Cat Ba Island. One of the largest in Vietnam and steeped in some good history. After leaving the great "resort" that I was at (had the weather been a bit better I might still be there!) on a smaller island across the bay from Cat Ba, we took a "ferry" to Cat Ba Town. The ferry was a ramshackle, seemingly almost on seaworthy boat, not much bigger than a row boat and we sailed slowly across to the town.
Once in town we had the opportunity to visit a market...I of course was excited.This was a food and everything else market...think Target with a gritty, grimey feel, where they are slaughtering the fish and meat in front of you! As I was wondering through the many stalls, I stopped to watch a woman clean a fish...this led to me making some friends and woman getting ready to marry me! They kept offering up their friends, miming their different attributes. This one is tall, this one can cook, this one has big boobs, etc. Very funny. These outgoing happy ladies got coy and shy when I tried to take their picture though!
From the market we went to check out the "hospital cave" where he VC kept hidden a military outpost for Cat Ba and a medical center. They turned a huge cave into a hospital equipped with operating rooms, patient rooms, escape routes etc. Pretty ingenious way to try to keep people safe and avoid the US bombing raids.
My favorite part of the day was the mountain biking excursion from the Cave to another town. It was at times challenging, and fun, but mostly beautiful and peaceful through out the ride. We went through the national park, down a road, right on the coast. A very nice way to see the beauty of this area. Sadly across from where we were biking were signs about mines and unexploded ammunition. Certainly war comes with a cost.
Eventually, made it back to Hanoi where a few hours later made it on to the overnight train. I may report more on this later, but let me be clear, 14 hours on a train (where you have a bed in a sleeper car) beats 14 hours in a bus, plane, minivan, etc. It was actually pleasant and I go a good nights sleep!
Pictures to follow...
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