Grumpy was in even a worse mood as he had gotten drunk last night on the boat next door, great how much fun would he make the day now, we were off to Cat ba island and a hike up a hill with a beautiful view. Had not had that great a sleep the night before our cabin was musty and damp which did not help and I had a rattle by my head, I did manage to stop this with the fake plant that was in the room.
Breakfast was served as the boat left it’s mooring and headed away, the day was overcased and was threatening to rain, so a bush walk would be a great way to spend the afternoon, we left Ralf on another boat as he was only on a two day trip not the three. When we arrived at Cat ba the wharf was in disarray it had started raining and was not looking so good, now my enthusiasm was really picking up, not. After a bit of a wait around we loaded up on the bus and headed inland for a bit. By the time we arrived at the trekking spot it had stopped raining so we all jumped out and headed into the hills, for a start it was just a cement walking track up a hill then the real bush walking started. Mud was the order of the day and soon entertainment was all around with people falling over everywhere, have to say here I did not really think it was that bad but a lot of people were walking in flip flops, dumb arses.
One girl was having trouble so I offered to put her coat in my bag so she could use both hands, it was only later that she told me it had all her money and everything in, bugger could have had some spending money for Thailand. The walk up eventuated in a bit of a climb which lots of people struggled with, I bounded up like a mountain goat, jumping from one rock to the other it was a bit of fun. When we finally broke through the trees it was to be greeted by cloud covered hills, spikes of rock tearing up out of the ground, it was a majestic view that was well worth the climb and the hundred thousand or so mosquitoes that hounded our progress throughout the climb.
There was a tower at the top which I scaled, 5 people max and when I got to the top there were about 10 and a few going up and down, the stairs up wound be enough to put a shiver up most peoples spines, not that there hard to climb it all the rust that is around every joint and the wooden boards up on the viewing platform at the top was just as bad. I took some photo’s and headed back down to the safety of terraferma. The walk down was about as exciting as a root canal, I was stuck in the slowest group ever with no way of getting past without pushing people off the track. At the bottom we washed all the mud off in a fresh water spring and waiting for the French again we headed back to the bus for the next part of our trip.
The Hotel, well it was not your 3 star hotel that I had paid for but it was passable, I managed to get some washing done after I had had some lunch. Then headed off towards the beach and the sea. Cat ba has 3 beaches that you can go to all within walking distance from the town center, I had heard beach two was the one to go to so headed there. I had meet a couple of pommie lads at lunch and they wandered down not to long after I had arrived and was out in the water. We chatted most of the afternoon while enjoying the water, I headed out when my fingers started to look old and then headed back to the hotel for a shower and some food. Ate with the pommie guys then headed out with them to a club around the corner for a few drinks. Meet up with the girl who’s jacket I had carried up the hill and a few of her friends. It was a pretty good place we got loads of free shots and at about 11pm I decided it was time for me to go as I still had a ride to do the next day.
The walk home was nice enough until I wondered past the local Knock shop (prostitutes) were I was leapt on by one of the local girls, she was fairly insistent and would not let me walk away and kept trying to drag me back to the Knock shop, I said no and tried to break free, tried really hard, then when she would still not let me go I picked her up and carried her off down the road to which she finally decide to let me carry on my way. When I arrived back at the hotel one of our guides(not Grumpy) was drinking out the front with some of the guys from the hotel, I was invited to stop and have a drink with them, rice wine yummy. I only had a couple of very small sips and chatted with them for a while then finally about 1am went to bed.
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