On the 12th March, Sauce and Mustard found themselves on a bus to Cat Ba Island. The bus was leaving from the Luong Yen bus station where they arrived in Hanoi two days earlier. For 190,000ð each, they got themselves the bus-boat-bus tickets that will take them all the way to Cat Ba town from Hanoi via Haiphong.
Four and a half hours later, Sauce and Mustard were greeted by an eccentric Vietnamese entrepreneur by the name of Mr Tung, who offered them a room for US$5 a night. His hotel, Hoang Gia Minh Hotel, is located on Nui Ngoc road. Once again, after checking in and dumping their gear, they went out hunting for food.
Not far from town lay Hospital Cave, a Vietnam war era bunker built into a magnificent network of caves. The majority of it was forbidden to tourists, so Sauce and Mustard spent most of their time climbing the cave walls.
Just ahead of Hospital cave, is the free jungle track up to frog pond. The track takes about 5 hours return. It runs through lush green bush, long grass covered hills and thick jungle and up and down various rock formations.
There's a few more caves along the road which are closed, so Sauce and Mustard jumped the fence and explore the caves. In the middle of a pitch black cave, both of their torches ran out of batteries, leaving them to clamour their way out of the cave back into the light.
For a good view of Cat Ba Island, Fort Hill at 177m is the second highest point on the Island. Entry ticket was 30,000ð per person and for those who are too lazy to walk, 10,000ð to take your bike up with you. It has a excellent views of the Halong Bay area and Cat Ba town.
Cat Co 1 and Cat Co 2 are the two main beaches. If you choose to visit them in the summer time, there's usually an entry fee. March, being the low season, Sauce and Mustard didn't have to pay a single cent and walked the beaches in peace and quiet.
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