After a quite pleasant – although this time due to the arrival time at 5:15 a bit shorter – night in the night train, we went back to our hotel in Hanoi, which had organized us the bus transfer to Cat Ba Island and promised us before a breakfast would have. That worked everything as well and at 8:30 we sat in the bus direction Cat Ba.
In order to get to the island, a short boat trip and another bus trip is necessary, which is why the entire trip takes about 3 ½ hours, but since we were not completely slept, it was quite relaxing.
Arrived in Cat Ba City and checked in at the hotel, we relaxed first on the beach, before we went to the evening to our tour of the Lan Ha Bay and the Ha Long Bay. Because of the bad weather views for the end of the week, we booked a 2-day trip through the Lan Ha Bay including sleeping on a “Floating Village” (villages on the sea in the middle of the bay). We went kayaking several times, swimming and even (in Tobi’s case successful) fishing. Also the engine damage of our boat did not leave the tour a big demolition, because we were the only guests, we could determine our goals, the course and the length of the tour itself. So it was less a tour, but a boat trip through the bay including local guide (but unfortunately, apart from “kayaking, fishing, swimming” hardly a word English could). Pictures say in this case again more than words, it is simply an incredibly beautiful spot (and we even saw monkeys on Monkey Island again :-))
Unfortunately, on our return, we had to get to know the ugly side of Vietnam (and presumably Southeast Asia). The manager of our hotel, which also sold us the tour, had us shamelessly lied to us. Actually, we wanted to make a tour, which includes the Lan Ha Bay on the more famous (and therefore very tourist) Ha Long Bay. The manager of the hotel told us however directly on our arrival that boats from Cat Ba for political reasons could not drive over the provincial border to Ha Long and after a travel agency coincidentally told us the same, we also believed him and booked the tour with him . Now it turned out, however, that another travel agency offers trips to Ha Long Bay, which is why our tour got a slightly bland flavor and we did not trust the manager any more.
He had once again lied to us in the same breath when he told us that there is no bus and / or boat transfer to Ha Long City (from which the tours to Ha Long Bay start), unless you booked directly a tour including minivan transfer (Of course with him and he collects commission). Also, it turned out that there are 3 times a day a bus, which arrives in time to a ferry to Ha Long at the northern port of the island.
As a result, we were disappointed by the dreadfulness of the Vietnamese (as I said, we think and know from tales that all of Southeast Asia is affected, but since we had never booked tours anywhere, we had two beautiful days With the scooter on the island and on the beach before we went by bus for a night to Ha Long City, but this is another (short) story …