The beauty

Halong Bay is THE must see in Vietnam with Halong city as it’s closed place to stay, that’s why this city is overcrowded and the Vietnamese who live there are pros in ripping people off. We got the tip to not go to Halong city but instead to a little island next to it. 5 hours bike ride and 2 mini ferries later we arrived at Cat Ba. And really it is breath taking, beautiful nature, traditional fisher boats and friendly (not ripping off) Vietnamese people. We explored the little island with Betsy (our motorcycle) and of course we got lost. Suddenly we were standing between mountains, rice fields and cows. It was so wonderful; it’s hard to put into words.  We walked around and ended up at a little cottage made out of bamboo. A woman was trying to get away with her scooter, but she was a bit struggling, Jeff the hero helped her. We got invited to their house- the bamboo cottage, a simple bed in one corner and the big flat screen TV in the other corner.

While riding back to the village where we had our Hotel, we came along a sign for a cave. We stopped and there came already a guy and helped us parking the bike. He introduced himself as the security guy of the secluded village and the hospital cave. The cave we found out is actually a bunker from the war 40 years ago. The guy showed us around and told us that he was working and living in the cave when he was in the army. And of course we ended up at his house drinking tea and hard liquor with this really interesting persons, telling us about the war and Vietnams history. He also introduced us to his wife and daughter and his 10 dogs.

The following day we did a boat tour through the bays. We visited a fishing village with floating houses; even the dogs have their own floating hut. With a kayak we explored caves and beaches.