Avoiding the tourists

Nothing much occurred today as the majority of it was spent travelling. We got back from the sleeper bus at half 3 in the morning and had to sit in the movie room at the hostel in Hanoi. Luckily, someone put a film on so we sleepily watched that and slept for another hour until our bus to Halong Bay came to collect us at 8am. It wasn't until lunch time that we made it to Halong but we had decided to not go on the normal touristy route of getting on a boat and spending two days floating round the islands. Instead, we wanted to go to Cat Ba Island, the largest island in Halong bay. We had to take a taxi, a ferry then a bus to get to Cat Ba town from Halong so we didn't make it till about 5pm. The ferry was pretty cool though, moving between these amazing rock formations, passing little old fishing boats with men rowing or fishing in them. The public bus didn't feel the safest and I wouldn't advise any girl to take it if they're not wearing a bra but it made us feel more like the locals. 

In Cat Ba town we found our hostel (family run with huge beds so we can recover from last night) and after showering (hadn't showered in 48 hours so the build up of sun cream and sweat was starting to reach disgusting levels) we set out for tea. 

I had googled some good places to eat so we found one that was recommended and I chose a sweet and sour fried fish which came with rice. There was all sorts of flavours including ginger and fennel and some tomato based sauce. The fish itself was beautifully cooked and flaky although I wasn't entirely sure what it was. Some kind of white fish. One of the tastiest meals I've had in a while. 

Cat Ba town is small but pretty busy and gets more lively at night. There are a few European or American tourists here and there but mostly locals or Vietnamese tourists. This I prefer as you're obviously going somewhere good but it isn't known to everyone yet.