Cat Ba Island, 11/9

After we checked into our hotel on Cat Ba Island, I went up to the roof deck to take some pictures of the sunset, and joined some students who had gone up for a social hour before dinner. We ate on the same deck, but it was after dark. The picture below is of the portion of the harbor where most of the fishing and charter boats are moored. The next six pictures are a sequence of the sunset.

Sunday morning continued to be the clearest weather I have seen in this area. The other times I have been here there has been a haze over the formations.

Here are two pictures of the same moorings I took at sunset yesterday, and one in the direction of the sunset shots.




We boarded a smaller boat that would transport us to a sheltered section of islands for kayaking.

On the way we passed many fish farms. The people live on the platforms, and raise the fish in the mesh tanks underneath and around them.

The ride to where we would begin kayaking was as beautiful as yesterday.

So was the area we kayaked through.

Everyone enjoyed the kayaking. There was even one place where we could paddle through a hole in one of the formations. All made it back to the pick up point by the designated time.

The trip back was equally spectacular.

Some enjoyed it from the top deck, while others relaxed in the lower cabin.

After lunch at the hotel we took this fast ferry to Haiphong. Our bus met us there for the 2.5 hour ride back to Hanoi.