From Cát Bà Island back to Hanoi

Only a few more days to go. Time to drive back to Hanoi. The sky was the same Gray as usually – another good day to drive since it did not rain and it was not hot. It was only Gray and humid. And it was absolutely no sky for nice pictures – again….
The clock: 62373 kilometres

After coffee and a snack I did the pack the bag game and got everything on the bike. Next: cross the island and drive to Cai Vieng – that is about 26 km from Cát Bà to get the ferry to Cát Hải. That is a small island in between Cát Bà island and the ferry terminal in Đình Vũ close to Hai Phong.

Pay the ferry here – get ticket

Waiting for the slow ferry to get to Cát Hải

On the slow ferry to Cát Hải

Adios Cát Bà! The trip was 20.000 Dong for me and the bike.

Not too much to see – a few rusty boats here and there. And a few fisherman at work. Since I did stop eating fish a long time ago I do not have to think if I would like to eat the fish they catch here…

The big slow ferry

On the other side of the island more waiting for the next ferry. You can see the bridge construction is going well. Looks like they want to ship a lot of people to the island. No clue if they want to build a few hundred more hotels there or why else would they build such a highway to that small island???

Even with the bridge coming soon they still renovate the old ferry. Guess this island will not be connected to the road – and if so they do not expect it to be ready in a short time. This boat looks like the next ferry to the main land. 30.000 Dong later I was in Đình Vũ.

From there it was a fast and dusty ride towards Hanoi. The sun did try to break the Gray – so it got really hot. I did only want to arrive and there is not really something to see so I drove faster than usually. Only 7 km to go and I had another flat!

Did turn out that the heat from fast driving killed some of the other repairs on the tube. When I tried to pull one of the old patches from the tube I had a big piece of tube in my hand. So they had to change the tube. And with a bike like that you have to take the rear apart. Not really service friendly.
The good part of such a story is to stop at a repair shop. They where both busy with another bike but the woman came out right away. Then she got the tire down and after we saw that the tube had to be replaced she called the guy and boom – they are working at the bike. 15 minutes later I had to pay 100.000 Dong – that was about 3.80€ plus 20.000 tip and I was on the road again. If I do that here back home – well – we do not have to count minutes – lets count hours…

Did book a hotel in some of the small streets. In this maze the Google Girl had a hard time to steer me. Had to figure it out with my other map. But finally there it is – my hotel – only a few more meters

After check in I went back to the shop and returned the bike. Got back my deposit and walked back to the hotel. This street is round the corner of the hotel

To the right from the hotel alley on the way to the main street

A hairdresser

Every day they did put the bird up here so he had some fresh air and light

The clock: 62531 = 158 km today. That was a total of 3576 kilometres zig zack in Vietnam! I had 2 flats, needed a new spark plug or not – hard to say. At the beginning of the trip I had to put new bearings in the front wheel. So all in all that worked quite well. I have the feeling I will do this trip again – and I hope for a blue sky and not for that gray gray all the time!

 
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