Day 40! Today was full of viewpoints and good weather! Both of which are some of my favorite things!

I woke up at 8am for a full day of adventure!

After eating our free hostel breakfast (the same as yesterday), I met up with my friends Merel, Dani, and Valentin. We all hopped on our motorbikes and headed across the island to hike the Cat Ba national park viewpoint!

The entrance fee to the park was 80,000 Dong, which is around $4.

The hike started with a path leading up to a staircase which then turned into a winding and steep path through the forest.

The little pavilion on the top of the mountain, in the second picture, is where we were heading!

As we processed further and further the path started to become steeper and turned into a bit of a climb, as these viewpoints tend to do!

But after 35 minutes of hiking we made it to the first peak!

The views were already incredible but there was still more to go, so we walked & climbed for another 15 minutes to make it to the top!

I also snagged a new sticker along the way (the little unicorn).

The view from the top was worth the hike! We even made our way to a more precarious over look and it made for a great picture, curtesy of our friend Dani who didn’t want to venture out that far.

After we hiked our way back down from the viewpoint we went a little ways down the road to a cave that was actually included in the entry to the national park!

The Trung Trang Cave was around 300m long (900 ft) and wasn’t nearly as impressive as the Paradise Cave in Phong Nha.

However, this cave had you ducking and almost crawling through spaces and the temperature fluctuated a lot inside the cave for some reason!

After exploring the cave, we hopped back on our motorbikes and headed to find a mechanic because Valentin, Merel, and I all needed oil changes and other various repairs.

On the way, Dani was kind enough to take some awesome pictures of us riding!

Unfortunately, we didn’t find a mechanic as they were all closed for Tet. So that’ll have to be something we find ASAP!

So instead of getting our bikes repaired, Dani, Valentin, and I got some drinks at a cafe in the main restaurant district of the island.

After enjoying our drinks, we decided to spontaneously head to the beach since it was such a gorgeous day out today!

Since it was only a 2 minute drive to the beach, we didn’t stop back at the hostel to change into swim trunks. So we decided to just run in with the clothes we had on and it ended up being a blast!

I wasn’t expecting to swim on a beach again in Vietnam, but this was a very welcomed surprise! The water was actually warm this time around and with the sun finally out it made for a fun last hangout with Dani!

We finished up at the beach and went back to the hostel to shower and get ready for the evening.

The evening started off meeting two new friends from the UK, Meg and Cara!

Valentin and I were planning on heading to a viewpoint called the Cellular Tower and we invited Meg and Cara to come along for the ride!

We made our way back across the entire island, which took about 30 minutes, and started our climb up a very sketchy ladder. Honestly, probably the tallest ladder I’ve ever climbed!

We made it up to the top safely and just in time for sunset! There were two other travelers up there too who we hung out with while we watched the sun go behind the mountains.

This sunset was totally worth the climb up! I’m glad we didn’t let fear get in the way on this one because the views were great and the sunset was perfect on this clear day!

We made our way back to the hostel and capped off the night by enjoying a few beers and playing cards!

These past few days in Cat Ba have been a blast! From the wonderful people to the sweet adventures, the island was full of life even during Tet!

I’m glad the weather changed for us a bit too and it looks like the weather should be only getting warmer in the north now, so please send some good vibes that it is!

Tomorrow we’ll be heading to Hanoi to enjoy a couple of days in the city before making our way further north to eventually do the infamous Ha Giang Loop!

– Elie