It was quiet nearly the whole time I was on Cat Ba island, the only exception being the festival.  Here the streets are lined with makeshift houses; university students from the surrounding areas competed in building the best house.

The stage performances were fantastic, and they even managed not to burn anything down with the fireworks this time around.

One of my favorite sights was Bien Teen’s cute little peanut.

Here’s a couple shots of a few of the great people I met.

Wang, who co-owns the Noble House guesthouse with Australian Pete, had English Pete and I over to her family’s place for lunch.  The soup they made was outta this world!

One day a couple of the girls who work at the guesthouse popped up to my room to harrass me, and we ended up having a girlie day, mud masks and all.

My last night I had to get a photo with The Petes, as the three of us had spent quite a bit of time together hangin’ out.  Here I’m pretending to wet my fingers to try and clean Ozzie Pete up. 

Getting Pete cleaned up was one thing; getting him to act serious was a whole other, but I finally go my pic.

Enlglish Pete, a couple kids from the guesthouse and I went out on my last night for a beer.  Bien Teen was there, so he popped in the pic as well.

It was awfully sweet of the Petes and Martin (another foreign hotel owner on the island) to walk me to catch my bus, and lucky them, it was only a block from the Noble House.

Before I got on the bus, Ozzie Pete was telling me the importance of sitting in the back of the bus on the right hand side, as it’s safer there if you’re in an accident.  It wasn’t apparent until a little later that the spiel was a total set up.

I climbed on the bus and grinned down at the guys through the open, right-hand side window, and told ‘em to take it easy. 

In a voice loud enough for all six other foreigners on the bus to hear, Ozzie Pete said, “Right then, next time it’s your turn to bring the condoms!”

What in the hell is he talking about, I thought, and then got it.

I looked at the other foreigners on the bus, who were now all looking at me and stifling laughs.

“Oh, you bastard,” I laughed as I stuck the upper half of my body out the  window. 

I swore my revenge with a laugh, but I have to say that’s about the funniest send-off I’ve ever gotten.