Saturday 28 April 2012

Thailand - Koh Lanta

We arrived in Koh Lanta at about 11:30 am after a very quick ferry ride from Koh Phi Phi. The boat was definitely a lot better than the one from Phuket to Phi Phi and the weather was excellent. While on the boat we were approached by a man offering a minibus to our hotel (and hotel accommodation if we needed it) and we took him up on the offer of 150 baht for 2 people (whereas another lady had told us 600 already). We are a little skeptical at first in case it was a scam, but sure enough, he was waiting for us at the dock and we set off with another two travelers. If we had have left the boat dock and searched for a tuk tuk we would have paid about 100 baht.

When we arrived at our hotel (The Nakara Longbeach Resort) we noticed straight away how quiet it was. After talking to the reception clerk we learnt that they have 250 beachside villas and only 5 of the were booked. Despite this there were 3 nice pools and a nice restaurant. There were more staff that guests, but this meant we had a nice relaxing time staying here.

The first afternoon consisted of a swim at the beach (which was unfortunately very littered) and a swim in the pool followed by lunch. We ate at the restaurant and had a very nice coconut curry. After an afternoon of relaxing we headed back to the hotel restaurant for some dinner. It was nice to not have to travel anywhere! Nakara is a beautiful and cheap resort on Koh Lanta and i would recommend it to any one. We were paying about $25 a night for a big villa 50 meters from a deserted beach!

Day two saw us heading into town via tuk tuk to try and book a half day snorkeling adventure, but unfortunately only full days seemed to be on offer. I am not sure if this was due to how quiet it was due to low season, but in the end we booked a full day with Green Hill Garden for 1200 baht which included speedboat pickup from our beach, full day snorkeling at tree locations and lunch. As it was only mid morning we decided to head back to the resort and hire a motorbike to tour the island for the afternoon.

Motorbike riding is definitely the way to see Koh Lanta. The roads are great and quiet, and the bike hire is cheap. We payed 200 baht for 24 hours hire of a new looking automatic Suzuki bike. 150 to 250 baht seemed to be the going rate around town.

Once on the bike we headed down the coast in the heat in search of the Waterfall we had seen on a few maps. After a quick lunch at the beachside restaurant on the way we unfortunately took a sign for the waterfall as being correct and headed up what ended up being a rocky 4x4 track... which our bike handled quite well surprisingly... We were not sure if we were going the right way and Bec had to get off the bike several times so we could get it up the hills! Even with just me on it i had to basically walk it up the hills. After about a km of this we saw a local man who indicated that we need to turn around! Once back to the road, with a muddy bike, we headed further south until we found another sign which looked more correct, and we headed finally on the correct road to the elusive waterfall.

Once we parked the bike (in what we discovered was 20 baht parking which we did not pay) we headed up to a reservoir which seemed to be the start of the waterfall walk. there were no signs indicating the way to the waterfall but we decided to wing it. For about one kilometer we followed what could nearly be referred to as a path, and on the brink of turning around we ran into a french couple who had been to the waterfall. From here we continued the extra kilometer to find a small but refreshing waterfall where we could have a swim.

After a hour or so of swimming we returned to the bike and Bec decided to have a go at feeding the elephants which are used to trekking near the carpark we left the bike in. After feeding several elephants pineapples, one promptly decided to push Bec with its trunk (i think because she wouldn't give it more food), and of course this ended with Bec in the mud quite to the amusement of the locals.

After trekking we headed across the island and back to the Hotel, and after cleaning up, headed to a restaurant on the bike for dinner.

Out tuk tuk to town!

The waterfall we finally found!

Me in the waterfall

View from our lunch table!

Randomly growing at waterfall. it was about 50cm across!

The waterfall again... we walked so far it deserved a few photos!

Be feeding the elephants!

Elephants took revenge....



Wednesday 25 April 2012

Thailand - Koh Phi Phi

After hearing some good reviews about Koh Phi Phi island we decided to take the hour and a half ferry ride from Phuket to check it out. We booked a beach bungalow for one night via Agoda (Agoda has been excellent... They have an iPhone App that makes it really easy to find cheap last minute hotel deals).

We arrived in the pouring rain at about 11am and had to make our way through the streets to our bungalow. The streets in Koh Phi Phi are paved and about 2 metres wide (as there is no motorized transport or the island) and have very poor drainage... so we were walking through flooded streets to get to our destination.

The Bungalows we stayed in where Dee Dee Beachfront Bungalows on the northern side of the island Loh Dalam Bay. The rooms were basic shacks built from bamboo with a fan (no aircon for the first time on this trip), but they looked quite sturdy and the bed was comfortable enough. One of the first things i noticed was the mosquito net covering the bed and later on it was thankful for it!

After a swim in Loh Dalam Bay (its very rocky) we had lunch at the Caio beachfront pub followed by a bit of a rest before heading into the centre of town to find some food which ended up coming in the form of Pizza as we could not decided what else to get and we had had a late lunch. For anyone travelling to Koh Phi Phi be prepared that the prices are even more expensive than Patong if that is possible! Still not expensive by western standards but after being in Vietnam and Cambodia it was very noticeable.

After dinner we walked back along the beach which was cluttered with pubs and clubs, most of whom had night time fire dancing shows. We watched these for a while as they were quite amazing. Definitely some of the best I have seen. Unfortunately our bungalow was quite close to the clubs which were playing VERY loud techno music, so we settled in for a relatively sleepless night.

After a horrible nights sleep we decided not to book another night, but rather head from Koh Phi Phi to Koh Lanta as we had also heard great things about it. Transport took the form of a hour and a half ferry ride which was quite comfortable and even included seeing a turtle beside the boat.

The beach our bungalow was on

View from the table we had lunch at.

Low tide... the bay is quite rocky... had to be careful swimming.

The dock at Koh Phi Phi... very hot sunny day when we left.

So many boats...

Thailand - Phuket

Plane ride to Phuket was fairly basic as we flew with Air Asia again but luckily this time we had a bit better seating and people around us... ie; no people that take up their seat and half of yours! The KL to Phuket flight was fairly empty so Bec and I had a row to ourselves which was a good change.

We arrived in Phuket to fine very efficient and quick entry. We filled out a little form with out names etc and then headed through passport check where they hardly even looked at them and did not bother taking out finger prints like they are meant to, and customs was non-existent. We were greeted by the shuttle bus that the hotel we had booked organised for us and headed down to Patong.

The hotel we stayed at was the Royal Crown Hotel, and for about $18 a night we had a large room with pool view which had free wifi, free bottled water and a shuttle bus to the shops/beach and back every 2 hours (the hotel was a 15 minute walk from the beach)

We headed down to the beach after checking in. The beach was one of the best we had seen and for once free from litter (Vietnam was disgusting for rubbish on the beaches). The water was unfortunately about 30 degrees, so it was like getting into a bath and not real refreshing!

One thing we did notice about Patong is the fact that everything was fairly expensive... It is the low season so rooms were fairly cheap, but the food and activities were so much more than Vietnam and Cambodia. Dinner on the first night was at a Thai place in the centre of town and worked out to be about a $15 meal, where in Vietnam meals were more like $5-$10. After doing some reading up on the area we understand that Patong is the most expensive place in Thailand due to the amount of tourist here... Patong also lived up to its reputation of Ladyboys - which we noticed hanging around the front of many of the bars!

Day two in Patong we decided to relax... We ended up having a swim in the pool and read a book... after so much travelling we needed a bit of a break and it was a nice place to have a rest as the hotel was probably the most comfortable one we have had. We headed back to the centre of town in the evening for some dinner and a look around the shops.

Day three in Patong Bec and I parted ways for some of the day as she headed south in a taxi to go horse riding on the beach while i headed down to the beach for a swim and did a bit of fruit shopping as we were feeling a bit fruit deprived after going from Vietnam and Cambodia where every meal is ended with a plate of fruit, to Patong where it was seemingly scarce. Bec enjoyed her horse riding but was a little disappointing in the beach that they went to as it was low tide and the water was a long way out, definitely not the beach they had on the brochure of the horse riding!

Day four in Patong we headed down to the beach for the day and hired two banana chairs with umbrellas for 200 Baht (ie; $6.60) The weather was a bit touch and go with some showers but we had a few periods of sun and got some swimming and reading in. The owner of the banana chairs brought us drinks and offered food throughout the day and we found a small kebab stand and had some amazing cheap kebabs for lunch. I can definitely recommend the food stalls over some of the restaurants for meals in Patong... not jut for price but for the taste of the food. The kebab man used 5 sauces on each kebab and talked me through what each one was and how he prepares his chicken. (as I am writing this we are back in Patong and hopefully i find him again!)

Toward the end of the day we booked a ferry ride to the nearby island of Koh Phi Phi for the following morning. The hotel quotes us 600 baht per person but a local tourist office gave us tickets on the same boat (inc transfer to the dock from out hotel - about 30 km) for 300 baht per person... so definitely worth bargaining.

Bec on her horse Sing Thong

The beach that did not look like the brochure

Bec and her "cute pony"

The Beach at Patong

Fairly quiet at the beach. Have seen photos of this beach packed full of people.

You can hire jet skis, boats, para-sail etc right from the beach here.

Bec at the beach...



Cambodia - Siem Reap

While in Sapa we booked flights from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh as it is fairly close to the Cambodian boarder.

We had a fairly uneventful trip from Sapa to Hanoi, where we arrived at about 6am and took a taxi to the airport... we didn't realise at first but the airport is like 45 minutes from town, so we had to end up paying in US as we did not have enough VND on us. They driver did not know the conversion but seemed to trust we did not rip him off!

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh airport about 10am and stepped outside in the 35 degrees weather and quickly stepped back inside the airport and after some further research on the 12 hours of buses it would take to get to Siem Reap we decided to fly which was only 45 minutes.

After a long wait for the flight we arrived in Siem Reap at about 8pm and checked into our hotel, the Im Malis. We discovered we had inadvertently arrived on their new years eve! and that it was a big destination for Thai people, and that there was an estimated 15,000 of them in Siem Reap on holidays at the time! Sure enough there were lots of decorations on buildings and a lot of people out and about... unfortunately after a night on a train and  day of flying we were in no condition for enjoying the festivities.

Day one in Cambodia was very relaxed. I had a quick look around town in the morning but it was too hot to stay out. It felt like about 40 degrees but not totally sure what it was! I did however find a little shop where we bought a bottle of polish vodka and a bottle of boubon for $5 each... it seemed this was the going rate for a 700ml bottle of alcohol!

On day two we went on a private tuk tuk trip to Angkor Wat and another hillltop temple for sunset. I could not belive the number of tourists at Angkor Wat, plus a massive number of Cambodian people there having picnics on one of the new year public holidays.. we perhaps could have picked a better day!

Angkor Wat is definitely a place to see, and as many had told us was so massive and spectacular compared with most of the temples and tombs we had seen in Vietnam. Shortly after we arrive the area got hit by a storm, which we sheltered from under the eves of a toilet block with a family who were selling paintings at the site.

After the short storm with intense rainfall w headed into the inner walled area of the complex. The carvings on the walls were amazingly detailed and supposedly told a story of one of the kings of the country... They would have been impressive when they were new as it was apparent that there was some damage and degradation.

The inner building of the temple was massive and looked perhaps 5 to 6 stories high. Unfortunately due to out attire (it is a significant religious site so singles are not accepted) we were unable to climb to the top as some of the visitors were doing, so we headed out the other side of the complex and relaxed in the shade from the intense heat.

We got collected again by our tuk tuk driver about 4:30pm to go to another site to watch sunset, Phnom Bakheng, which involved a 200m walk to the summit... which was more like 1 km than 200 metres.... as once again the distances advertised were way off!

When we arrived at the top we were greeted by a high temple and a massive line with a sign saying the entry closes at 5:30pm... and it was already 5:05. From what we understand they only let 300 people up the top at a time, so to get up someone else has to come down. By about 5:15pm we were sure that we would not get up, but the line slowly continued to move, and at 5:30 everyone who was past a certain point was allowed up all in one lot, and the hundreds of people lined up behind us were turned away. Unfortunately after waiting about  hour for sunset we were disappointing due to the clouds on the horizon, and headed back into town.

We headed into town for dinner and markets and had a $1.50 red curry which was one of the best meals i have had, before buying a number of canvas paintings from a stall in the markets which were amazing and cheap, with the intention of posting them back to Australia

After a massive day out in the sun we had a quite relaxing day which involved a bit of TV and Bec getting a pedicure and facial we planned our next move which was to Thailand. We tossed up the bus/train route which meant 4 hour taxi, 1km boarder crossing walk that takes a hour, bus to train station, then a non air conditioned 6 hour train to Bangkok... and decided against it and headed via plane to Phuket via Kuala Lumpur.

View from our Tuk Tuk - notice the ute packed full of people

Bec and a big snake statue thing at the entrance to Angkor Wat

Walkway over the moat to Angkor Wat - they have repaired the right hand side as you can see....
There were sooooo many tourists here... but it was still worth seeing.

One of the Shiva statues in the middle wall at Angkor Wat

Shortly after the storm... it cleared up pretty quickly and got very hot and humid again.

Sitting in one of the windows of the wall to try and stay cool

The carvings i mentioned above

View from the north side of Angkor Wat

Turned into a sunny day once again. The spires are the part we were not allowed in to.

Part of the lineup into the temple for sunset. None of these people got in!!!

The slightly disappointing sunset from the temple.


Saturday 21 April 2012

Lao Cai & Sapa

We got woken in the early hours of the morning by one of the Orient Express staff to find we were already in Lao Cai (the stop to get to Sapa). We had a quick rush to get all our gear together and get off the train. Unfortunately we could not use the bathrooms as the toilets on trains go straight through to the tracks... and they do not want the train stations smelling.... so they only open up the toilets once the train leaves the CBD.

We were approached on the train by a man from Lao Cai who was running a bus to Sapa. I'm afraid we got quite ripped off on this and ended up on a different bus... all in all we ended up getting to Sapa safely and relatively quickly. Any travelers be wary of the ones that come looking for you on the train... Cheaper to walk out the front and find your own bus.

The bus ride was fairly uneventful. We got given a business card of the hotel that runs the bus and decided to check it out. I cant even recall the name of it now but it had a beautiful view over the valley and quite clean rooms for the $10 it cost us. we were however lucky we were in the warm season as the room had no aircon/heater and it gets quite chilly in the mountains. As we got off the bus we were met by a number of girls form one of the local tribes all wearing bright patterned clothes and selling local crofts (but not pushy for once in Vietnam).

After a quiet morning we headed out for some brunch and ended up at a place called Baguettes and Chocolate. This was a nice french style cafe that served us a nice breakfast for about $3, including baguettes with Nutella, chocolate croissants, fruit salad and tea/coffee.

Just down the road from this cafe is a place we found called Sapa O'Chau, in the form of a little cafe slightly up the hill from the main street. We were greeted by a cheerful man who was volunteering at what turned out to be a profit for purpose community organisation that ran a school and various tourist treks and home stays, with all proceeds going back to the community. We had wanted to do a trek to see the local villages and decided to take Peter from Sapa O'Chau up on one of their overnight home-stay treks for the following day.

The morning of our second day we met Miss Shu from Sapa O'Chau who was our guide for the two days. We also had a 19 year old girl with us from another village who was learning to be a tour guide. We started off by descending n the valley to the Cat Cat village and viewing their wonderful waterfalls. This was only a few minutes walk from the township of Sapa, and was hence a very busy tourist location. On the way to the next village is when we started to feel the steep climbs and the heat of the day which must of been nearing 32 degrees by about 10am (and humid as it had rained all morning).

The first day of trekking consisted of 14km of varying degrees of trails, including many uphills climbs and downhill descents, mud, thin paths, rocks and climbing up a gully. Miss Shu was definitely taking us on the scenic route, which is what we were after (something not too touristy). Bec was constantly taking photos of the wildlife, which included geese, buffalo, cats, dogs, hens, rosters, ducks, ducklings and everything in between. The people of Sapa villages definitely live closely with a lot of animals.

We headed to a H'mong village for lunch at what appeared to be a way-station for travelers. While we were there a number of groups dropped by and used the kitchen facilities to cooks a nice meal. While there we were entertained by a small cat which was quite friendly but had very sharp claws! The walk from lunch got slightly more difficult, with numerous hills, but luckily less mud, and we arrived at our home stay in the Lao Chai at the residence of Mai at about 3 pm. We settled in for an afternoon with a few beers with some of the locals and a french couple who were spending the night at Mai's as well.

As night came, Mai and her children, our tour guides, and another man who lived at the house disappeared to prepare dinner... which ended up being a banquet with 11 different pork, beef, chicken and vege dishes. We didn't even get through half the food, which we washed it down some some local corn and rice wine (the term wine is used lightly. It was about 100 proof and tasted like tequila). We retired relatively early to rest or feet and get a good night sleep before the 12 km walk the following day.

The send day of trekking started about 9am after some amazing pancakes. We once again started to climb some steep slopes on our way to the Giay village (which was Miss Shu's town). The landscape on these walks were amazing. We saw many rice fields being rebuilt ready for the planting season (which apparently is May-June) and saw some of the immense irrigation works. It was amazing how much water flows around those mountains (one of which is technically a southern mountain of the Himalayas... where we technically have now been).

We arrived at Shu's house about midday and after receiving a phone call, Shu asked if we would like to attend her friends wedding with her which was about to be held. (we later found out that weddings are 3 events. Firstly they go to a church and exchange rings etc, then a few days later they have a big meal with the brides family... this is what we attended... and then after that they have a massive party at the grooms parents house, which is where the bride will move to. The amazing thing is that the parents can decide merely hours before when they want the wedding to be. This means that Shu did not know the wedding was one until hours before - a bit different to the way we do things with all the invitations!!). When we arrived at the wedding we were given chairs overlooking the valley and spoke to a young girl for some time (before we found out she was the bride!!) and had a chance to meet the groom who looked about 16. We sat down to a nice meal which included 3 pork dished and a beautiful roast chicken. I wanted to know what they cooked it with but it was nothing. Just the chicken cooked whole unlike our ones back home.... We even had one of the chicken feet on our table.

After the wedding we continues to hike fro another 2 hours before heading back to the road and being picked up by a minivan to go back to Sapa where we heading back to Sapa O'Chau for a much needed shower ready for out night train back to Hanoi. This time we were travelling with TSC rather than Orient Express. From my experience of the two, Orient had slightly longer beds but was not quite as clean. TSC was very clean and had a decent bathroom, but seemed more of a jerky ride. Definitely will go Orient again if i need a god nights sleep!

The beginning of our Trek with Miss Shu at Sapa O'Chau Cafe

View down a walkway in Sapa

Buffalo everywhere. They use them for labour in the rice fields.

Amazing building on a hill at Sapa. NOt sure if its a house or not.

The Waterfalls at Cat Cat Village

The Creek we more or less followed for the trek.

One of the quality bridges we crossed

Lots of wildlife including what felt like hundreds of ducklings

View from one of the paths we were taking. A lot of the time we were  walking around the edges of the rice fields on a bit of clay about 20 cm wide.

Our dinner at Mai's place.

Bec found a buffalo!

Bec found a baby (anyone surprised?!) This baby was 9 days old and way the niece of the bride.

A few of our trails led on hills through bamboo forests.





Friday 13 April 2012

Halong Bay Cruise & Cat Ba Island

We arrived in Hanoi feeling a little bit refreshed and checked into the Espencen Hotel in the Old Quarter. Not a good hotel if you don't like stairs! but cheap and relatively clean and definitely close to everything!

Upon arrival we booked a 3 day/2 night Halong Bay cruise aboard a Junk (the type of boats they have their - name a bit deceiving as they were quite nice) including a night on Ct Ba island. We spent a lot of time on the first night in Hanoi searching for a decent place for dinner, ending up several floors up above the lake in the centre of the city. Food was quite good and fairly decently priced with a nice view. We ended up with a young Vietnamese girl waitering our table on her first day on the job! She was very nervous but did quite well.

Halong bay is about 3 hours from Hanoi, so about 8:30am the next morning we met the bus which was nearly full once it got to us. This didn't stop them piling another 5 or so people with packs in. The tour guide ended up with no where to sit and the isle was full of all out packs. Every bus or car you take in Vietnam seems to want to take you to visit a shop on the way.... so of course after a hour and a half we stopped at a massive shop which had everything from clothes and jewelry to marble carvings. The bus dropped us off at one end of the building and we had to walk through the shop to get to the bus which moved to the other end. Another one of their schemes to make some money!

Once we arrived at Halong Bay we boarded a small boat to take the 16 of use out to our Junk boat which was moored a few hundred metres from the shore. The driver was hopeless. He had driven the boat so far up the bank to get us on that he could not reverse off it. It was quite amusing watching him try and reverse with 2 Viet guys trying to lift the front of the boat. In the end the other Aussie man with us jumped off and lifted the whole front of the boat which was quite impressive. Our boat driver then followed up by driving the small boat into the side of our Junk a bit to fast and made a hole in it.. well above waterline luckily.

From here we had a nice lunch with a massive amount of food (including the worse soup ever... you could only describe it as gelatinous) and then checked into our rooms. Each room has a nice bed and had timber walls and roof with some carvings and paintings, and an ensuite which was small but better than a lot we had seen. We also had 2 large windows that were about one metre above the water line which made for a nice view.

While eating lunch we drove to a bay and moored again to be taken on a tour of the "Surprising Caves"... cant really remember the actual name, but the tour guide kept calling them this. The caves were faily extensive with some amazing rock formations that looked like everything from a penguin to dragons and everything in between. After the caves we spent a hour or so kayaking around the cove and some small islands. At a glance the area which is a World Heritage site looks pristine... but if you looks down in the water there were a lot of plastic bag fish.... which was a bit of a shame.

The night aboard the boat was definitely entertaining. We spent several hours talking to people from everywhere from Canada to Nicaragua and many other places. It was good company and we had several of the cheap (yet overprices for Vietnam) drinks.

Day 2 of the tour started with a slight hangover which did not help when we got to Cat Ba island for a trek through the national park. We (Bec, Doug and two Swedish girls) ended up losing the rest of the group and having to backtrack through the muddy jungle to the bus. One of the Swedish girls was not impressed and confronted the tour guide because he had not seemed to notice that four of us were missing from the group. I think if Bec and I were not with them they would have got lost or sure.

We had lunch and checked into our hotel on Cat Ba island. This was probably the best hotel we have stayed in to date. I spent about a hour scrubbing the mud from my shoes before we headed back out  to the harbour for a boat ride to Monkey Island.

Monkey Island was a beautiful little rock and jungle island with palm trees and a white beach with a big bamboo balcony to sit and relax on. It looked amazing. Like something out of the movies. Just as we arrived the tour guide told us we should watch out for the "pig faced monkey" as it "bite lots of tourist" and we were all like 'yep ok' not really knowing what he was talking about. A few minutes after arriving, with the temptation of food, several small monkeys arrive on the beach and they were quite friendly, taking food from Bec's hand, and if they dropped it in the sand they would brush it off and eat it. About 5 minutes into this a lager monkey appeared on the beach (still only up to my knee's in height) with a much redder face. As the tour guide quickly yelled and ran we learnt that this was the 'pig faced monkey'. We quickly voided this monkey and after feeding time we made our way up the mall mountain to get a nice view. Nearly to the top these was a tree over-hanging the path with 2 small monkeys in it, and one decided it did not want to let anyone with a hat, hair in a bun or wearing a bag passed. After Bec and I passed with no issues it continues to grab and peoples hair and bags. Bec found a very small monkey on a rock and it took food from her hand before deciding to slap her on the forehead..... no joke... this monkey that was about 30cm high with hands the size of 50cent pieces climbed up Bec's arm and slapped her. It was quite a surprise!

We headed back down to the beach and witnessed monkey's drinking bear and then decided to site on the beach and wait for the boat to get back. During this time several small monkey's decided to come back down to the beach where Bec and I were sitting and they were getting quite mischievous, grabbing our water bottle and trying to take it away. In the end one got a little angry and a second later Bec and I were up to our knees in the ocean to escape it much to the enjoyment of the rest of our group!

The night in Cat Ba was fairly uneventful and comprised of dinner and bed, and the next day we boarded the boat back to Halong Bay and eventually to Hanoi. We had a few hours before our overnight train to Sapa left so we used this time t explore Hanoi and have some dinner.

The train, with Orient Express, was quite nice and clean, with complimentary water in the room. We shared with 2 girls, on Hong Kong girl who has grown up in London, and one Vietnamese girl who grew up in California who met each other teaching English in Hong Kong.

A bit of haze when we got to Halong Bay. Amazing how many islands there are.

One of the floating villages in the bay.

Spectacular caves.

Artificial light is used to make the caves look better which detracted from them a bit.

Us chillin' out in the caves.

The roof above where we were walking.

View from the mouth of the caves.

This is where we moored up for the night. Pink sunset in the distance.

Bec feeding the nic monkey!

The evil monkey that wouldn't let people past.

View from top of the mountain. Monkey Island beach below.

Another view from up the top. Lots of the 'Junk' boats around.

The monkey likes his beer.

On way back from Cat B. Our second day was very sunny and hot.

View from where we had dinner in Hanoi at dusk.