Bridge: It started with 3 near head-on collisions - one after the other - when the bus picked us up from our "hotel". Something I still haven't figured out - on Highway 1 the drivers drive at 40km/hr and on the narrow, winding roads on Cat Ba, they insist on driving at almost 120km/hour. We were dumped at the pier with no explanation at all about which boat to get on or even who would be taking us back to Hanoi.
After half an hour, I went to look for our guide and I found him casually sitting in the shade having a beer and a cigarette. I asked him to please come explain to the group what we should be doing or who we should be "reporting" to, as it clearly wasn't him. Well that set him off - he went off screaming at me saying he was tired and sick of tourists and that I should SWIM back to the harbour! I was shocked - absolutely gobsmacked. Never had I seen a tour guide speak to a tourist like that. Well, we made it back to Hanoi eventually after being passed on from one guide to another and being dropped off in the middle of nowhere on a road - we had to walk 4km back to our hotel / tour agent!! After what a terrible time we'd had, she didn't seem to care - or believe us for that matter.
That evening we caught our open - tour sleeper bus to Ninh Binh - just 90km south of Hanoi. We were met on the road by Hoa - the owner of the hotels "Xuan Hoa I" and "Xuan Hoa II".
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