Day 7: Cycling, Jungle Trekking, Private Beach, and Cat Ba Island

I awoke at quarter to 7am to the light coming from outside our window above the bed.  I could see that the sun was starting to rise and I didn't want to miss it so I quickly hopped out of bed and made my way to the upper deck.  The sun was just starting to rise above the islands and I was treated to an incredibly beautiful view.  The air was cool because of the wind but it was still warm out and you could tell it was going to be another hot day.

The plan for the morning was to hike up the 400 steps to the top of Ti Top island, which was an island close by for us to view the sun rise.  By 7:20 or so everyone was up and we boarded our small boat to take us to the island.

When we arrived there was a group of people doing Tai Chi in the morning sun.  There was also a good sized natural sand beach with a few people just coming out from the water.  I thought to myself what a spectacular view to experience for an early morning swim with the sun rising over the islands and some beautiful traditional looking boats parked close by.

Our group walked along the back of the beach and up the steps to the top.  It was a fairly short climb up to the top and I was completely distracted by the natural beauty around me so it made the trip up even shorter.

resting stop on the way up

At the top we were treated to an amazing 360 view of the bay.  Check out some of the pictures because they'll paint a much better picture than me trying to describe it.

After mulling around at the top for 15 minutes I was thinking of going for a swim so we made our way back down.  Upon arriving at the beach we walked over to the waters edge.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to swim but I knew I wanted to dip my feet in the water.  I was wearing my sandals so I slipped them off and dipped my feet into the water.  It was cool but not cold.  I looked up and saw the two older german ladies already swimming.  What the heck if they're living it up then so am I!  I took off my shirt although I wasn't wearing completely perfect swim wear I ran into the water and jumped in :D  The felt great and the feeling of swimming around in the cool water with the sun beating down in this fantastic scenery was unforgettable.  I had given Iwao my camera and he took some pics of my morning swim.

After 10 minutes or so of swimming around I came back to shore and we motored back to our boat for breakfast.  I quickly showered to get the salt off and sat down to eat fried eggs, bananas, jam, and toast (not all at once).  Near the end of the meal Dang introduced us to our itinerary for the day and the first thing we would be doing was getting off this big boat and onto a smaller boat for the remainder of the tour.  Tonight we were sleeping in a hotel on Cat Ba island and this boat was returning to Ha Long Bay Port.

The Singaporean family were not coming with us so we waved good bye and boarded the smaller boat.  We then cruised for an hour or so along some more magnificent limestone Islands and we made our way to a small dock on the south eastern side of Cat Ba island.  This is where our cycling tour would begin!

rock formation named "Chopstick"

South China sea on the top left

We left our bags on the boat and walked along the cement dock to an area with a few dozen bikes parked.  We each picked a bike and started our 30 minute ride around the island.  The first part of the road was along the coast and then it went up over a hill and dropped us back down into the inner part of the island.  Biking through the jungle was something I had been looking forward to and it did not disappoint.

After half an hour we found ourselves in a village along an inner valley floor on the inside of the island.  It was really neat how the valley was quite skinny, yet it was all cultivated for farming and a small community had risen up there.  We parked our bikes and proceeded on a 45 minute trek through the jungle.  It was an easy hike and we got to go through a cave and then climb up some pretty steep limestone rocks.  We reached the top after only 10 minutes of ascent and we were able to look back behind us over the jungle canopy or forward and see the valley floor with the little village below us.

The guy in the straw hat is Dang!  Our excellent tour guide

After a short break and some riddles from Dang we climbed back down the other side and walked back to the village to get our bikes for the bike back to the boat.  We biked back along the same trail, yet it felt different because you're seeing everything from the opposite direction :)

Back at the boat we ate another lunch of veggies, spring rolls, shrimp, and roasted fish.

Dang then gave us the option to do more kayaking or go to a beach.  Most people wanted to go to the beach for a swim (including me) so we cruised for 15 minutes or so until we came to a really small beach on some random island.  Noone else was on it and it was like our own private beach.  Great!  Most of us ended up dipping into the water for a swim and once again, the water was nice and cool and the scenery magnificent.  After my 10 minutes of swimming I layed on the beach and got a bit of a tan.  I think this would be my first time getting a tan in December.

our private beach!

After an hour at the beach we got back onto our boat and sat on the upper deck for an hour and a half as we cruised the islands towards the main Cat Ba Island Port.  As we grew nearer there was a really massive floating village comprising of over 400 families.  It was quite something to see.  And almost every house had a dog or two.  I wondered where the dogs went to the bathroom...

We reached the port at Cat Ba in due time and departed the boat onto a bus that took us 4km over a small mountain and into the main Cat Ba resort area.  It was a smallish promenade built up along the water with a small bay filled with another floating village.

At the hotel Dang showed us on a map in the lobby the route we had taken during the past 2 days.  I just drew this path on the map in photoshop (it wasn't actually on the map in real life).  It's an approximation of where we went.  The black line is where the main boat took us.  It started at the top of the map and went south.  The purple line was around where we kayaked, the blue dot is where we slept, green line is where we biked, red line is where we took a bus onto Cat Ba Island where this photo is taken in the hotel lobby.

We checked in to our hotel and had free time for the rest of the evening.

For dinner Dang recommended the Green Mango restaurant so that's where we ate our diner.I had my most expensive meal of the trip with the total coming in at a whopping $8.  It was a Spicy Medium Rare Tuna with green mango rice and a mango salsa.  Delicious!

After diner we went to look for a bar to have a drink or two.  We found "Good Bar" and went upstairs for some 75cent beers and free pool.  The place was empty when we arrived but it soon filled up within an hour or so.  Some Vietnamese kids also came in and we watched them play pool after us.

It wasn't all that late but we were tired and had another early morning the next day so we decided to head back to the hotel for some sleep.  Another successful day :D