Cat Ba Island

We left Hanoi yesterday morning headed for Halong Bay on the Gulf of Tonkin. We planned on staying a couple of nights there before heading south, but once we arrived we hopped a boat heading to Cat Ba island instead. After about 12 hours of travelling, we made it to this quiet little town off the coast. The ride was gorgeous as we navigated through hundreds of tiny mountain islands and stopped off for a walk through a cave. The most interesting aspect was having to change boats in the middle of the water on 2 seperate occasions with all our luggage on our backs. There is a national park on the island that we will be hiking through tomorrow. No pictures yet, I'm afraid. This town only has dial up connections and is using Windows 98 that doesn't support our digital camera. It is nice and peaceful here and we are happy to be out of Hanoi. That city is filled with a bunch of people just trying to rip you off constantly. Overcharging and peddling junk seems to be the only viable economy. We did sit and have some beers with the locals that ran a cafe near our hotel and they helped redeem it. Last night we had dinner with our boat operator and overall, the Vietnamese people seem really pleasant. Discussing lifestyles and culture with these friendly folks has been very enlightening. Still can't view our blog though due to some government restriction. Hope it is posting properly.