Vietnam – Nam Cat Island 22/5/16 – 23/5/16

Our boat journey this time was around 1.5 hours, sailing through the many isles of Ha Long Bay until we reached Nam Cat Island. There were only 5 of us on this part of the tour. A solo girl traveller from Canada and a couple from the Netherlands. When we arrived we couldn’t believe our eyes, as the island looked like any typical tropical island from the man travel magazines. The beach was a golden colour, with around a dozen bungalows dotted along its edge, most over hanging the sea shore, all facing into the sea. Once ashore we were given yet another Vietnamese feast for lunch before shown to our rooms. We were in the very end building made up of 4 bungalows. Each one done out in wood and each with their own ensuite bathrooms, and air-conditioning, beautiful. We were offered another boat ride for an hour then a cycle trip around a larger island, but we all declined this activity, instead deciding on a quiet afternoon just swimming in the ocean and kayaking. With our kayak, we decided to go out to the third small island and found a tunnel, so went through this. We turned around and came back through this before disaster struck. Our kayak sank with the 2 of us flung into the ocean. We laughed as Tina got back aboard, but it was impossible for me to, as each time I did, the damn thing sank again. We had no other choice but to swim back to the shore pushing it in front of us. As we approached the second island Tina managed to board it again so I continued swimming and pushing it. We must have looked a right sight. At the first island I decided to attempted to board it again, but in my attempt Tina fell out and cut her hand in doing so on the rocks which were like broken glass. No other choice but for the 2 of us to swim with it again. Not sure how far away from the shore we were, but it seemed like an eternity getting back. All I could see was streams if blood coming from Tina (t – all i could think of was these cuts on my fingers need stitches and what if there were sharks!). We eventually made it and as we staggered to bring the upside down kayak back onto the sand, we collapsed in a heap . There was no chance we were taking it back to where we got on to it, so we informed staff where it was. About an hour later Tina noticed the tide coming in so she and the other 3 went with her to find out the kayak had a crack in it and it was full of sea water. I shudder to think of the outcome should we have gone further out to sea. What we should have done was left the feking thing where it tipped us out.
That evening we met another 2 couples, 1 from the UK and the other from France. At dinner we all chatted about our trip to Vietnam and all got on great.
Day 7
The following morning we all headed back to our bigger vessels, and departed company. We were the last to leave the smaller boat, but again pleased as we had returned to the Royal Palace Boat, the one we had spent the night on. Once on board we joined in a cookery class, learning how to make spring rolls, which we ate just before we had lunch. And yes another massive spread of glorious food. I think we must have put on a few kilos during the past 48 hours. We were then on our way back to the shore and transferred back to Hanoi.
Once there we had half an hour to pick up our larger cases, unpack our overnight bags, put everything into the larger cases as we were being transported to Hanoi airport for a short (1 hour) flight to Hue.