Cat Ba Island

As soon as we got off the boat, Steve made himself a new friend. This smiling nice guy did not look as friendly when Steve first approached him, and he didn't speak one single word in English! But as you can see, Steve managed to borrow both his had and his sunglasses!^^



We got on our private minibus that would drive us to the other end of the island, and somewhere along the road Kong asked us if we wanted to visit the "Hospital Bunker" that had been built and welcomed hundreds of blessed soldiers and civil persons during the war.
The bunker had been built inside one of the mountains on the island, and to get there one has to do a small hike in the forest, something that didn't really appeal to Steve, but once inside the bunker, he was running around imagining all kinds of things that had happened during the war... guess it awakened his inner child!



We were guided through the huge bunker by one of the soldiers who had actually lived in there for several years! He was very keen on showing us the space where they used to watch the cinema, and the pool! Unfortunately it was too dark in there to get any nice pictures.



We had read some not so nice reviews about the hotels on Cat Ba, but had still decided to sleep on the island instead of on the boat. And when we arrived at the hotel that Nghia had picked out for us we were more than happy about our choice!
After a long shower, we had a drink on our balcony at sunset.



And after that, we were off to visit the city of Cat Ba for some dinner, on a motorbike taxi; one of the cheapest and funniest ways to get around in Vietnam!



The perfect ending of our engagement day!^^