Cat Ba Cat Ba Cat Ba

12:55 AM |

Finally got out of the bustle of Hanoi and on to the stunning Halong Bay, a UNESCO world heritage sight. Spent my last day in Hanoi wandering around various sites, including the military history museum which mostly informed the visitor on the many times that Vietnamese people killed French or American soldiers. Even had a sculpture made out of the wreckage of various downed US warplanes. All this was across the street from a giant statue of Lenin, so what can you do?

Socialism!

I feasted on some true Vietnamese barbecue that night, which was a delectable delight. Crammed in a space the size of two smallish school buses side-by-side, me and about fifty or sixty Vietnamese sat at stools and tables fit for three-year-olds, both in size and flimsy plastic build. Ah, but with your own little hotplate to sear the mouth-watering meat and veggies to perfection, not much else mattered. Spent the next day traveling to Cat Ba on a bus whose drivers took ample breaks for noodles and the occasional smoke. Each time the bus stopped, the driver's would depart without a word, leaving the western passengers trying to figure out if this one was the real stop or just another mandatory sit-in-a-chair-for-five-minutes delay. Though who can blame them? With honks reaching the hundreds per minute, bus driving is serious business here.

Cat Ba is a splendid little port town, with plenty of seafood joints to boot. Even has floating restaurants out on the bay, which I may check out tonight. Best thing about the seafood here is that it's all kept alive right up until it's cooked. From crabs, to shrimp, to fish, and even horseshoe crabs, the restaurants keep everything in tanks, usually streetside. Earlier today I walked a few km to one of the nearby sand beaches, offering gorgeous views and wondrously warm water. I'll likely spend a couple more days here on Cat Ba, hopefully doing some more hiking and maybe even a daysail through the local archipelago. After that, I'm figuring off to Dong Hoi, which I believe to be a little less traveled than Hanoi and Cat Ba. I'm looking for somewhere a little more laid back, where I can spend closer to a week.