Day 39! No sleeping in after a late night for Tet! It’s time to go to a World Heritage Site and see some of natures wonders!

After staying up till 2am watching fireworks, my alarm went off at 7am for breakfast and an adventure!

My hostel, Cat Ba Backpackers Hostel Pool and Bar, has a breakfast buffet of eggs, pancakes, fruits, fried rice, toast, and noodles! It’s honestly the best breakfast I’ve had for free from a hostel ever.

I chowed down on a lot of food and waited for my friends to come join me because at 8am we were setting off on an excursion we spontaneously booked the day before.

The four of us, along with about 10 others from our hostel, piled into a van and headed to one of the Cat Ba Island piers.

For 500,000 Dong (around $20), we booked a boat excursion through the famous Ha Long Bay!

Ha Long Bay is close to Cat Ba, however solo travelers find Cat Ba more enjoyable to stay at since it’s less busy and less touristy.

We were all a bit tired but excited to find out what the day had in store for us!

After other groups of tourists arrived, we all got on the boat and set out to sea.

We started off cruising past a small fishing village of 500 people who all live on the water. And started seeing some amazing rock formations, which is what Ha Long Bay is known for!

Our first stop on the cruise was monkey island! And it lived up to the name as there were monkeys everywhere!

After saying hello to the monkeys, who looked pretty scared, Valentin and I saw something that looked like stairs so we of course started to climb them!

These stairs quickly turned into a viewpoint hike… which then turned into a viewpoint climb as we made our way up jagged rocks the worked perfectly as hand grips and footholds.

The view was amazing and it got me very excited for all the viewpoints SE Asia will offer me throughout my trip!

But just as we got to the top, it was time to head on to the next location. So we carefully scaled our way back down and joined the rest of our tour group.

(I later found out that these monkeys were placed here from Thailand for tourism… which unfortunately ruins that part of the trip for me. So I’d discourage this part of it, BUT the viewpoint is 100% something you should try and do)

As the boat pressed on, we were met with more jaw mystical rock structures that made me really question how they got there!

After doing some googling, it turns out this World Heritage Site was created by rainfall and movement of the tectonic plates! If this was in the US I’d assume glaciers were the cause, but since the climate here is usually very hot, glaciers weren’t a thing!

Also I’ll add, it was a pretty chilly day. The high was 65 degrees Fahrenheit and there was a breeze blowing on us for most of the day! So everyone was bundled up.

We arrived at our next activity and got suited up for some kayaking through the rock structures!

This honestly made the trip out to sea worth it! The water was calm, the views were jaw dropping, and it was VERY quiet. All that was making noise were paddles in the water and the nature around us! It was so serene!

While we were kayaking we saw a fairly large jelly fish floating around! Apparently another kayak saw one that was 1.5 feet wide, but this one was still very impressive and majestic.

After a nice and long 1.5 hours of kayaking we got back on the boat and had lunch!

Since we were one of the last kayaks back on the boat we had to join random tables of people to eat, but I had a nice conversation with Eliza, from England, while eating a family style meal (a feast) of rice, noodles, fish, tofu, chicken, potato’s, fruits, and nuts!

A quick boat ride away after lunch and we arrived at a spot to swim… if you dared.

They claimed the water would be 20 degrees Celsius (around 68 degrees Fahrenheit), so as the daring adventurer I am, I was the first to test the cold day and this alleged warm water!

The boat was a mix of old and young travelers from all over the world but they all watched with skepticism (and probably some thought I was crazy) as I jumped off the top deck of the boat into… the FRIGID water below.

After I jumped in, my friend Valentin bravely joined me as well and then an old French man did too!

The three of us then quickly swam to a nearby beach to try and stay warm and then a handful of other people got inspired to jump in as well, including my friend Merel! It was goofy and very chilly. But I had a blast doing it and I’m very glad I took the opportunity to have a dip in the beautiful blue sea!

After hanging out on the beach a group of us swam as fast as we could back to the boat to dry off and shiver.

It was then time for the boat ride back to shore and to all of our happy surprise, the sun finally decided to come out! It’s actually been days since we’ve seen it as it’s been enjoying hiding behind the clouds in the cold weather.

As we got back to the harbor, my crew was all in agreement that that was money well spent! We got to meet some great people and experience an incredible spot in Vietnam.

I’m sure in the Vietnamese summer this place is even more beautiful, but with it being cold AND Tet, we had this excursion all to ourselves (which apparently it’s very uncommon). This made the whole experience even more special as we got to really experience the beauty of this area without it being overcrowded with tourists!

We got back to the hostel and it was time for warm showers and a Power Nap to get ready for the nights adventure.

I met back up with my friends and we set out on a quick motor bike ride to the main part of town for dinner.

We ended up finding a fairly reasonable priced meal. But since it’s Tet, the kitchen staff wasn’t fully there. So it took a long time for the food to come out. I think it took around an hour!

After dinner we went down the road a little bit to of course get a sweet treat!

Nutella and banana crepes are definitely a favorite of mine! They’re cheap and delicious!

After dinner and desert we rode back to the hostel where some of us played a game called Shithead, which my friend Hannie taught me in Dalat, and then we also played Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza!

This time around we didn’t get a noise complaint.

It was a really fun day with great people. Almost every day of this trip has confirmed I made the right choice to solo travel long term.

On top of that, I’m looking forward to staying here in Cat Ba for another few days! It’s fun riding around the country but my butt needed a nice break after the past few days.

Tomorrow will be another fun outing of hiking and taking my bike to the mechanic for a checkup and oil change!

– Elie