27
December, Tuan Chau Island to Cat Ba Town, ferry + 22km
Hoang Gia
Minh Hotel 240,000VND
I had
ordered clear weather for Charl’s 65th birthday, but it was not delivered on
time! We were, however, gifted with a lifting of the cloud cover, enough to
make our ferry ride to Cat Ba Island and our bike ride across the island to Cat
Ba town, very, very special indeed. Cat Ba is the largest of the 366 islands that
make up the Cat Ba Archipelago on the southwestern edge of Halong Bay, famous
for its limestone karst outcrops. Wikipedia: “The bay consists of a dense
cluster of some 1,600 limestone monolithic islands each topped with thick
jungle vegetation, rising spectacularly from the ocean.” A couple of days ago,
while waiting for me to get out of the shower, Charl entertained himself by
typing the words inscribed on a building visible from our hotel window into an
app on his phone. The inscription read: Cong ty than cao son. Without accents
on the letters, it translated as: High coal companies. Charl was prompted by
the app to add accents (Công tỷ thân cao son), which translated as: High
percentage of body paint. Neither made particular sense to us, but it is an
interesting example of how easily one can be misunderstood in a tonal language.
(We subsequently typed the same inscription into Google Translate which
sensibly translated it as: Cong Cao Son Coal Company.)
Between Tuan Chau island and Cat Ba island
Between Tuan Chau island and Cat Ba island
Between Tuan Chau island and Cat Ba island
Between Tuan Chau island and Cat Ba island
Between Tuan Chau island and Cat Ba island
Between Tuan Chau island and Cat Ba island
Between Tuan Chau island and Cat Ba island
Between Tuan Chau island and Cat Ba island
Between Tuan Chau island and Cat Ba island
Between Tuan Chau island and Cat Ba island
Cat Ba island
Cat Ba town