the day we had expected the Typhoon to appear but it didn't. We started to think the locals were a little over cautious, warning us to leave and moving all the boats from the main bay to more sheltered areas.

The next day with no typhoon insight and no boats leaving the island we were starting to get frustrated and wondered whether we'd get to see Ha Long bay at all. By mid morning a maintenance guy had turned up to batten down our window. By lunch time the hotel doors had been locked and nobody was allowed to leave the hotel. Eventually early in the afternoon the typhoon arrived. A bit of rain and some strong winds. What is all the drama about? We spend the evening playing cards with Maxine and Stacey and learn how to play to most complicated card ever invented - Canasta 5s. When we return to our room the wind must have changed direction as rain water was gushing in through the seems around the window.

The next morning with clear skies we are greeted with news that two huge windows had fallen, one from our hotel and the other from a bar around the corner. Also we hear news that five boats had sunk in the bay and two homes had lost their roofs. hope no one was hurt.

There are still no boats leaving the harbour so a cruise was still out of the question and the beaches were closed for cleaning....can't have pepples and bits of drift wood on a paradise sandy beach! So we spend another day amusing ourselves in Cat Ba town. That evening we book a cruise for the following day and everyone is excited and optimistic. Early to bed, we arrive at Slo Pony adventures the next day to find out that the marine police have again stopped boats leaving the harbour. Gutted. There is nothing the tour company can do, so we get another refund and decide we've spent enough time on the island and with no guarantees of a cruise the day after we leave for Hanoi that afternoon and catch an overnight sleeper train to Danang.

Andy & Helena

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Croc watch = 0