So we manage to escape hectic Hanoi and take an early morning bus journey to the Island of Cat Ba. We were up at 5am and took a taxi to the local bus station and managed to catch a bus for the 4 hour journey to Haiphong. It's all very bizarre as you pay your money but you don't get given a ticket so really you are never sure what is happening and hope for the best! We arrive in Haiphong where we get off the bus and wait around for an hour or so for another bus to take us to the boat. In the meantime a Vietnemese family take an interest in us especially the little boy who takes a big shine to Brad, so then we have an adoptive family for the rest of the trip! We take a little bus to the harbour and get on a little ferry boat which takes us to Cat Ba. The engines are on display as the boat is going along and there are two guys getting in and out and fiddling with the engine....I'm guessing there was a problem as there was thick black smoke coming out the back all the way there. So we arrive on Cat Ba Island and take another bus which gets us into town......luckily we got off before the Vietnemese family or I think they woould have adopted us! We stopped for a beer and some spring rolls and then went a found a lovely guest house where we stayed for a night hoping that we could base ourselves here for a couple of days. We went and found a restaurant where we had some food and met a nice couple and ended up having a few beers with them to then find out that in the next few days there was a big festival going on and there were no hotel rooms left. It was a celebration for Liberation Day and the May bank hoilday. b*****! That meant we had to rethink our plans again and the nice beach holiday that we were hoping for was now going to have to be put on hold. After looking at out books and talking to a few people we decided to change our plans completely and head down to the south of Vietnam as the weather was better and it meant we could relax on the sandy beach.......therefore we headed back into Hanoi..........