Leather Jackets and Riding Boots

Cat Ba City, Vietnam -- Day 2

Today we traded in our traditional bike shorts and clipless shoes for leather jackets and riding boots -- at least figuratively. To really explore the island, we chose to harness the raw, unadulterated power of two 115cc Yamaha Nuovo scooters. Hooah!

In all seriousness, it was quite fun and a totally novel experience for us. I have no idea why we haven’t tried it before. For four bucks a pop, we got a full day scooter rental. The transaction could hardly have been simpler -- show the slightest (or absolutely no) interest in one of the scooters lined up by the road; nod your head at the person standing nearby; cough up 90,000 dong; and finally (and ironically) hand over your driver's license as collateral. No fuss, no muss. Additionally, we took possesion of helmets, but I doubt that was a requirement and likely prompted by the presence of our “baybees.”

It was a ton of fun to cruise along the back roads and at speeds approaching 70 kph! (at least for Kylie and me; Dex and Meg only hit 60, but that’s not important.)  After enjoying views of the city, the steep limestone hills and tiny mud crabs on the mud flats, we stopped at the national park known for the endangered Cat Ba Langur. We actually thought we might have seen one jumping through the trees, but apparently there are giant squirrels as well. Nevertheless, the steep, hour hike up to the look out point was spectacular especially due to the Tarzan like vines and tropical tree roots snaking over the rocks.

Once back in town, Meg and I tended to a few more travel chores -- yet more bus and tour tickets for the rest of the week. The final hurrah for the day was an evening walk over the hill to the beach to hunt down tiny sand crabs. These things were small but crazy fast. Once spotted, Dex and Kylie would race around in circles, headlamps blazing, finally pouncing on the little guy. An hour later, just as we were ready to go, they managed to corral the granddaddy of them all. They were thrilled to have had the chance to run around the beach and left confident that they had found the big one.