Cat Ba Island in a sentence: Heavenly little island surrounded by mountains, sea and greenery.

Sunday 2nd November

We found it very hard to get out of bed today after a late night, having to force ourselves eat breakfast because we didn't know when our next meal would be. Got a taxi to the bus station to start our journey to Cat Ba Island.

There are many tourism companies around here that offer packages for this sort of thing, but there are also plenty of scams! So we decided to do it ourselves along with Caroline and James. We got a bus to our 'speed' boat ferry, with another bus waiting on the other end to take us to Cat Ba Town. This island is simply beautiful. Surrounded by sea and floating islands and full of green vegetation all over the mountainous terrain. We got off of the bus and were hounded by hotel representatives, practically begging for us to stay in their hotel. It's low season here at the moment, which plays nicely in our favour for cheap accommodation. We decided that we would look at the rooms in each hotel before we committed and found that the first one we viewed was by far the best, and the cheapest! The hotel was fairly new, the room was huge (with two double beds) and we had a sea view, all for £3.75 per night!

Growling stomachs meant we didn't spend long settling into our room, eating fresh baguettes on the harbour front. We heard that there were a couple of beaches in the area and decided that the best way to explore them was by renting a scooter, with the roads being almost deserted in contrast to Hanoi, although I did find myself in the left hand lane a couple times given that these crazy people drive on the wrong side of the road. Probably the best decision we made throughout the trip, seeing so much more in such a short time and managing to find a nice beach, even taking a quick dip in the sea gazing at the most picturesque views we have ever seen.

On the way back to the hotel we booked a day tour for the following day. The tour we booked avoided the vast number of tourist routes that congregate around Ha Long Bay, instead taking us around Lan Ha Bay just south of Ha Long (SAME same, but different). As much as we wanted to, we avoided the overnight junk boat cruise because it just didn't make sense sailing around all these breath taking views in the dark and while in the land of nod.

Later we found a bar that sold my new favourite rice beer for 14p. The four of us (Caroline and James there too) played some card games, with the staff of the bar gazing over like curious children. We invited them to join, and despite the language barrier I actually think they picked the game up quicker than Emily and I (although it wasn't fair because we had a couple of beverages). It was so cool watching how enthusiastic these guys were, literally finding it difficult to sit in their seats. They enjoyed it so much that just before we left, the owner went out and poured us some rice wine shots with honey, only for them to burst out laughing once we had thrown them back....obviously because this stuff tasted rank!

Monday 3rd November

Woke up excited for our tour today and optimistic that the cloud overhead would clear. Although the cloud remained stubborn throughout the day we still had an amazing time. There were only 7 of us on the tour, sailing around many islands for hours throughout the day but never got bored of how beautiful they were. Before lunch we went kayaking for an hour or so, going through caves filled with bats and coming out into lagoons in the middle of the islands. After having lunch on the boat we had a cheeky swim, jumping off the top of the boat before heading to a secluded beach for some snorkelling. Unfortunately there wasn't actually too much to see under the water and decided to take a swim over to another beach. The sand here was really unique, feeling so soft as you walk over it. Swam back to the boat, practising our dives and flips with the 3 German lads we had met (Thomas, Alex, Marvin).

No one injured (thankfully) we headed back towards Cat Ba, taking a different route. Got back off the bus at Cat Ba Town just in time to see the sunset over the mountains, completing one on the happiest days we've ever had together.

In the evening we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at the Bamboo Cafe before heading back to our new favourite bar. The owners little girl (Chip we think her name was) ran up to Curtis and gave him a massive hug, before really warming up to Emily and trying to learn some English.

Met the German lads here, and another German couple (Alina and David) before being joined by the other couple from the UK. So during the evening a local guy offers one of us a massage, asking for nothing unless you felt you wanted to tip him. He had some of the weirdest techniques I have ever seen, going along with the rhythm of the music and was proving to be very entertaining for us to watch. Given the activities we had done today my (Curts) back was feeling quite sore, and while this wasn't the miracle cure I was hoping for it did help to relive a lot of the tension. The staff here then decided to teach us how to play a game, but Emily and I called it a night around 01:00 as we had plans to be up early in the morning.

Tuesday 4th November

Hired a scooter today with Alina and David making our way around most of the island today, taking in the views and enjoying that much needed sunshine.

We drove past the hospital caves that were used as a secret bomb proof hospital during the American war, having had help from the Chinese to build the caves. We decided to have a tour around here which turned out to be quite interesting although all the rooms were bare and maybe could have done with mock furniture to help the imagination along since my brain has started to turn into a vegetable since travelling. We had parked our bikes at some cafe and rather than paying just for the parking we decided to get a drink so we got this free. Anyway, the pergola of this cafe was covered with vines overhead, with thousands of fine, light pink roots hanging overhead and meticulously groomed.

Continued north to another harbour, taking snaps of the views we came across. Decided that the harbour was the perfect place to have our lunch. Found some natural caves during our journey and the four of us decided we would take a look around. They really did get quite narrow in places, having to crouch and almost crawl through some of the passage ways. Although generally quite cool in here, the humidity was pretty unbearable, practically feeling it on your lungs with each breath we took.

Returned the scooters later safe and sound and unfortunately had the tedious task of arranging our bus to Hoi An for the full moon festival where everything is lit up by lanterns, trying not to get ripped off by some of the companies.

C & E