Cat Ba Island

I just happened to take this picture in Cat Ba because it was just outside my balcony although it could be anywhere in Viet Nam. There are hundreds of electrical and telephone wires strung like this. Must be a repairman's nightmare. On the beach in Cat Ba

Cruising to Cat Ba Island

I am now on Cat Ba island off the coast of Ha Long and Hai Phong sitting in the cafe where I had my breakfast using their internet. My breakfast was pretty ordinary, a cheese omelet, baguette ,coffee and a mango shake. Oh how I missed those delicious fresh fruit shakes after my last trip and how I am enjoying them again. It is difficult to decide whether to have mango, pineapple, banana or watermelon, but mango is probably my fav. I am taking a reprieve from the noodle soup (pho)breakfast which the locals eat.

Traveling here by junk was a little reminiscent of cruising in the islands in the Aegean Sea. The scenery is spectacular and there are island mountains every where. Yesterday I went on an excursion to a beach out of town and the view from afar looking back at Cat Ba town also looked like a Mediterranean island. There are spectacular limestone caves here, the most famous the largest in Asia. Unfortunately my camera could not begin to capture what I saw so you will just have to believe me that it was unforgettable. Stalagmites and stalactites on other formations created natural sculptures of animals and humans if you used your imagination.

Tomorrow I will be picked up at my hotel at 9 AM for a bus-ferry-bus trip to Hanoi where I will have another sleeper bus to the very north of Viet Nam, Sapa. It seems the information about this leg of the journey keeps being modified and I am not 100% confident that I have the correct information from the travel agent who booked it. According to my Vietnamese friend the people in the north are notorious for answering your questions "yes" if that is the answer you want. "Yes" does not necessarily mean it is so.