Cat Ba Island

Bridge:  When the boat eventually dropped us at Cat Ba, we were handed over to another guide who threw us onto a bus and we set off.  20 minutes later we arrived at the national park where we were dropped off and TOLD to go on a 2 hour trek - again - we had no choice.  We asked the guide if we could skip the trek and go straight to the hotel but he told us if we didn't want to go then we should sit under a tree and wait.  3.5 hours later, our bus returned to collect a very angry group of tourists.  It had been shuttling people to their hotels from the boats.  We were then dropped off at the shabbiest looking building in Cat Ba town.  Supposedly a 2 star hotel.  It was more like a dark and dingey brothel!

Again we had sticky rice and french fries for lunch - for the 3rd meal in a row.  An Tam hotel was 6 stories high with no elevator and we got stuck on the 5th floor in a room with NO windows and just the front door for ventilation which only opened up into a windowless cement corridor.  Mould and mildew clung to every square inch of our room making it difficult to breath.  The white bedding was now a pale green/grey and stained with who-knows-what and the bathroom had almost certainly never seen cleaning detergent or a mop.

The whole Cat Ba experience was horrible to say the least.  And to add to it, we happened to arrive on the day when the entire Hanoi population descended on Cat Ba for the school holidays crowding every beach and hotel on the island.