March 24, 2023

Today the 18 of us who are doing a second night with the cruise caught a ferry to freedom island. This is a small island resort outside of Cat Ba, Vietnam. It was Ellie and I, A British couple Maddy and Matthew, A German couple, Lina and Matthius, and 12 Uruguayan boys. Quite the rowdy crew. A lot of people were feeling pretty rough this morning from a combination of drinking, sea sickness, and just travel stomach. We hung out on the sun deck of the ferry, watched the limestone cliffs roll by, and listened to music. The boys from Uruguay were passing around Mate and we all just chatted in whatever we could. Only a few of them  spoke fluent English where as the rest had fairly broken English. Luckily, Ellie is near fluent in Spanish so she was out translator for the day.

We arrived on Freedom Island and everyone was pretty exhausted and after a quick lunch we dispersed to take naps on the beach and wait until the 3:00 hike through the island. Only 4 of us actually made it to the hike as everyone else was still knocked out. But it was pretty views even without the most perfect weather. We returned to the café and grabbed some drinks to sit outside and enjoy. We basically sat at that table playing games as a rotation of people came to life for the resto of the day. WE got a large barbecue buffet dinner and then started up playing more card games and having beers. It felt like an adult summer camp. Around 1 am people started to disperse and head to sleep. This little cruise was an adventure and disconnecting for a bit was good, even if I just got internet back a few days ago. Tomorrow we’ll catch a ferry and head back to Hanoi for mine and Ellies last night together before she heads back home.