Guess What Monkey Island Has????

!!!!MONKEYS!!!!

Troi dat oi, what an adventure we had this weekend as we made our way to Cat Ba and Ha Long Bay for a mini vacation just the 3 of us- Thomas, Scott, and I. After teaching in Thanh Hoa and attending the press conference in Hai Phong we thought we would take a small vacation before starting back up on the teaching this coming week. It all sounded so glamorous- a fast boat trip to the island of Cat Ba from Hai Phong, a nice ocean front hotel with meals and wifi included, a long scenic boat trip throughout the bay with visits to several islands and ending in Ha Long at another splendid hotel with more beach fun, shopping, and great food. The itinerary was perfect!

Well let me tell you something! It was super adventurous to say the least! I'm learning that in Viet Nam when the schedule says 5pm that doesn't mean anything because someone will show up to pick you up at noon or 9am. That is just the way things work around here so I'm learning that I need to shower and be ready to go as soon as I wake up in the morning otherwise I'm going as is which isn't too comfortable.

Friday morning we were to check out of the hotel and be ready by 730am to catch a bus that would take us to the dock where we would catch a fastboat to Cat Ba Island. At 715am we were being rushed into a taxi and hauled off to some random bus stop in the middle of town. A bus showed up and it was PACKED! The gal who escorted us there said it was not our bus and we would have ours come along shortly. We waited....and then !ahp! get your bags on the bus HURRY this is the right bus, hurry hurry!!! Eeeek!!

On the bus and ready to go. We got seats at the very end and had a good view- of nothing but muddy waters filled with shrubs and what looked like bamboo. We saw a few out houses in the middle of the water. I didn't take pictures because I was running low on memory and wanted to save room for our beautiful Ha Long trip. The road had more holes in it than swiss cheese and we bounced around for a good chunk of the time. Scott forgot this minor detail after we asked if this road had always been this way- yes of course! Oh thanks for the warning! It isn't fun for a woman to be bounced around like that- I could've worn my better bra that day, sheesh!! Not to worry though, Thomas said it was nothing some needle n thread couldn't fix- he is so fun and funny!

Fortunately the bus ride wasn't too long and we soon arrived to the dock where there were boats loading and unloading people quickly. The waters were milk chocolatey brown- ugh! Where is the nice ocean water we were told about? We hopped on the boat and headed off to Cat Ba. The distant view was nice, lots of rocky mountains in the distance. I couldn't wait to see the infamous Ha Long that Scott talked so much about. I waited impatiently by the window right next to a lil gal who looked as impatient as I felt. I was excited and wanted to see cleaner water and be closer to the mountains I could see at a distance.

Finally we arrived at another dock where again there were tons of people boarding boats n buses. We were directed to a bus that didn't have anyone on it, hmmm. Soon everyone was gone and it was only us and 1 bus. We boarded and the driver began to drive off then suddenly stopped and drove backward....ahhh! Another bus showed up, then another and another and soon it was the same all over again. I looked back and saw more boats full of people. We waited a bit until more people boarded the bus and finally we were on our way to the other end of the island, to our hotel. The driver was CRAZY!! He drove at least 80MPH through the mountains and jungle. All of my pictures are blurry because we were going so fast but the view was SPECTACULAR!!! The brightest and darkest greens I've ever seen were all around us. The mountains spotted with trees, plants, bushes with sights of stone in between. How all that green can grow on mountains of stone is amazing. The scent of the air was thick like the smell of fresh cut grass, a basket of earthy vegetables, and the scent and feel of being in a greenhouse all mixed together- I thought "jungle smell" to myself. It would have been a much better ride had we gone 20mph slower but I enjoyed it ;o)

We arrived at a harbor about 40min later and the bus driver told us to get off so we did. Then we just stared around because we didn't know where we had to go or how we were going to get there. The island has very few taxis if any and people mostly get around by walking or motorbike. Scott suggested we should go across the street to the nearest hotel and call Tony- the guy who has arranged most of our travel logistics- so off we went. A guy showed up as I was digging around for Tony's card and said "Scott, I am looking for 3 Americans and one is named Scott." YAY! So he helped us walk up the street and over to our hotel. He said we should meet at a restaurant at 1pm for lunch only I didn't get the spelling down. He said what sounded like "cheo mia" I asked around for "chau my, trai may" etc etc and nothing worked so we just waited. The guy who later said his name was Minh came over with 2 other guys and took us down to the restaurant by motorbike- ohhhh it was called Tre My!! My bad! So the rest of the day was pretty awesome, I must say :o) We had lunch then Minh drove us over a hill to the beach where we hung out until 6pm then walked back for dinner.

On our way back we ran into a giant group of deafies who knew Scott. What are the chances of running into deaf people anywhere?!?! The group was from Ha Noi and were on a trip with a church group. We had dinner at Tre My and then returned to the hotel for the night. The hotel had lousy wifi and the power kept going out on certain grids so we didn't have ac for a good chunk of the time. It's ok, the weather was nice.

Saturday morning I woke up at 530am and noticed it was raining- bummer! Looked like it was going to be a wet trip. I lounged around for a while waiting for a towel that I had called in for and wondered about the day. I was excited even though it was raining. The rain doesn't seem to deter anything around here but that was inland so I had to wait and see. All showered up and packed by 730am and off to breakfast upstairs with Scott and Thomas. We ate, took our luggage downstairs and checked out at 8am just as our schedule told us to do. Minh showed up a bit later and said there were no boats to Monkey Island or anywhere else because the waves were too dangerous. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Thomas said it that morning- that he felt like something bad might happen and what if we couldn't go on the boat because of the rain. Scott said that had never happened in the 5 times he had been there and rain wasn't really a big deal. Nooooooooo!!!! So we told Minh we had already checked out and had nothing to do, we couldn't even get online. Minh talked to the hotel people and got our key back until noon. We called Tony to let him know then Scott and Thomas went up to the room. I brought Scott's laptop down to see if I could get connected downstairs...it took me 2hrs to finally connect and when I did Minh showed up and said let's go! The rain had stopped and he was going to take us to catch the boat- yay!!!! We left our luggage downstairs with reception, jumped on a motorbike, and off we went up and over a hill opposite the side we had arrived the day before. A small port with many similar looking boats came into view as we headed down the hill, hands clenching the back seats of the bikes as our drivers sped downhill- aaaahhhhhhhh, we're gonna land in the waaaaater!!!!! Whew we made it to the port safely and hopped onto the boat. It was only the 3 of us :o)

The boat made its way through what looked like a small town on the water then out into more open space with a view that made my jaw drop! This was like "Jurassic Park" movie stuff- OMG the mountains, the water, the beauty!!!!! I couldn't get enough of it! The view was just surreal. This is really the kind of nature you see on television. I never in my life thought I would be standing on a boat in the middle of deep sea waters sprinkled with spectacular mountains jetting out of the ocean with so much green life. It was just amazing! I thought I might be afraid of being on a boat or get sea sick but the boat was smooth sailing.

It was a short trip from the time we departed Cat Ba to the time we arrived to Monkey Island. Our boat came ashore and we had to run down this wooden plank to touch land. I wondered why the guys on the boat had asked how long we wanted to swim- they left us there!!! Glad we said only 1 hour. I have to say that was ONE LOOOONG hour!

I was completely giddy once I was done screeching and whining all the way down the plank. Monkey Island!!! We paid 10,000VND to a guy in a security uniform and off we went to see if there were really monkeys in plain sight.

Two minutes after arriving we spotted the monkeys roaming around freely in the trees and on the one building that serves as the contact and store for the island. COOOOL!!!!! I saw monkeys everywhere and was just thrilled! On the way over Scott had mentioned that monkeys roamed around freely and sometimes came up to people or people went up to them. I was just totally stoked. I think monkeys are just so adorably cute! So Thomas and I ran over with camera in hand- whoo hoo let's take some up n close pictures! I couldn't believe I was on an island with monkeys that were at arm's length away. Super sweet!

Thomas and I spotted a mother monkey with her baby clutching to her belly as she ran up a tree- ooooooh!!!!! As I ran over to snap a picture, I saw another monkey jumping from a tree to the roof of a hut that was next to the building. I took a picture then ran over to catch a picture of the mother and baby. How excited I was!!! I focused in on the two creatures as Thomas made his way behind me. Meanwhile Scott watched us both from the edge of the water. As I went to snap the picture I heard Scott from far behind me- "NORALEEEEE WATCH OUT!!!!" It was too late, I felt the clamping on the back side of my ankle, shrieked at the top of my lungs, and started to run! Troi dat oi!!! I slowed down to turn around and check my ankle when I heard Scott again "!Noralee AGAIN, THOMAS, THOMAS!" This time I just started running and didn't care to figure out why. I made a run for the water, screaming my head off, in sheer panic, and praying that I wouldn't eat it in the sand and get attacked all over. RUN RUN RUN!!! I looked back once I got closer to the water and saw Thomas right behind me. I looked forward and saw Scott who was further into the water for safety. OMG, I couldn't even process what happened.

Did I just get bitten by a monkey?? O M G, T D O- YES I so just got bitten by a MONKEY!!! Who does that? Who goes to Viet Nam and gets bitten by a monkey!!!! I'm still laughing because it's so hard to believe, hahaha! I checked my ankle and realized the monkey didn't get a very good grip. I had just a small scratch and more of a bruise. I ALWAYS keep my socks n shoes on outside of the home. Why I decided to kick them off and roam around in water shoes for once is beyond me! In Sam Son I never got into the water, just enjoyed the view. I don't know why I thought it would be a great idea to wave my fat naked legs in front of a family of monkeys at lunch time! A monkey bit me, people!!!

I was lucky though. Nothing serious at all. I can't say the same for Thomas. Poor Thomas, poor poor Thomas. That monkey got a good grip on his leg and sunk its teeth in real real reeeeaal good! While the three of us worried Thomas was now infected with rabies and we were stranded on the island for at least an hour- yes all of this happened within the first 5min of arriving-the people holding down the fort there were very amused with our comedic performance and were laughing at us. I was afraid to get out of the water but I did because I was worried about Thomas. I went up to the people and said "Thomas se om, con khi bite" then I reenacted what happened while they all laughed at me. One guy asked for Thomas to go over and I told Thomas to come over because I thought we would get some medicine or something. The guy came out with a used plastic bottle filled with water and poured it over the bite. Oh great! Now Thomas will have rabies and an infection from the tap water that probably has bacteria in it, yay!!! :o( I told Thomas he was better off rinsing off in the ocean because the salt would help. The ocean cures everything! It's therapeutic, heals a cold, washes out cuts, eases sore muscles- I'm serious.

So for the next 50min or so, we stayed in the water with our backs to the ocean, watching monkeys jump around and approach other people to take food from them. We saw one kid get attacked but he was quick to run off and nothing happened. A monkey bit Thomas, what the heck! We laughed and laughed and laughed at the idea of telling people what happened and seeing their reactions. I mean really, who says "oh I went to Viet Nam and got bitten by a monkey" really? I have to say this was definitely FUN TIMES!!!!

It was the highlight of my trip for sure and that I'm still laughing about it just proves it. The rest of our trip was pleasant. More time on the boat and going through Ha Long Bay to see its beauty. We stopped at one more island to visit a giant cave and then sailed off toward Ha Long City for the night. The sight was just breathtaking- I took lots more pictures on my phone which won't be available until I arrive home. My camera was full. I did buy a new memory card yesterday so we are back in business ;o)

So our mini vacation turned out to be quite an exciting adventure for sure. Too bad Scott didn't have a camera going to tape our monkey business. He is the only one who got to witness what all happened to us. Thomas and I just got to feel monkey teeth on our legs. I'm super relieved I wasn't bitten too hard because I would totally be in the hospital right now asking the doctor to test me for rabies, probably giving myself a headache and possibly a fever, thinking I was going to die. Thomas, poor Thomas- I checked him every little while to make sure he wasn't foaming at the mouth or growing fangs. He was fine as of this afternoon but I can't promise he won't bite someone's ankle on his way home tomorrow morning, especially if he has to sit on a plane for over 12hours. That can make anyone rabid, tee hee!!!



A view from our boat coming ashore onto Monkey Island

Sadly I didn't get many pictures of the monkeys as we were attacked almost immediately so we stayed in the water until our boat returned.

A crab's eyeview from Monkey Island out to sea.

Thomas showing off his beautiful monkey attack evidence as we make our way back to Cat Ba for lunch.

We missed lunch and had Minh take us to see the doctor instead. Here is Thomas having a serious operation by the best doc. in town!! Ok ok so the guy splashed some iodine on his leg and charged us 8USD.