Day 70

Cat Ba

After appreciating the fantastic work I did bringing my shoes back to life, I got ready and headed out for a quick Banh Mi before heading towards the National Park on the island. It was the same road that I drove on to the pier when I arrived but I was gonna be stopping off on the way.

My first stop was unplanned and was to 'Hospital Cave' which as the name suggests, was a military hospital set up inside a cave during the Vietnamese War. They had set up each room to have mannequins dressed as they would have been so you really got a feel for the people that spent 10 years living in the cave. There were 3 floors in total but the bottom floor had all the different rooms like the kitchen, security room, dining room, bedroom, radio room, and of course a couple infirmary rooms. It was quite a short visit but definitely nice to see, and funnily reminded me of the War Tunnels at Dover but on a smaller scale.

Next up I arrived at the actual National Park. There was a cave and a hike but I decided to skip the cave and head straight for the hike. Parking up and paying the entrance, there were quite well mapped trails through the woods that lead to some gorgeous views over the National Park. It was fairly busy but I took a while to sit down at each spot to take in the views. I had also decided to run through the trails (one because I like running) but also to test how my shoes were holding up. And just like the hands at the golden bridge, they were holding up perfectly. After some precarious scrambling, I ran back down and grabbed a cold drink at the café at the bottom before moving on.

My next stop was even more unplanned, and I almost passed the sign for this random cave. I drove past the ticket office with no one in sight and made my way up the stairs into this cave. This was a super creepy experience as there was no one else about and being in a vast cave by yourself is a very eerie feeling. It also wasn't as built up for tourists as others were - this had lights but only some worked and the creepiest bit was where I turned the corner to see a long dark passage with a flickering light - just like in a horror movie. If this was a horror movie this is where you'd shout at the guy on screen to stop being stupid and not go into the creepy looking cave. Being stupid, I used my phone's flashlight to venture onwards before getting a bit freaked and turning around. A guy was waiting for me at the entrance and I ended up buying another ticket and headed out.

On the edge of the beautiful lake that I went to a couple days ago, there was a wooden walkway that skirted around the edge. I didn't have enough time before to check it out but now I did. Parking up, I wandered over the flag lined bridge and made it to a small peaceful temple sat overlooking the lake. I grabbed a chair and chilled for a while overlooking the lake and the road. People came and went but the thing that made me leave was the unbelievable amount of bites I was getting - SO ITCHY.

I rode into Cat Ba town for dinner, driving a different way along the coast back. I decided on a Korean place as I fancied a bit of a mix up and ordered some stuff that I could not tell you what it was called. What it was, was yummy, filling, and relatively cheap so I was a happy boy. After dinner I grabbed a KitKat ice cream and headed back for some sleep.Read more