SE Asia Day 4

January 27th 2009
u may have noticed that i have stopped using caps in my entries..truth is the shift key on this computer sticks so it's easier not to.

woke up today at 7:30 for another random meal on the boat. it's a little warmer this morning so we took the opportunity to take some photos from the awesome top deck, that looks like it would be a great place to hang out on a warmer day. we cruised the bay a little longer and then docked at cat ba island. this is the largest of the islands in ha long bay and has an actual town where we will be staying the night. after disembarking we got onto another mini-bus and drove 20 minutes to the other side of the island where we got on a little boat that took us through a channel between some rice fields. then we pulled up to a beach and trekked about 15 minutes through said rice fields to another cave. the journey itself was pretty awesome. we didn't see any other tourists and going through all the little villages was fascinating. so before going into the caves ha tells us that only 4 other tour groups are allowed to visit this cave and that no one else can visit it. which makes sense since we didn't see anyone else the entire time were were there. the cave is so remote that our boat driver actually had to use a hand generator to start up the electricity for the lights in the cave. the cave is called Tom Coc and contains similar formations as hang sung sot. however this one has hidden caves that you have to shimmy through 1.5 ft wide, mud covered, holes to get to. yeah for jen, unfortunately kevin and i could not fit in them. we did however hike up a different path. it was awesome and the lights actually end so we were basically climbing in a cave with the light of our tour guide's cell phone.
after leaving the tunnel, we make the awesome walk back to the boat. we had lunch at a local place that had a deck that sat over a fish pond. The food was ok, fried, but afterwards we enjoyed jasmin tea and chocolates in the owners home, which seems fairly common here in vietnam. after lunch we got back on the bus and headed to cat ba town for the night. the best way to describe cat ba town is, i think, a cross between Nice, France and Mexico. the "tube" architecture with it's numerous story, yet only 10 ft wide buildings, one next to the other looks like the shops on the beachfront in Nice. the street vendors, cheap food and many hotels remind me of the puerto vallerta beachfront. at night the city lights up like vegas with blinking lights on the awnings and buildings. our hotel, Sunrise resort, sits on a hill above the city with a private beach. it is beautiful and very fancy. it has a nice pool and beach area that would be hopping, i'm sure, if it was about 10 degrees warmer. we checked in and enjoyed some ginger tea, the favorite in veitnam, and some teriyaki jerkied eal...uh huh...it was interesting. after taking in the view, we walked to town on a cliffside path from the hotel that provided stunning views of the bay. we grabbed some vietnamese coffee(french press and condensed milk) and some tiger beer in town and connected with some new friends from our tour. with us there were 11 of us, a couple from melbourne, a couple from brisbane, sisters from brisbane and two friends from germany. we all decided to meet up for dinner later that night at the green mango, recommended by ha. it was overpriced but still cheap by normal standards and gave us a chance to chat with some other people. after dinner we headed back to our hotel and went to sleep with the sound of the ocean on the beach in the background.