Our plan for the last few days was to visit Cat Ba island to do some mountain biking and maybe Halong Bay or the less touristy Lan Ha Bay for kayaking. However, things didn’t go exactly as planned. Last days fell on weekend, which was the busiest time on the small island, where all accomodation was either fully booked or expensive. So we decided to spend one day in Haiphong, which Lonely Planet described as laid-back city suitable for coffee lovers.

The distance from Ninh Binh to Haiphong is about 120 km but the bus trip took almost four hours. Also, Haiphong was not a quiet town as we expected but a pretty busy city, which came as a little shock after sleepy countryside. We went straight away to buy boat tickets for Cat Ba and debated whether we should take the boat at seven or nine next morning. The debate in vain, since the morning boats were already full and we could get to Cat Ba only in the afternoon.

Not all was that bad. In the hotel the air-con was broken so they gave us a better room in a hotel closer to the city center. We got to wander on the market streets and see the real, non-tourist Viatnamese city. We also found some nice food and local tea drinks.

The next day we took the backpacks and headed to the port when it started to rain. Hard. When we got to the boat we were soaked. That rain was only the beginning. Tropical storm Talas swept over Vietnam the night we came to Cat Ba and destroyed our plans. 

The first evening the weather was good, and we had a chance to climb to Cannon Fort to get some views and to see some local goats and pigs wandering around the hill. Also spend some time walking around the town.

The next day we managed to get to the beach and went for a swim, altough the whole day the weather still was unpredictable. Sun, strong wind, heavy rain came in circles. 

After Ho Chi Minh we thought that we were not that interested in Hanoi. So we left one evening to see the capital before leaving at dawn to Malaysia. And that whole evening it was raining like crazy. It was a pity, since at least the Old Quarter seemed quite nice with its narrow streets and little shops.