278. | The last days on Cat Ba Island

It’s only Tuesday, or rather Tuesday at 2pm, but my backpack is already full.

With pleasant memories.

With a ton of photos.

I’m leaving this beautiful island tomorrow.

But the last two days want me to write their story. Well, my story.

Movie night

We didn’t go go-karting on Sunday, because they were having a movie night at the hostel.

It was very professionally organized. You could vote on which movie to watch using a link.

There was an extra opportunity that whoever wrote a Google review would be richer with a portion of popcorn.

I write reviews “professionally”, and I haven’t finished my article about Secret Garden Hostel yet.

I quickly made two videos, 33 pictures and wrote my novella-length review. I got almost 200 points for it in Google’s system. I could honestly praise this place and the people working here, because I got to know a very professionally organized, very friendly accommodation here. And most importantly, I already know every member of the staff.

The movie and my company were good, the popcorn less so, and with these thoughts this great week ended.

Let’s find out what this has to do with Monday!

Monday

I woke up early, planning a long day at work.

After breakfast I headed to one of my two favorite cafes.

I walked down the street in front of the motorbike rental business and greeted the lady owner. She stopped me and thanked me for the review I had written about her business yesterday. It was nice to see how happy she was.

Happiness vs. Monday: 1:0

A few meters later I reached the cafe when my phone rang. Someone responded to my review of the hostel last night.

I am copying this verbatim here.

That honestly means a lot to us. Really happy Secret Garden could feel comfortable enough to become part of your time in Cat Ba for so long. Thanks so much for all the kind words and for being part of the good vibes here with us and also thank you for every single “Xin chào”/ “Goodmorning” days🫶

It’s natural for me to be who I am. As well as greeting the staff. Every morning. With respect.

I am grateful that they appreciated this!

Happiness vs. Monday: 2:0

After that, I entered the café. I will write about cafés in the next post, so for now I will just say that – as every morning – we had a little chat with the lady at the counter.

Lychees came up. She told me that this year there were not many on the island, they had to be imported. Then – since I chose something new from the offer every time – she asked if I would like to try the lychee lemonade.

Of course I would. And she offered it to me as a gift from the house. “On the house”. I never thought that someone would say this to me. Nor that it could be better than the already incredibly delicious lychee lemonade.

Happiness vs. Monday: 3:0

And at this time I usually say that I haven’t put my ass to work yet, but my life has already scored three goals.

The rest of the day was spent working until late at night.

Then in the evening we did the go-karting that we had swapped for a movie night yesterday.

This game was really fun!

First of all – today being a holiday – there were a lot of people everywhere. On the seaside promenade there were not only pedestrians, but also cars, motorbikes, minibuses, cyclists and of course a lot of go-kart drivers racing everywhere.

The whole area was chaos. I even got hit once. We were haggling over the price with a go-kart driver when two guys knocked my leg out from under me. It didn’t hurt either. I was really just nervous that I almost fell on the two little boys. Although I had lost a lot of weight, they certainly wouldn’t have been happy to experience the rest of my weight.

As soon as I jumped on the go-kart, the fight for survival began. Everyone was racing everyone. Everyone was playing with everyone. Overtaking, drifting, sometimes flipping over and falling. All this while smiling a lot. Go-karts have three wheels: one in front, two in the back. Somehow I quickly found the feeling of how to blast on two wheels. Practicing this, I received many signs of appreciation, which is how I knew this could be something special.

For me, this city is the city of lights. And to top it all off, every go-kart is oozing beautiful neon colors like a modern Christmas tree.

It was great that this fun didn’t end up missing out. It was nice to be one of the colorful Christmas trees that evening!

On the boat!

I woke up early on Tuesday morning so that I wouldn’t miss the bus that was due to arrive at 7:45.

Then at 8:00 I received a message telling me to have another coffee because today’s program was delayed. They’d pick me up at 8:30. This is Asia Baby! This is how it’s going!

The bus picked me up at the indicated time. My preliminary information was that the tour guide spoke good English. Compared to that, there were already problems with my name. On the other hand, I was the only Westerner in the group all day.

In what kind of group?

The bus stopped 4 minutes from my accommodation at the port, from where we took a boat to the eastern half of the island.

Among 1000 islands.

It was a beautiful boat trip.

I’m not sure I saw 1000 small islands, maybe there were only 500.

I often thought during the trip that I would have a hard time writing about this experience. Because I can’t really find the words to describe this Tuesday’s beauty.

Of course, I don’t want to do it by “letting the pictures speak for me.” On the one hand – I often feel this way – the pictures can’t even convey what I saw, and on the other hand, there was a story to the day beyond the view.

There was only one person on the ship who spoke English. A retired 76-year-old doctor. I talked to him a lot, we took photos together, he asked me to take a few pictures of him. Then I gave in to his urging, so he took a few of me too.

The trip also included an excellent lunch. I had it with him, his wife, and three other Vietnamese people. They were so kind: everyone showed me what to eat, helped me with food from the shared portion. They prepared the spoon in front of me, then watched me eat with chopsticks.

I spent a good part of the time alone on deck. Strictly in the shade. The deck was so hot that when I walked across it without flip-flops, I immediately regretted forgetting to wear them.

Fortunately, I survived the crawl.

There were so many things to see. For example, the 500-1000 islands. Then the beautiful green, crystal clear water.

The boat stopped at one place for a longer time. Here you could swim, jump, ride a banana boat on the sea and kayak.

I was waiting for the kayaking. I was assigned to a Vietnamese lady. At first I thought about saying that I would prefer to kayak alone, but then I said that I would swim. Not only with the kayak, but also with the flow.

So we spent a funny fifteen minutes rowing in a boat. I rowed a little by myself – as befits a gentleman -, we pulled together, and after all, I didn’t come today to do some exercise, but to enjoy the day without any expectations.

I admit – I hope no one is offended – that when I lay down in the air-conditioned cabin on the roof to admire the view from there, I fell asleep a little. This day was all about relaxation. I could use a little sleep in paradise.

After a long anchorage at sea, the ship docked on the eastern side of the island. From there, they took us to a small village – in the interior of the island – in electric cars.

Actually, it was the surroundings of the village, the jungle, that really captivated me. And the road leading there. The small village, in its peacefulness, was nothing more than a street where – I felt – everyone was just waiting for the moment when a customer would come. Several people approached me to buy something. But I didn’t need anything.

Well, yes, for one thing, with this I was able to bring mutual happiness to one of the vendors and myself. I asked for a pineapple drink. This looked like the lady squeezed a whole pineapple for me. It was incredibly delicious. 40,000 VND (500 HUF, 1.7 USD).

The only thing that stood out from the flow on my day was the seasickness.

When we set off, the boat was rocking wildly. Standing on the top of a three-story boat, you can feel the waves. I immediately started to feel the warning in my head and stomach: you are the seasick type!

I decided then and there that I would deal with this now. I refuse to give in to this feeling. When we drove the electric cars on the island to the small village, I deliberately sat with my back to the direction of travel, as I did on the way back.

The car was going pretty fast, the road was winding, and I simply reminded myself that I was not willing to give in to the attack.

And that day, I simply avoided seasickness.

This doesn’t mean that I’ll never have a problem with this feeling again. Maybe I was just lucky today.

But I’ll definitely try to handle this issue this way next time.

On the way home, we sailed through a fishing village. It’s a bit modern, a bit old settlement on the water. I saw that people really live there in their floating houses among the fishing equipment. You could feel in the air that they work hard for a bite to eat. And this world showed itself in a very interesting and colorful way.