Day 13: Cat Ba Island

I don't know how I could have forgotten to introduce you to SAPA!  Aaron and I always try to pick up some sort of souvenier that can be put on a bookshelf when we're traveling!  This trip, Aaron bought this hand made, hand stitched bull in Sapa!  I wouldn't normally pick something like this out, but I love it!  And he only paid $2!  We fittingly named it Sapa!

Okay, back to the story... So, we woke up bright and early: 7:00am to be exact,  to a knock on the door telling us it was time to check out and come to breakfast!  SAD.  We really wished we had booked 2 nights on the boat, instead of 1 on the island... but such is life.  So, we got up, had some breakfast, and then jumped on a small boat that ferried us over to another large "junk boat," where we caught a 2 hour ride through Halong Bay to Cat Ba Island. 

Cat Ba Island is actually the 2nd largest island in Vietnam, and approximately1/2 of it is a National Park, which is home to the highly endangered Cat Ba Langur, a crazy looking orange haired monkey with a black face! And since you're wondering, no we didn't see one! :(  Archeological evidence suggests that people have lived on Cat Ba Island for almost 6,000 years!  Now that's crazy! 

From the wharf in Cat Ba, it takes 45 minutes, by minivan to get to Cat Bat Town center... (This picture was taken off the internet, because we mostly used Aaron's camera today and he was shooting in RAW, which means I can't download them onto this blog.)  Sorry!

We checked into the hotel our tour had assigned us to, the Sunflower... dropped our bags and headed out in search of a scooter to rent for the day!  Wahla... didn't have to walk far... we had made a scooter deal within 5 minutes of our search, and for only $5.00!  We loaded on, and headed for Cat Co Beach where we spent the next 3 hours or so frolicking in the water, searching for shells, and drinking yummy drinks under these straw parasols.

After we had had our fair share of the sun, we both headed back to the Sunflower for some chill time!  I was dying to just relax and turn the TV on!  I know, I'm in Vietnam, why would I wanna hang in my hotel?  Well, I'll tell you... Because traveling can be exhausting, that's why! 

We regrouped around 6pm and took a walk down to the water to see what was going on.  I loved the way the sun was shining on this group of buildings along the shore...

All meals were included in the price of the Halong Bay tour, so we took advantage of the free dinner!  They always gave us WAY more than we could possibly have consumed!

After dinner, we walked out to the water again, and about 100 meters off the shore of Cat Ba Town, there are little floating restaurants!  The only way to get to them is to pay a guy 25 cents to row you in a boat out there!  We really wanted to go, but a lady told us we couldn't just go and buy drinks... we would have to order a whole seafood meal, and we couldn't possibly have fit any more food in our belly's, so we regretfully declined and headed back to call it a night!

Today was our first really chill day, where we were okay with not really doing anything!  We want to come back to Busan refreshed and relaxed, so today was our way of insuring that happened!  Tomorrow, we're headed back to Hanoi for the last 3 days of our Vietnam adventure!