Three Buses and a Boat

To Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

It was an early start for Team Hoornaert.  If I were to guess, Dex takes after me with his morning temperament.  Dean is pretty good in the early morning, but poor Kylie is always a little groggy, hazy and out of sorts.  Lucky for her, she didn't need to do much but follow us upstairs for breakfast, put her backpack on and follow us out the door.

Fortunately, Dean had spotted a "one-stop-shop" ticket for us to get out of Hanoi and to the island of Cat Ba. Although only 124km away, we needed three buses and a boat to get there. We fell back into some old habits and cut it close getting to the bus station.  Luckily, the night before, the wonderful clerk at the hotel called to confirm our bus tickets and got the address for the bus station.  Despite the early morning rush, we were on the bus and ready to go with twenty minutes to spare.

Our first bus was reminiscent of India -- lots of incessant and unnecessary honking and a general impatience that we've not seen in Nepal, Thailand or Laos.  We did have music videos though -- all duets, all the time.  The stage was Vegas huge, the women were dolled up in long dresses, and the men had the slickest hair since Elvis.  After an hour and a half of that, the bus fortunately stopped and we were abruptly told to get off.  The next bus was conveniently parked right in front of us and fortunately, there was a sweet Vietnamese woman right outside selling bread and some kind of donut-hole looking treat from her bike.  Both were tasty, and I think the donut-hole was made from rice with some kind of bean paste filling.  We definitely need to try more street food.

The second bus driver was thankfully much calmer and quieter and in no time we arrived at our next mode of transport, a boat from Hai Phong across to the island of Cat Ba -- off the bus, grab the bags, onto the boat, drop off the bags, find a seat.  Though crowded with sixty or more, we all had seats for the short ride.  A final bus across the island and we were there. The island is very tropical, but the smog and clouds were still with us. Apparently 124 km isn't far enough away....

We were dropped off at the waterfront less than a block from the Asia Outdoor office, where we hoped to sign up for a two day, one night cruise/kayak/rock climbing tour.  We were happy to hear that not only was there space but the kids were no problem. The only glitch was that the first availability was for Tuesday as Monday was a staff training day.  The good news was we'd have an extra day to explore Cat Ba, the bad news was were even more crunched for time to get to Danang on Friday.

View from hotel window

After lunch, with some additional planning to do, Dean and I left the kids at the hotel. It's going to be tight, but with luck, our new plan should just work: kayak and rock climb on Tuesday and Wednesday with tour, catch the hydrofoil back to Hai Phong that afternoon, grab an overnight bus to Dong Hoi, join a one-day tour to Paradise Cave Thursday morning, stay the night in Dong Hoi, and finally catch a morning train to Danang for our Friday evening flight to Hong Kong -- planes, trains and automobiles.  We can't wait to see Mike Y and this is an excellent excuse to visit Hong Kong.

Once back in the hotel we started to get a little restless. A quick 10 minute walk from the harbor and we were truly in a beach resort.  Dex, Kylie and Dean all enjoyed a dip in the Ocean and afterwards we explored the nearby rock formations.  I was grateful for a chance to let the kids run and play tag, something they haven't been able to do much lately.

For dinner, we deferred to Trip Advisor as both Dean and I have not been impressed with our last few meals.  The Green Mango was yummy and as a bonus the kids could watch Phineas and Ferb, a Disney favorite, on the bar TV.  Speaking of drinking, I've been very much enjoying Hanoi beer -- for 80 cents it's cheaper than the Coke Light (not the same as Diet Coke), so bottom's up!