Please press play to set the vibes for the Cat Ba read
MURDER ON THE DANCEFLOOR – SOPHIE ELLIS BEXTER
DAY 43 – Family Time
I woke up feeling refreshed. As I got to my hostel I saw another solo traveller who I started having a little bit of back and forth with. She was absolutely gorgeous and so smiley, I knew I had to learn more. Sarah told me she is from Dallas, Texas but is living in New York. She had also just come from the loop with a different group and we decided to go for a swim in the pool together.
We mooched over to the market and bartered for bikinis together, laughing the whole time. Aaron, Hannah, New Friend Sarah and I decided to go to the beach which was absolutely heaving and so loud with kids which was a bit of a shame but at least we were all together. Sarah and I were discussing that Cat Ba has a bit of a weird vibe, we can’t put our finger on it. It’s quite touristy, very built up with hotels and doesn’t have any particular charm. Our hostel (called Oversleep Hostel) was really nice (and had the hottest and most powerful showers I have experiences so far) so we had some peace and quiet there together.
The family met up for dinner and I was so happy to be with such funny people. However, we were all pretty nackered, so decided to postpone the big night out till the following day.
DAY 44 – Boat Trip
The family embarked on a boat trip to Lan Ha and South Ha Long Bay (£25). We thought it best to do a boat trip from here rather than Ha Long bay because it is really busy and really expensive. We had so much fun having some beers, jumping in the water and avoiding the weird guy who was in our group. We also went Kayaking which was a highlight of mine and Sarah’s time travelling. The whole thing was just fun and wholesome.
HAVING FUN ON THE BOAT
We topped off this fabulous day by going to the bar with some people from the hostel, where we danced to Murder On The Dancefloor and played pool. Sarah also found the love of her life so I was very pleased to wingman.
Aaron, Hannah and I paid £1.50 to go on these tiny spinny bikes by the pier and we were all pissing ourselves. Aaron was driving like a maniac and Hannah was cackling like an old woman, the vibes were unmatched. We decided to carry on the party at a Karaoke bar. We started the performance with Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’, when the karaoke machine stopped working and we had to unfortunately leave (I can’t believe this has happened twice now). Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ was patiently waiting up next, so it was an additional shame to leave.
DAY 45 – Bioluminescent Plankton Party
I had booked an additional day in Cat Ba to get caught up on the blog. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that the content has become rather irregular, and if you have noticed, I don’t want to know. This blog is slyly the bane of my life because it takes so long to sort out, but I’m already glad I’ve got the memories documented. So much is going on everyday it’s easy to forget what you’ve been up to and who you’ve met. A reset day is always a good idea anyway.
Sarah and I grabbed some breakfast at the hostel and discussed the previous nights events. We watched some videos of Sabrina Carpenter singing live, and then put on a bit of Amy Winehouse. She was headed to Da Nang to sort out her visa, it is much more complicated for Americans in Vietnam. We said our goodbyes and promised to meet in Peru, the Caribbean or Jordan by 2026 with Hannah and Aaron.
At 4pm Hannah and Aaron met me at my hostel to see some bioluminescent plankton. It was quite an expensive tour, about £30, but Ha Long Bay is supposedly one of the best places in the world to see it. The pictures below are surprisingly deceptive because the beaches were full of rubbish (and parts of kitchen/bathroom? Maybe people fly tipped them?) But we managed to get some nice piccies before enjoying a BBQ on the beach.
We all sat on a plastic mat and ate together, armed with a single skewer each and no plates. It got dark, so dark in fact you couldn’t see what you were stabbing your skewer with, but this was probably to lure all the plankton over to us. We sat with a beer and spoke about how wholesome the whole experience felt and how excited we were to see the plankton.
Seeing the plankton in the water was pretty incredible. We ended up canoeing over to another area to see them better and it was actually terrifying for me to be in the sea in the pitch black, but honestly it was worth it. The high season for seeing them is Jan-March so they weren’t the brightest they could’ve been, but you could see them when you moved your ore through the water. When you picked up water in your hand you could see the plankton fall through like beads. Aaron was the only one in our group who jumped in, running the high risk of being stung by a jellyfish. Everyone cheered and clapped for him, I was very proud he was my friend (he wasn’t even stung, good man).
We headed back at about 8pm for an early night, ready for the 9am bus to Hanoi the following day. I whacked on a bit of YouTube and re-packed my bag which is absolutely overflowing at this point, and had a bit of vape in bed.
Cat Ba you were a bit of a weird vibe. I’m not sure I would recommend it as somewhere to visit, but like with many things, it’s the people you’re with that make the place. Being with Hannah, Aaron and Sarah made my heart sing. Everything was so laid back and we just had a silly funny time together and it is just another amazing thing I have been lucky enough to experience with amazing people.