Good morning SE Asia!: 02/10/13 - 03/10/13 Viet Hai Village (Cat Ba Island)

The first night we met two other couples who were staying at the bungalows, just the six of us. Jon and Jen were English/American and lived in Guangzhou China working as teachers. Manuel and Sara were Romans and came over for a two week holiday. All really nice guys and we shared a few beers and a few stories.
Next day after breakfast of a half inch thick pancake each and the obligatory super-sweet coffee (awesome stuff), we went out for a hike to the top of the peak near the site. We didn’t find the route but ended up seeing all the other routes, through jungle and cave, past massive spiders and other weird animals. We got back to camp and got the right directions for the route to the peak and went out again. 260m climb to the top, where there were two buildings and a mobile phone and TV masts. The view from the top over Halong and Lan Ha bays was amazing. It wasn't peaceful for long as a group of Spanish tourists and a German couple arrived with their guide so after a few photos we scrambled back down to camp. When we got there, Cuong the main guy asked if we got to the top, and were we OK? Said yes, we were then he told us they had to go up to the top now to transport a woman from a European couple back down who had broken her leg! Turns out she was the German woman we saw at the top, and she pulled a loose boulder down onto her foot/leg and broke it and her foot. It took them 3 hours to carry her down, then she had a truck ride and two speedboats to get her to Hanoi for an operation. Sod that... Felt really sorry for the couple.

More dinner and beers in the evening again, couple more tourists arrived. Manuel and Sara leaving in the morning.

Next day we went kayaking, Johanna's cold feeling much better. We went along with Jon and Jen (their second day on the Kayaks). You get a fisherman boat out to one of the floating houses and then into the kayaks. The floating houses are really floating fish farms, with about ten netted areas all the way around. This place had a secret though. Lifting the floorboards in the main room (also the restaurant for lunch), the lady owner pulled up the net bit by bit, and eventually we could see this humongous fish - about 6ft long and must be 150kg, big enough to swallow a child!!! No idea what they kept it for as they didn’t speak any English, think it was some kind of Grouper.

The kayaking was awesome, we paddled around a few Karsts until we found one with a small sandy beach and pulled over. Spent the rest of the morning there doing absolutely nothing. No noise, no people, nothing at all. We paddled back for lunch at 13.00. Big meal of fish and squid and rice and greens. Included in the price of $25 per person for the whole day. Afternoon we were going to go a bit further, but followed Jon and Jen to another beach instead and then had a tour around a lagoon are on the way back. Sun setting, we made our way home. Incredible place.