The next morning our guide told us that he would be coming with us to ensure we get back on national day which was a relief. The other people would be shown where their bus back to Hanoi was by the sailors ( unfortunately they did not do that which made our guide very pissed off ) we got onto a bus which took us to the national park to climb a mountain. It was raining heavily and we both hated climbing. It makes me realise I will never climb a mountain in my life!! When we got to the top it was a pretty view it would've been even better if it wasn't foggy. However it then got really crowded up there and we decided to go backdown. The climb to the top was an actual climb rather then just walking and coming back down in the rain was scary. We took our time as it was slippy and then some annoying Vietnamese people came up behind me and kept moving my hands or trying to shove past all the while we're trying to climb down a mountain in the rain!!! I got really annoyed and stopped to let them past which was obviously what they so desperately wanted. They took off but then 5 mins later found us again as they didn't know the way back down. They'd follow us for a bit then shove us out the way and take off and then wait and find us again to show them the way. I was getting so irate at these idiots one of the men was at least 50 so they weren't just stupid kids. Luckily we got to the end and found our guide sitting in a bar as he didn't want to climb it and we wished we hadn't bothered either. We got back in the bus to cat ba town and the weather improved dramatically. Our hotel was lovely and right in the centre if cat ba. We had a great tv and watched some movie before lunch where we met a trio also doing our trip with a different company but they didn't have a personal guide like we did! We later found out that we paid around 50 dollars less then them each for the same trip and we had a personal guide-we felt like we got a bargain! We went to explore the island and tried to find the beach our guide had told us about it was a long walk but we eventually found it. It was quite deserted and we stayed there a couple of hours but in the early evening it became packed with locals as now there holidays for national day had started. We headed back to the hotel and had dinner and went out onto the pier where there was a little fair for national day. It had little toy cars for kids to drive and paint your own plaster models. I wanted to do it but dan said it would break before we got home which was probably true! We went to bed quite early savouring the nice room we had!

The next day we were up early to get a bus back to the pier and our guide was quite stressed. We ended up getting a boat back who the guides cousin worked on and we were the only people on the boat! When we arrived on the mainland we got given the biggest lunch ever!! Then back on the bus where we ran into the trio from cat ba again. When we arrived in Hanoi again our guide dropped us directly in front of the door to our hotel. Unfortunately I'd forgotten my Vietnamese hat on the bus. But it was for the best as it was such a hassle and dan had already ruined it by dumping his massive bag on top of it on the night train and bending it out if shape!