Trekking on Cat Ba Island

Traveling  in Asia is often the most adventurous part of your day.  Our boat guide found a taxi for as very few speak English and the one he found for us was not english speaking, but we were assured he knew where to take us.   Hmmmm…… I knew something was up when he pulled out his phone for directions……we were looking for a ferry to take us to Cat Ba Island amidst a swarm of ferries.  He points one out and we carry our packs over but, alas – wrong ferry.  We need to walk a kilometer down the ferry line-ok, we walk what I think is a kilometer and start looking for someone to speak English and with some success find out that we are now two kilometers from where we need to be, ok – more exercise, we’ve been eating too much anyway.  Another jaunt and we find the right spot but the ferry has left, next one in two hours.  It’s all part of the adventure!

 The effort to get to Cat Ba Island is well worth it.  Our hotel room has a great ocean view and the owners whole family lives in the hotel too; sisters, wife and two young daughters makes the place a warm family environment.  Plus for $3 you get a great foot massage.

We spent one full day trekking from one part of the island to the other side, across 5 pretty steep peaks and all through jungle foliage. It was very cool.  The entire trek was 15 kilometers (about 10 miles) and at about the 11km mark we stopped and ate at a local village.  We were all hungry and thirsty, and after trekking together, felt a kinship as the stories of travel and past adventures were non-stop.  One of the things that we find interesting is that many of the people we meet are on similar travel adventures or even longer, many traveling for 3 months and a few up to two years!  It’s a very normal experience here especially for Europeans.  Our full day adventure complete with bus ride to the national park, guide, lunch, and the boat ride back was only $18 per person.

One of our fellow Trekkers, Rick, had been cycling for 183 days when we met and he has about a year and a half to go.  Check out his blog at:   Www.thecyclingdutchman.com.   He has promised to visit us when he cycles through California.