Destination Vietnam | Cat Ba – Halong Bay tour

8am the minibus picked me up and with fellow tourists we headed to the Ben Beo boat station. From there, you get to your boat and the cruise start. The day cruise consists of different activities.

After an hour ride on the bay with a fantastic view, the first activity is kayak. It lasted for 45 min, and we were free to go anywhere we wanted. It was very nice; I paddle through the limestone karts, went under the cave with the kayak, and also swam.

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After the kayak, we all had lunch in the boat. The food was the same as in any tourist attractions in Vietnam: spring rolls + peanuts+ omelets, + vegetables, and my favorite…rice. Yes, you will have a lot of the latter while traveling in Vietnam.

After eating, we were headed to a cave under one of the limestone karts. It was pretty cool but nothing amazing (maybe because I have seen this before). Although it was dark, I managed to capture few pictures.

Back on the boat, the last ride was to the Monkey Island; well, to see Monkeys…

www.singapbyart.com-cat-ba-day-tour-monkey-island

In this island, you first climb the mountain to supposedly see monkeys; don’t expect to see any up there, you rather will have an excellent view of the island and the bay. You eventually see monkeys back on the beach. They are just waiting for you to buy food at the local shop and snap it (and scare the shit out of you!) That was awesome! But you have been alert! At this stop, you can also swim, but very few tourists did.

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We were back to Ben Beo boat station around 5pm.

The daily trip is good, of course sometimes it gets boring, but I highly recommend. It’s a great alternative to the two-days/one-night tour offered by travel agencies. For similar scenery and activities, I paid considerably less. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll be with cool tourists, and you’ll have the chance to converse and share travel stories/tips, etc.