Mummy madness (Cat ba and Hanoi)

After our bumping 9 hour public bus out of Mr Lihn's world we arrived at Hanoi to collect a sleeping mummy Farr.
Hanoi consists of playing chicken across the road (it's the only way to cross) you basically have to trust that the 100 scooters coming towards you don't want to hit you as much as you don't want to be hit. Egg coffee (a thick coffee mixed with egg which creates a kind of Crem brûlée coffee drink) delicious! Beer for 5000 dong=12p and an odd jungle like place on the edge of this mad concrete world.
We went to see a traditional water puppet show then after a nights

sleep we got the hell out of there.

Arriving at Cat Ba was a wonderful contrast of the big cities and tourist traps we were used to. Lovely beaches, slow paced and good fresh fishy eating. Our first activity was spending a day pretending we were pirates in ha long bay, like the pirates we are, oooo aarrrr. We kayaked through caves and jumped off the top deck into the sea amongst the unique rock formations sticking out of the water. After a few days of relaxing we decided climb to the top of the fort that was used to defend and win the Vietnam war, to a spectacular visual of the sunset.

We visited the hospital cave that housed and saved hundreds of lives during the Vietnam war. Keeping the locals hidden during such an awful time.

Then we were off to trek through the national park seeking langer monkeys (only mummy Farr had the pleasure of this) and any other interesting creatures we could find. After a lovely few energetic and relaxing days we left Liz in Cat Ba onto our next adventure.