Good Morning, Cat Ba!

Cat Ba Island, Sept 26 2009

This is how it looked from our room in Sun Flower Hotel at Cat Ba Island. It’s not at all like our hotels in Hanoi. We paid 49 USD per pax to Sunshine Travel for this Halong Bay – Cat Ba Island 2D1N Tour. I would like to remind anyone who is seeking to visit Halong Bay on a local tour for the first time. There are lots of travel agents in Vietnam that offers a tour to Halong Bay. There several travel agents that offers a lower price than mine. But, don’t you fix your mind on prices. Make sure what’s included in the price offered. I went to a travel agent near our hotel in Hanoi and asked how much does a Halong Bay – Cat Ba Island 2D1N Tour cost. 30 USD, said the agent. I asked what the name of the hotel is.

On the way to Sun Flower Hotel, I spotted out the hotel that agent mentioned. Oh! It was a small hotel. If you have read my previous blog, it’s the kind of that cubical hotel. Worse, the hotel is far from the seashore. It’s located in an alley among the cliffs. Come on, you come to stay overnight on an island but you can’t see the sea? And to get to see the sea you have to take a long walk? Oh, come on!

Early in the morning our tour guide took us on a motorbike touring the island. It was cost an extra of 17 USD for the 2 of us, Tia and me. 2 motorbikes, 2 riders with one of them, our tour guide.

Cat Ba Island is so vast that there are varieties of seashores separated from one another but on the same island. It was just rather a pity that the sky was flat and I didn’t get the chance to capture a real sunrise. However, please do enjoy these: