After deciding that (although very lovely and beautiful) the 'whisper of nature' bungalows might be a little sad a way to bring in the new year (given we would have been the only guests) we decided to de-camp and head into Cat Ba town for the remainder of our time on the island. We did however have time to go on a bit of a hike through the jungle which was great, we scaled one of the huge limestone outcrops and got a great view of Cat Ba island and a bit of a view out towards Halong Bay in the early morning mist. We were going to head towards the intriguingly titled Frog Lake, but as our friendly hotel owner said "the path get very small try not get lost" - well he was not kidding, the path did indeed get very small, kind of a goat sized path really, and the prospect of getting lost in the thick forest didn't really appeal so we beat a path back to the hotel. We then got on cycles and cycled the 5km back to the port through the wild and secluded south east end of the island, waving and saying hello to the many children we came across on the way and also ringing our bells smugly at the huge group of western tourists who seemed to be cycling along in a slightly confused manner after disembarking their huge tour boat and blindly following their tour guide like lost sheep - that is most definitely not the way to see this area! After buying some postcards we clambered aboard our fishing-boat taxi and gazed across the bay once again on our way back to Cat Ba Town.
Our now good friends French Jeff and Mr Tony greeted our arrival back in town with a typically Vietnamese welcome and we met up with our new friends Sha and Huong and prepared for NYE Vietnamese style. Cat Ba town is a lovely little tourist town with some great beaches and I was lucky to get a couple of cracking photos looking out across the bay at sunset.
Festivities began with a meal in a not-so-great restaurant, but he did give us a 5% discount because it was new year and also gave us the offer of a free apple pancake or a free beer - there was only one obvious choice, the apple pancake of course....a pint bottle of Tiger beer here is only about 50p! We then headed into Jeff and Tony's bar where numerous free shots of some kind of local rice moonshine were being handed out - it's rude to turn these things down out here ;-). Numerous games of table football ensued where it turns out Sha is a bit of a demon on the table - after allowing me to take over the DJ booth I decided it would be funny to play Kylie Minogue Locomotion and promptly cleared out the bar totally so we all decamped to the bar next door.
It was pretty crazy with people from all over the world and lots of fun was had. The low point was, in some misguided attempt to save some others from the same fate, being accosted by a rather large manic Russian fellow called Alex who I think took a bit of a shine to me and would not let me go until I took his email address agreed to go and see him in Moscow (not sure I will be taking him up on that offer but it was nice to be asked??!!). All good fun tho and certainly memorable...our new friend Huong certainly was a much better DJ than myself and my attempts to play Rick Astley later in evening were widely rebuffed - in hindsight probably a good call! I did however get Auld Lang Syne on, which even though most people in that bar had probably never heard it before, it is one of those tunes which everyone just knows what to do when they hear it - a bar of people from almost every continent singing arm in arm in a far flung part of Vietnam was a heart warning sight. The obligatory snake was a good effort but unsure how the pool table managed to get broken in the process - luckily Alex was on hand to sort that out!
A late start to morning helped make the decision that today was a good day to do what the Vietnamese do and we rented some scooters (a whopping £3 for a days hire) and decided to go and tour the island. Wow what a great idea, the roads and views were absolutely fabulous but Jaryn didn't seem to totally get the hang of the bike and a close call with a cliff face, a big pink bus and a slightly comedic, er, 'interaction' with a parked car had us and most of the onlooking locals in fits of hysterics....we (or JB at least) certainly left a impression I reckon! It was also probably of great relief to Sha and Huong that due to an error in translation they didn't end up being passengers for the day as well, that probably would have been disasterous!
A quick stop for some great food in a small village gave some great photo opportunities and a quick tour of the interesting Hospital Cave a reminder of the poignant war history of this part of the world. During a quick game of frisbee on the beach an American chap called Luke was taking to the water for a swim and we both swam out to a fishing boat with a fisherman onboard making himself a brew and he challenged us to swim further out to one of a islands many kilometres away...we decided that was probably a bad idea! Certainly Luke's wimpy entrance to the water was frankly making it look colder than it was in the water, but he was from Florida so 18 degree water probably was cold for him, but it was a delight for me! It was time to say goodbye to the friends we have made here as tomorrow we have an early start with a tour of Halong Bay and back to Hanoi where will be experiencing our first Vietnamese night train!
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