Belinda's blog: Vietnam - Cat Ba to Haiphong to home ...

CAT BA ISLAND

A very quick stop, just to do a boat tour of Lan Ha Bay, the quieter southern part of Halong Bay. The island is mostly national park, and hosts lots of activities like climbing, hiking and kayaking, so I shouldn't have been surprised when our small tour boat was full of backpackers - I think we were the oldest by several decades! So funny to hear them talk about hitchhiking and hostels, and remember my youthful travels in Europe.

We stopped a couple of times for swimming, but sadly there was floating rubbish on the gorgeous blue water, so I declined. We are so spoilt here! We DID go kayaking, which I'm not sure Chris will ever forgive me for. It WAS lovely though!

Fishing village, Cat Ba

On the boat ...

Lovely Lan Ha Bay

HAIPHONG

Just a short bus/boat/busride away is Haiphong, an industrial sea port at the Red River delta. It has been described as like Hanoi 30 years ago, and it is truly a retro-feeling city of 2 million, full of old French buildings and vibrant N. Vietnamese life. Not a tourist in sight, and almost no English spoken, we finally felt like travellers. Not much to do but walk the streets, eat the food, and marvel at the coffee culture (more cafes per sq km than Surry Hills, I swear!). There's only so much coffee you can drink, and food you can eat, sadly. Refreshingly we were able to shop in 'real' shops, and found some lovely restaurants, one of which even had an English menu (the best tofu ever, and tiny fried fish, with a pungent anchovy sauce). Ate the best noodle soup (banh da cua, seafood with red noodles). Had cocktails at happy hour at our rather flash hotel. It rained, and was cooler, and we wished we could stay longer ...