Today brought to a close our time on Halong Bay. The clear skies that greeted us this morning were very welcome compared to the haze of yesterday (though the sunshine did result in both of us getting rather burnt), and after a leisurely breakfast we set off to visit one of the fish farms we’d seen yesterday.
These farms are built out of pretty simple materials, but they do the job incredibly well. Everything is floating on plastic barrels, including the houses, so it all moves up and down with the tide. The fish are in 4m deep nets, with wooden walkways criss-crossing them all to provide access. We were lucky enough to be there when feeding was happening, which involved a boat load (literally) of smaller fish being shoveled into buckets and thrown into each of the nets. Apparently a lot of the farmers are moving away from fish to mussels, as the cost of feeding the fish three times a day is more than they can sell the fully grown fish for.
After the fish had their feed, we had ours – another huge meal from the captain’s wife (spring rolls, prawn fritters, stir fried beef, stir fried chicken, rice, vegetables, and a rather large fish – we barely made a dent in it all), and then it was on to Monkey Island. Yes, another one – I guess that makes it Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. As opposed to most of the 2000 islands in Halong Bay, this one has a decent sized beach, a ranger station, and a small resort. Anyway there were some monkeys, but they’ve gotten used to humans, which is exactly the opposite of what the people in Cat Tien were trying to achieve. More interesting than the monkeys hanging at the cafe waiting to steal food was the climb to the top of the limestone peak. The narrow “path” was rather congested, but once the other tourists cleared, we soon reached the top, mainly thanks to the guidance of Hang. Even Holly made it all the way up – take that Miyajima.
Rewarding our efforts with a quick swim in the bay, we were soon on our way back to Cat Ba island. The second our bags had hit the dock, the Captain and his wife were off again, drifting back into the bay (sunset would have been more poetic, but sadly it was a little early for that).
We’re spending the night here on Cat Ba, and tomorrow we explore the island. While not quite middle of Halong Bay quiet, it is a pretty subdued place, except for the nightclub on the ground floor of our hotel. Nine floors up and it’s still shaking our windows. During the Vietnamese summer Cat Ba gets so packed with domestic tourists they have to close the streets to cars so there’s enough room for people to walk around. I’m quite ok being here in the off season.