January 21, 2017

Another busy day on the Ha Long Bay cruise. An early start to the morning, we had breakfast at 7:00 this morning so that we could be at the first “activity” early. Our first activity was Ti Top Island and a climb to the top to the pagoda where we could see the whole of Ha Long Bay.

There were approximately 460 steps to climb. It was well worth the view when we got to the top.

We had time to go swimming but the water was a little cool, Hailey and I went for a little paddle instead.

The Island was renamed to Ti Top Island after the Russian cosmonaut, German Ti Top came to Vietnam and hiked up this mountain with Ho Chi Minh in 1962.

After Ti Top Island we had a short cruise to Cat Ba Island where we entered the National Park. There are a lot of endangered species in the park and we hiked up a \”beejeesus\” hill to over 280 metres. It was a tough hike but I made it to the first peak.

I didn’t need to go to the next one as I only have my Keene Sandals with me and they are not really suitable for that kind of hiking.

Ralf always has to stand on the edge of the mountain!

Going down was very interesting, although after the first section it was a lot easier.

After the mornings excursions we settled in to our hotel room and then had lunch. No rest for the wicked we headed out again in the afternoon to Monkey Island for swimming. I don’t think anyone really wanted to go swimming as it was quite cool and the water was not that warm. However, we did see a lot of monkeys.  Apparently they like to steal cans of coke and fanta from the tourists  and will also go for handbags and cameras.

I don’t like monkeys very much. I kept my distance while Ralf got a little closer to them.

I had a nice walk down the beach while Ralf headed up another climb to a look-out point.

Cat Ba Island has a population of 500,000 people. I thought maybe Thuy had got his numbers mixed up, but apparently 300,000 people live in the floating fishing village which is very close to the harbor at Cat Ba Island harbour.

We had two hours to spare before dinner and I was hoping to post yesterdays blog, but the internet was really slow. It will have to wait until we get back to the hotel tomorrow. As will this one.

After a very nice dinner the whole group decided to go for a beer. There was a small bar across the road called Le Pub. We all headed in there and reorganized the furniture. The poor man had just opened a new bar/restaurant and was not expecting 13 thirsty Europeans. We ordered beer but it was warm, so he headed down the street to get some cold ones. Before we left the owner came back and offered us a special drink for coming into his bar. We gathered it was some kind of home-made liquor, made from wine and then with extra things added into it and “fired” again, then stored for a year. It tasted like a harsh brandy. However, the men who had wives or girlfriends with them got a full shot glass of this and their partners only got half a glass. It was as if this stuff was going to give the guys extra strength!!

We had a good evening and headed back to the hotel early. Tomorrow is a little later start 8:00 a.m. for breakfast.

We didn\’t go to this bar, maybe they do not know the \”tradition\” dropping your pants and showing your bum.