Cat baaaa=)

Get out of the big city and head to the island is the motto!!

After having enough of a day of city chaos, we took the bus and the ferry to the small island of Cat Ba. There we stayed in a hostel with a huge room, two big beds, private bathroom, breakfast included, right by the sea for Attention: 3€ per person!!!! Downstairs there was a bar with a restaurant where there was super delicious food. We couldn't believe our luck. Just to give you a comparison, I wanted to buy a new deodorant on the island which should cost 6€. That would have been two nights in the hostel! Yes, the prices here are really crazy! Many accommodations and the food are extremely cheap. But if you want any imported stuff, you'll have to pay triple compared to Germany.

For the next day, we booked a boat tour through the many beautiful bays of Cat Ba together with Chiara and Marvin. The boat wasn't the newest and most modern, but with a bunch of other cheerful backpackers, some music, sun and beer, we enjoyed the ride to the fullest! We stopped on an island called "Monkey Island" where many little monkeys were running around. The animals weren't shy at all and a monkey stole a Chinese woman's breakfast bag right out of her hand. Then we went up a mountain from where we had a great view over the island and the sea. The ascent was anything but easy and we climbed up the mountain with effort. Fascinating was the 77 year old lady who climbed up the mountain on all fours in front of us and clearly kept up with us young backpackers. Greetings to you Günni, we thought of you at this point, you could have done it with your left hand=)

We continued with the boat through the beautiful landscape and the many small rocks in the water. We stopped in another bay and Jonas and I could test our kayaking skills for the first time. After a delicious lunch, we could lie on the deck in the sun, jump off the ship, go swimming, snorkeling and simply relax. And what was once again the best thing about the whole tour, the unbeatable price of 12€!!!

The next day we rented a scooter and explored the island. It's incredibly fun to ride through the beautiful landscape with the scooter, especially since there are hardly any people on the roads and I'm a little less scared=) We drove to the national park of the island to go on a little hike. Chiara and I weren't thrilled when we heard that we had to walk up the mountain for an hour. However, the path was more than worth it, not only because of the view when we arrived at the top, but also because we saw a snake for the first time along the way, which had just had its breakfast (a frog) at the roadside. Unfortunately, we couldn't figure out what kind of snake it was, but it looked pretty venomous=)

After having lunch in the city, we wanted to drive to the beach a bit with the scooters. Unfortunately, we only got a few meters when we realized that we had a flat tire. Oh great... We chugged back to the rental company which luckily was only a few hundred meters away and hoped for the best... The rental guy saw us from afar, stormed onto the street, and yelled at us loudly in Vietnamese. We didn't understand a word... Fortunately, we didn't leave our passport, nor did we leave a deposit or anything else... I already saw huge discussions coming up when an English-speaking man came up to us, asked if we were done for today and simply sent us away. Without much asking, we fled before the rental guy changed his mind... We were lucky!!!

In the evening, we wanted to go out and celebrate a bit, after all, it was Halloween and there should be a party in the bar a few meters away... but the party apparently went in Vietnamese style! Around 10 o'clock, two at most 14-year-old boys came on stage, coolly positioned themselves behind their DJ booth, put on the most antisocial ghetto hip-hop, and turned up the speakers. I could hardly believe my eyes when the two started rapping quietly, drinking alcohol, and lighting one cigarette after another. Apparently, something like that only exists in Asia and wouldn't have happened in Germany!! The place emptied in no time and we also fled.

Greetings to all of you!!!