2/4-2/5
We took a night bus from Sapa to Hanoi. This was meant to leave around 9 pm and arrive in Hanoi around 3 am but rather we left at 11:30 pm and arrived at 5 am. Also the bus was a bit over packed meaning several people had to sleep in the isles of the bus.
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| There goes Austin's luggage |
After arriving in Hanoi we walked to our hostel where we had to re pack our bags, grab laundry, take showers, and grab breakfast with lots of coffee. This all had to be done before 10 am because we were departing again to head out to the island of Cat Ba (a pre arranged ticket we bought through our hostel). At around 10 am we were picked up by a gentleman who walked us very rapidly from our hostel to the nearest main road to grab a taxi to the bus station. Once at the bus station, we were met by the same gentleman and rushed over to the bus we were to take to the port city. He had followed our taxi through Hanoi on his motor bike so that he could assist us at the station as well as pay for our taxi fee. We sat and waited on the bus for near an hour while more and more people showed up and found a seat on the bus. The storage compartment down bellow was field with the wildest goods for the new year. These was a box full of chickens, a motor bike, and even a dog. We eventually left the station and two and a half hours later we were at the port city (Hai Phong) where we got on another bus that was parked randomly on a side street rather than at a bus station. We then took this bus for about thirty minutes to a seemingly random dock surrounded by freight stations, concrete plants and other industrial looking facilities. There we got in line with our belonging and waited some more. There were many Vietnamese waiting in line as well. Some were on motor bikes, others had tons of bags filled with food and gifts for the Vietnamese/Chinese New Year (Feb 8th) I believe the time delay for getting onto the ferry was do to either a lack of fuel or too much weight for the boat to handle with all the people and belongings.
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| Squeezing in with motor bikes |
We finally were invited on the boat and packed ourselves in as tight as possible. Robyn and I had to stand among the motor bikes on the back of the boat because every flay surface of the boat was filled with luggage or people. This happened to many people so we all got creative and started using the motor bikes as seats. The boat struggled to leave the shallow waters of the dock but made it. We cruised along a few canals as we made our way to Cat Ba. Once out in the bay we were met by another boat. The two boats docked up together and several motor bikes and a few people were put on the new boat. This included Robyn and I but not my luggage. I was a bit worried and tried to fetch by bag from the boat in which I just left but was instructed no with the wave of hands and pointing of fingers. We finally figured out that we divided up because of the weight and were in fact both going to the same spot where we would reunite with our belongings. The dock on Cat Ba was tucked up a small river and because of the extremely low tide we had to lighten the loads of each boat to make it. Our boat got stuck in the mud trying to dock but we were close enough to the other boat to jump off and lighten the load on the boat enough for it to pull into a slip.
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| Cat Ba |
Once on the docks we were than ushered over to another bus that we assumed was taking us to the main city of Cat Ba. It was also over filled so we sat in the isles with a few more people. A few stops later we had arrived to the main strip. We grabbed our bags, found the climbing shop that a friend of ours from Laos worked in. There we got information about climbing and a good place to stay while on the Island. We walked over to the recommended hotel and negotiated a good price for a room and motor bike for getting to the climb sites. We will begin climbing tomorrow, stay tuned for more tales of adventure!
