We didn't need an alarm this morning, the engine of the boat was our wake up call at 6.45am! We were the room right at the back of the boat so we heard it chugging away. We preferred being woken up to that than a screeching alarm though!
We packed and went up for breakfast at 7.30am, it was cool this morning but the sun was still trying to come through, but for the time being it was just overcast.
We were going to pearl farm this morning, we jumped on the small boat and went and docked at the farm. It wasn't what I was expecting, it was floating in the middle of the sea. I thought it would be attached to land somehow! It was pretty small but parts were interesting. The oysters they have here don't naturally produce the pearls, the oysters grow there in the farm, in baskets and nets dangling in the water, when they're about 4 months old they are opened up partially and the oyster doctors use they little dental knives and hocks and put some sort of chemical in the oyster and then put a nucleus which looks like a little tiny plastic pearl, this helps the oyster produce the pearl. Only 30% of them survive this and produce a pearl, and it takes 3 YEARS! And the pearl is only worth about $20. (One oyster, one pearl... 30% of the time.) what an absolute palarva!
The big oysters that are there do produce bigger ones but they aren't worth as much as the natural ones because it isn't completely natural.
So we seen how they produce them and how they open them and find out whether there is a pearl inside, Scott chose the first one and it didn't have a pearl so the guy let us choose again and this time we found one!

Once we got back to the big boat and checked out it was just me and Scott to be transfer to a small boat to get to Cat Ba island because everyone else on the trip were just doing the one night and two days.
After about a 45 minute ride, we reached the dock. We are further into the bays and sea now. We are in the 'more beautiful' area our your guide said! Just me and Scott and a French man took the bicycles around cat Ba island. People live in the middle of it, she said that the people in this village usually live till they are about 100 because they eat very healthy and keep fit by working in the rice paddies and on the farm land. It was really nice there, hardly anyone lived in the village. It was a weird mixture of mud huts and concrete houses.
On the way back we seen the locals picking the oysters from the bottom of the limestone rocks around the water.
The water looks even clearer here, beautiful!
The photos aren't picking up the colour of everything, Scott just keeps saying 'aw if we had an awesome big camera with lots of lens we would be able to pick every detail up!' So I think he's planning on finding a jam jar to start filling it to save for one! Haha.

We had lunch on the boat whilst we headed towards the bungalow as we were staying in the Vinh Lan Ha bay but not on the main island of Cat Ba. Just a deserted island with a few bungalows on it! How exciting!
For lunch there were six of us, just me and Scott on our table but every table gets one plate of everything; so we had...
A full fish with eyes and skin and the tail still on so that was a no go for me but surprised Scott didn't attempt it!
Then tofu which I can't stand but Scott doesn't mind so he are a few of them.
Then we had mussels brought to us and Scott dug right in and surprise surprise he loved them! I had to try them because I'm starting to be the fussy one and Scott isn't! They were really good aswell, first time for everything! The squid wasn't a hit though, it was way too fishy and Scott shoved the tenticles straight in his gob. Haha! Bless him he had to swallow it then!

We arrived at the bungalows, it was paradise! We were on a secluded island amongst emerald green waters, over looking limestone mountains that looked as though they'd been through they were cheese gone up against a cheese grater!
It was absolutely gorgeous! Our bungalow was right on the beach with a fantastic view, bay windows all around. Scott was in his oils, there was football and volley ball, pool table and table tennis. We had a game of pool first and we drew 1-1, then I promised him a kick about with the football. A promise i would soon regret! We had a kick about and on sand it's bloody hard, I think I have him a run for his money though! After a bit of a kick around he taught me how to some sort of trick and 'curb the ball', he seems to think I'm pretty good!
I did tackle him a couple of times but he had his own back when he tackled me to the sand and I got sand in my eye!! I don't think I'll take it up as a hobby!
The French couple that we met on the boat bought us a drink and we had a chat with them before we took a walk over to the island opposite whilst the tide was out. It was hard because there were tonnes of little creatures that live in those pointy shells. Well one got stuck in my heel so I had to tweezer it out - ouch.
We had another game of football, I was making Scott work to keep the ball! I gave him a run for his money a few times! My toes were hurting real bad though from kicking the ball with no shoes on and sometimes I hit it with my toes when I judged it wrong.

We chilled for a little and showered the sand off, it was coming from head for ages because I fell in the sand! Honestly it gets everywhere! I think I was in there for about 30 minutes and a pile of sand kept appearing from nowhere!
This evening we had food and got chatting some people from anywhere and everywhere; we had a bonfire on the beach which was real nice and I had two glasses of Dalat red wine which is super good!!