Today I was in Cat Ba and took a boating trip to Cat Ba island. Before I went there I brought my Motorbike to a mechanic to change the chain and oil.
The trip cost 250.000 Dong(about 11 USD) and should have taken 2 hours 15 minutes, but it ended up being shorter due to communication problems. I missed the ship that was I was supposed to go with(also because of communication problems) and they organized a small motorboat that took me to the ship and it drove to Monkey island.
On the island I had an encounter with about 8 monkeys and several tourists. I am a little afraid of monkeys so I also came to the island to challenge my fear. They were coming close to the people and it was possible to feed them or let them steal something if you weren't careful enough.
I fed to one of the bigger ones a sweet potato that fell out of a small bag one monkey stole. Another monkey tried to steal an untainted big plastic bag which belonged to a woman who stepped on it to prevent it from being taken away. The monkey disapproved of the woman's action, threw its arms in the air and punched the woman. She became frightened after the third attack and let go of the bag. A second monkey came to help and together they wanted to take their treasure, but a man stepped with confidence on the bag and the monkeys ran away. I learned from it not to leave my stuff on the floor and face the monkeys with strength if they try something funny.
I also wanted to climb the small hill on the island so I took my leave to look for it. After 15 minutes of hard climbing under the hot sun at 10am I reached the top. It was worth the climb. On top it was still hot but the breeze I felt was nice.
For 20 minutes I stayed on top and enjoyed the beautiful view. The climb down was hard and at the bottom the Tour guide was waiting for me. He showed me to hurry, but when I checked the clock on my phone I saw that I had still 5 minutes left. He tried to stress me, but I took the time to take another look at the monkeys. When I reached them one of them was just peeing down from a tree. I laughed thought it was a good ending and followed him to the boat.
On the way back we went to see a floating village, but didn't stop there.
We arrived back at the harbor and a Motorbike guy took me back to my hotel. As I arrived there I realized the trip was 45 minutes shorter then it should have been. I talked to the manager of the hotel and demanded a part of the money back. I tried to make it clear, that it was not the hotel that I give the fault to, but the tour organization and the tour guide who stressed me to get back. After a few times reminding him about the issue he gave me a meal water and 20.000 Dong. I told him he should ask the money back from the people he gave my money to, but he said he won't get anything back. Unfortunately these things are very typical in Asia.
I was already on my way back to Ha noi when I had the idea to stay for one more night in a hostel I once visited which has a beautiful view. I turned my motorbike around and went back to the place. I checked in and went straight to the beach to sunbath and swim. From the beach I saw a beautiful island I wanted to reach to sit on a stone next to it.
The whole time while swimming in the water I was afraid a shark might attack me. Trying to get the fear out of my mind with meditation on movement and thinking about the ridiculously low odds that something like this might happen didn't help a lot so I kept swimming even if I was afraid. As I almost arrived the rock I felt a stinging sensation on my left foot. It stopped after one moment and as I was climbing up I thought what it could be. Before I saw it I knew it was a jellyfish and as I took a look around I saw two more of them around the rock I was sitting. The fear of being attacked by a shark made space to a more realistic fear of being stung by those creatures and not being able to swim because of the pain. Then I saw that I had a few cuts on my right hand and a few drops of blood came out and the fear of being eaten by sharks who came because they were smelling my blood came back.
For a few minutes I was sitting on my little rock uncertain of what to do. Since I was already there I tried to enjoy my sucess and the view and to meditate to calm down. It helped a little and after about 15 minutes I couldn't see anymore jellyfish.
I took a few breaths of courage and down into the water where it seemed the deepest(the riff had a few rocks around). I swam as fast as I could to reach the secure shore but without running out of stamina. Thanks to the waves the way back was much faster then the way to there and so within 10 minutes I reached the safe beach and could relax.
Neither was I attacked by sharks nor any other jellyfish, but the one who touched me left his mark.
It is more painful then it looks.
I took a shower and enjoyed a good meal including vegetarian spring rolls, fried rice with vegetables and an orange/lemon juice for 90.000 Dong(4 USD) took a small Motorbike trip while listening to Classic Rock and saw the sundown from viewing platform next to my hostel.
What I learned from this story is that jellyfish are bastards who are just trying to hurt you(still feel the pain 6 hours later) and I am more afraid of sharks then monkeys. ;)
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Cosmin