Snakes, flesh eating fish, and a damn jelly

We had a very busy day. We went to Cat Ba Island to visit a small village, Viet Hai. There’s only about 75 families in this area, where they raise rice and are supported by tourism. We sat at a local restaurant and learned about the area. Another UNESCO site, the Cat Ba archipelago includes close to 400 islands, similar to the karsts we saw in Ninh Binh, but these are in the water. The karsts formed from layers and layers at the bottom of the ocean around 300 million years ago and then were uplifted. You can see the different layers stretching vertically from sea to sky. We also learned about the rice wine that they mix with different ingredients for a variety of medicinal purposes. In this case, Nikki tried the snake wine, dispensed from a jar with a few snakes coiled inside. As a chaser, she also sampled the banana wine, which was a lot less visually disturbing. She is brave!

After learning some history, we walked down the street for a face massage. We got to the “spa” and were escorted to a pond with tiny wooden stools encircling the concrete pool. It took a minute before I realized these are the fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. It wasn’t a face massage, he must have said fish massage (or it could have been foot massage). I don’t think I ever laugh as much as when I have my feet nibbled on by fish. It takes some getting used to, but Kim struggled to get anything but the end of her heels in the water. Although she’d just knocked back a shot of snake wine without flinching, it took Nikki several attempts to keep her feet in the water.

We returned to the boat and headed out to Lan Ha Bay for some kayaking. Kim decided to stay on the boat, so Nikki and I paddled around what we thought was a small karst. When we got to the back side, we realized that the islet was much bigger than we thought, so we turned back. I hopped out of the kayak, and Nikki took off on her own. I joined Kim on the upper deck and enjoyed the incredible view.

I think our favorite part of the day was rolling up on a secluded bay and jumping in the water for a swim. It has been insanely hot here, so the water was a welcome relief. I jumped in from the top deck, and Nikki followed. Kim decided to start closer to the water but eventually leapt from the top deck. Nikki and I swam over to a carve out in the limestone. It wouldn’t count as a “cave,” but the water had eroded a huge hole. Inside we could see the beginning of stalactites that had eventually stopped dripping. On our way back, Nikki was mentioning that jellyfish are common in Halong Bay from May to July. This was happy news, since we’re well into August. The cruise staff said they don’t allow swimming that time of year because the jellies are everywhere. Unfortunately, I found one that must have been left behind by its friends. I had kicked my leg right into its tentacle, lashing my calf almost all the way around. At first, Nikki thought I was joking, but swam away quickly when she realized I was serious. I got out of the water to find the day boat we were on didn’t have any provisions for jelly stings, and I wasn’t going to let someone pee on my leg. My leg stung for another 4-5 hours but luckily resolved itself by the time I went to bed. Although the sting is gone, you can still see small welts around my leg. We’ll see how it looks tomorrow.Read more