hot water, Internet, glass front wall overlooking harbor, $6 US/night,
Rat sighting on rock cliff in hallway (we scared it out the window,
don't worry)
Boats in harbor, lots of boats
Emerald green water
---
Pho and coffee, a champions bk
Tickets back to Hanoi for tomorrow
Bus to cat ba national park? By market? Ah - that one, change buses -
why? Who knows?
Dropped off along with another girl, she helps us find the nearby
entrance to the park
Pay 15,000 d/person for the ride, should we have just rented a motorbike?
Pay another 15,000d for two hours in the park
Walk down long road to peak trail, vendors on either side jump to
attention as we pass, "cold water, hot noodles, very cheap, buy
something"
Nice gardens on both sides as well and chopped wood and old broken
down buildings
Hour up, hour down to get up to a mountaintop
Seemed short, but it wasn't that far, end of trail was scrambling up
rocks, with rusty, sometimes shaky railings for safety
At top, was a lookout tower, whose rusted corrugated metal roof was
making a horrible noise as it peeled off the top in the wind, I made
it up one flight, robert -two, Chinese couple who took our picture-all
the way to the top, but not on the creaky wooden floor of the very top
Walked down
Took path marked as leading to a frog pond - nice paved small road
meant for motorbikes, supposed to pay toll, but only cows at entrance
- low season
Followed small road for an hour, frog pond still 4km away
Went back to where bus dropped us off, and waited for another bus
One bus came, but they told us to wait an hour for the next bus going
to cat ba town
Our friend showed up again to wait with us, sat right next to me - no
personal space between friends, wracked my brain trying to make small
talk, she was sixteen, visiting friends and texting up a storm, we
worked through numbers and any animals we could think of, she became
our guide to cat ba, we followed her through a trip to a pier and
another bus change too
Beer lady, "more expensive on boat, 30,000d on boat." we aren't going
to the boat. (translated by our friend.) "more expensive in Cat Ba!"
bought oreos - offered one to our friend who turned and offered it to
the vendor who wouldn't take it even when I offered her one, still
trying to sell through the bus window, waved as she left riding
sidesaddle on a motorbike
Dogs in basket
Finally home, cat ba home
Lunch and dinner of: fried spinach, fried noodles with squid, potatoes
with pork and rice and coffee and beer Hanoi, yum
Home to write and watch tv - damn thing wasn't broken after all, my
mistake wink wink, who put the controller in the closet?? Best thing
on tv was: city of embers and twilight,ugh
Went out for beer and sprite and one of us had a pho ga for fun
Internet worked for a while after Robert surreptitiously reset it on
our way up the stairs, but soon it turned off again, WTF, mate?!
No comments:
Post a Comment