Cat Ba Island

Today there is only a short report.

We spent the last four days on Cat Ba, but due to the constant change from extreme heat to air conditioning, we were sick in bed for three days and we are still quite weak.

There is not much to say about the island, the nature is beautiful and a real tourist attraction. However, hardly anyone speaks English here, which can become a problem. For example, yesterday at the pharmacy, the pharmacist didn't speak a single word of English, so we had to speak the symptoms of the illness in Google Translate and he also entered his diagnosis in Vietnamese there... Quite adventurous...

The day before yesterday we went on a full-day guided boat tour which was really great. We first drove through floating fishing villages, where people actually live and fish on floating houses in lagoons. Everything very small and poor, but they have Wi-Fi now :D Afterwards we did a kayak tour through caves and lagoons. The beginning was a bit difficult and we drifted off and ran aground on a rock, where we got stuck, unnoticed by the tour guide, who had already moved on... But once we got the hang of it, it was a good ride. After that, we continued to a lagoon where we could jump from the boat into the lukewarm water - which the gentlemen on the boat also tried with spectacular jumps... The subsequent lunch on the boat was delicious, but more than abundant, so there was a lot of food left over - a fact that is particularly painful here when you consider how many people live in poverty :( the last item on the agenda was a remote island called Monkey's Island, where cheeky monkeys actually live. I climbed the rocks to the viewpoint with our cheerful tour guide and most of the group. I had to do it on all fours and it was more than exhausting, my thighs are still feeling it today:D. At least the subsequent jump into the sea was well deserved!

Today we are taking the bus back to Hanoi and then flying to Hue in Central Vietnam... We hope for comfortable beds for the first time!!!