Travel Photography | 46. Breathtaken by Halong Bay and Morotbiking in Cat Ba Island

I mean, let’s face it; Vietnam is the king of ripping off tourists. The way to go would be to book a ticket from a to b with a tour organiser. This way there will be someone to help you transfer from vehicle to another without the next one always trying to rip you off.

This is how it works:

1. You go to any hotel or hostel in Hanoi and ask for tickets or information on how to get from A to B.
2. They give you misinformation especially on the local buses because everyone want’s to sell their overpriced and -crowded tours.

Example from later on when we were asking around Chao Doc with my friend Antti, no-one seemed to know about any local transport to reach the Cambodian border, until Antti spotted the bus on a random street. The ticket was close to ten times cheaper than the tourist shuttles we were offered earlier!

…anyhow, long story short, we had to take a private big-ass boat to reach Cat Ba only to find out they dropped us on the wrong side of the island (30 km from where we were going) and it was already dark. So we overpaid again to reach our final destination. 🙂 Live and learn I guess.

The boat ride did kind of make everything ok. Would you take a look at these views?

Once we reached the Cat Ba city, we were a little exhausted and a little pissed, so, we decided to get a little bit more pissed with some newly met people from South Africa.

Next day it was time to try out some motorbike action. Inspired by so many stories I’ve heard from other people and especially after talking to free renegade, "born to be mild" -riders Jyri (FI) and Ben (USA) in Hanoi.

()
Neverminding the slight hangover, I bravely jumped on the first motorised bike ever rode in my life. And I’m loving it to this day. (still, ride like an old lady and I’m pretty sure that might insult the old ladies, so sorry)

Cat Ba is one of the most beautiful and different places I have been. And at this time of the year, the temperature was very ok for me as I wasn’t quite adjusted to hot-humid climates yet. We rode around the island checking the scenery and stopping for a beach-break.

Also visited a smaller, fishing village, which had a very nice atmosphere and the nicest people!

They are like paintings!

Afterwards, a well-earned good night drinks at the bar.

For the last day in Cat Ba, we hiked on top of Hill 177, where an old air defence base lays.

On the way, we met this mesmerising matrix-mirror!

Posed with some old war-machinery

Saw some war memorablia.

Caught a stunning view.

Spied on some tourists on monkey island.

And finally had this pleasant guy sign a postcard for my youngest brother.

We got tickets to go back to Hanoi from our hotel and got an all-the-way ticket for a fraction of the price we paid to get here.

Even though I trashed local people trying to rip you off all the time, I have to say. Once things get rolling here, no matter how chaotic it may seem, everything just works out! We took like three buses and two boats to reach the destination and all the exchanges were handled by a random person giving the next guy sufficient amount of money and we were taken care of.

Heading back it was quite dark already.

One of the craziest things ever happened to me on this trip. We were waiting for a new bus and I really had to pee. So I went to find a toilet, knowing that I risk missing the bus.

After a while, I found one and when running back, people around were waving in the direction of the bus’s backlights. Before I knew it, the lady in charge of putting us on the right bus started cursing at me in Vietnamese (whilst grabbing her cell phone to call the bus driver, I imagine), yelling something at a nearby moto-taxi driver while shoving me on the bike.

The moto-taxi then started to speed to catch the bus, driving on the wrong side, making really dangerous manoeuvres, shouting at the driver to slow down. Eventually, he did, just enough of me to get off the bike and jump on the moving bus. So, in the end, I made it. But what a ride!

Now I wish things worked this well everywhere!

Thanks for reading!

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(First published 05/12/2011 at LiveJournal)

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