Monkey Island
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
132
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Cat Ba Island,
Vietnam
Thursday, March 13, 2008
We got off the boat and onto the island, but the docking point is on the opposite side of the island from the town, so we then hopped onto a bus. The bus dropped us off at the National Park, the groups split up into trekking and cycling. So far, so good. As the trekkers disappeared into the wet foliage (did I mention it was drizzling?), the cyclists walked to a little house where a woman pulled out five serious-looking mountain bikes. Hmmm.
Bicycling through a karsty island is quite lovely, even if it is drizzling
ship's restaurant
. Before long, however, I couldn't see through the raindrops on my glasses, so I took them off. While we started bicycling on a paved road, we were shortly directed to turn onto a gravel one, and then onto a dirt path. Turned out that we were on more of a mountain biking adventure than a cycling one. Much of the time we were riding on a small raised path between fields, which was scary enough, since it wouldn't take much of turn to send you off the edge, crashing into a field of vegetables. Then there was the steep, tree-covered slope leading...somewhere. Maybe into a streambed. I didn't think I'd like to fall into that, either. Finally we reached a clearing where the path may or may not have continued. Our guide told us that we could turn around or bike a little farther into the mountain and then turn around. By this time the front of me was completely soaked and I had a serious adrenaline rush from the little path. I opted to stay behind. So did Travis. The other guys continued on and then returned. The ride back to the house was relatively short, if a bit more uphill, and then we were a soggy bunch back on the bus and on our way to Cat Ba town. Here we had lunch, a hot shower, and a lovely hotel room. But before we knew it the time had come for our next adventure.
From the wharf at Cat Ba town we took a smaller boat out to Monkey Island, there to while away two hours doing what we would
biking on Cat Ba
. Theoretically there would be kayaking, which there was, but the boat had only brought two kayaks. That meant that we had to take turns going out, and even then someone might not get a turn. Most of the group decided to climb up to the top of the island first, so Travis and I hopped in the kayak and got nice and wet. They were sea kayaks, and apparently these delightful inventions deliberately have holes in the bottom of them. Oh well. We kayaked much better than we canoe. Our goal was to go around a nice limestone rock jutting out of the water beside the next island over. Even with an exploration of the shells stuck to the bottom of the rock we managed this in about 20 minutes. With our remaining time we ventured over to the beach on the next island. There was no one there, so we pretended it was our own and Travis struck a pose claiming it, using his paddle as the flag. He also found a little throne rock to sit on. I scampered around and looked at cowrie shells, but Travis told me that they might have something living in them and it might be venomous, so I investigated with my oversized paddle. The biggest one was really pretty. I'm pretty sure it was uninhabited because back on Monkey Island beach I found some that were inhabited and it was rather obvious. We also found on our little beach a great big jellyfish that had been so unfortuate as to wash ashore. But I didn't get to investigate it because Travis said we had to get back and give the others a turn to kayak. Now I want to go back and just kayak about until I get bored. That's the thing about tours - everything's predetermined.
Back on the Monkey Island we ventured up to the top, which is not actually the top. After a while it gets decidedly spikey, too, so I wouldn't do it in crappy shoes
nice scenery
. Travis and I were wearing sandals, and I must say I wouldn't do it in those either. At the top we couldn't go up anymore and the trail that may or may not have existed seemed to go down, so we turned back. Later, when talking to our tourmates, we learned that if you continued on down this rather precarious path you would end up on a beach on the other side of the island, and since no one knew about it they had it all to themselves. Before we left I found another beached jellyfish and took the time to thoroughly investigate it. Just so you know, if you lift up the jellyfish's hat flap thing to see its guts, you will receive pretty much nothing in return but a horrible, horrible smell. After I gave up on this jellyfish I walked into the water and came upon one of the live variety! It was very exciting and I took way too many pictures of what amounted to a translucent blob with some interesting tentacles. But I liked it and that is what matters. I also noticed a little fish swimming around its tentacles, and when I pointed this out to Travis he thought they might be symbiotes. Lovely! We thought for sure that this jellyfish would wash ashore, too, but I left to look at a monkey and when we went to get on the boat it was gone. So the jellyfish lives to see another day. Certain guide books (cough LP cough) say that it is not terribly wise to go to Monkey Island because the monkeys can be very aggressive, but I will tell you now that the whole time we were there we saw one monkey and it was climing on the roof of the security/information office. Besides, I would say don't go for the monkeys. Go for the beach and the kayaking. You can see monkeys in loads of places. Oh, and just so you know, there is also a Monkey Island off the coast of Nha Trang, so don't get them confused.
All in all another lovely day. Vietnam is pretty special.
Erin
