The boat from Cat Ba to Haiphong was to go at 5:45, from the hotel they said I should be there around 5:30. As the pier was basically just across the road from the hotel, I got there at 5:20 just in case. There was no line, there was nobody moving in and out of the boats, people just standing around and talking. So I went closer and tried to show my ticket to one of the ladies on the pier, she barely looked at it and waved me on. I basically just picked one of the boats and boarded, nobody seemed to care :) Checked with one lady on the boat if it is indeed going to Haiphong - yeap, I chose the correct boat seems like. And surprise surprise, the boat took off at 5:31 - I'm glad I got there a bit earlier :D
The boat was very basic and very rusty, I'm pretty sure any boat in this condition should not carry passengers :) But nothing I can do I guess :) All the locals made themselves comfortable and went to sleep, I watched the scenery a bit and then laid down as well. Boat ride was 3 hours.
First task was to find a hostel - found one and got a quite decent room. Then off to the city. Haiphong is one of the main seaports and third largest city in Vietnam. It has some wonderful colonial-era buildings and wonderful parks. The parks in Asia in general are really neat - they are complex and very well cared for.
Walked around and looked up the opera house and made a circle around the city center. There is not much to do in Haiphong, but the walks are nice and streets with the old buildings are great. Another very positive thing is widely available wireless everywhere, basically every third cafe or restaurant has wifi :) So I took my time and checked my mail and bank account - haven't done that for a while and luckily everything was still under control :D
I'll be taking a bus to Ninh Binh tomorrow morning at 7:10, as the bus station is quite far from city center then taxi is ordered to the hotel at 6am. Haven't gotten to sleep in for almost a week already :(
Oh and I will be home in a week, my beautiful vacation is ending soon :(
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