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Cat Ba island.
We got the local bus from the main bus station in Hanoi, it took us to Hai Phong, another main city. We pulled up to this industrial estate with thousands upon thousands of shipping containers. Being only 2 hours from the capital of Vietnam I assume this must be the main shipping dock. But unfortunately with all the ships comes the pollution, it was far from a port or beach im used to seeing, it's muddy shores and disgusting waters were 10 times worse then the river Thames. I couldn't believe that something so dismal and sad could be such a short distance from the mythical Ha Long Bay.
We got on the junk boat and made the short 20 minute crossing to Cat Ba island.
Arriving on Cat Ba wasn't much better. I can imagine the disappointment people must feel when they arrive at the pyramids of Giza and see a Macdonalds at the bottom.
We got on another bus and drove 45 minutes to the other side of the island, the closer we got to the south of the island the more beautiful it became. It was like a completely different place.
Being winter the sea front with tall skinny buildings maybe 8 or 9 stories tall all multi coloured, flashing karaoke bars, grey skies and deserted streets was comparable to Margate seafront.
We checked into our hotel and at £3.50 a night, although the room smelt of damp, it was a good size, with aircon, tv, desk, Ensuite bathroom with HOT water and a seaview. Put it this way, we have paid a lot more for far worse on this journey. We decided having read a lot about the island to spend 3 nights here.
Ha long bay
The next morning we set off for Ha Long Bay. We booked the tour with Cat Ba Adventures, they picked us up from the office and took us to Lan Ha port. We got on a very lovely large junk boat. Our tour guide Phuc... (Pronounced f***) was so nice, spoke amazing english and even went into scientific detail on the rock formation.
First we passed a floating fishing village, Lan Ha one of many in the area. The people who lived on floating villages were very different to traditional Vietnamese people. Firstly they loved dogs and there were loads running around, they value dogs as part of the family (as us British do) and not as food. Despite living by there own rules (like gypsies) The children living here were still governed by law to visit the only school on the island, getting there by rowing boat daily. The forfeit for your child not going to school there is a hefty fine and in some cases being forced to live back on land. Despite the conditions of the floating villages looking horrendous the people there were very happy and preferred to live there amongst there own community's, then on land where the pace was a lot faster.
We stopped at one place to collect kayaks for later on in the day, and we were invited in to have a look. Outside where we pulled up you could see very large grids of nets, one had Red Snapper in, another Seabass and then finally King fish. The king fish were huge and I actually thought they were sharks to begin with. We went inside where the guide just started lifting the floor boards from beneath us, underneath were more large grids. They literally lived above there catches.
He carried on removing floor board by floor board until an entire square of the grid roughly 2x2m was revealed. In this special section in the heart of this mans home was one single Orange Grouper fish, the reason this type of fish is named 'orange' is because it changes to the colour of its surroundings. It was grey today. God knows what part of the ocean is orange. The man had caught this rare fish 11 years ago at the weight of 10kgs. Now it weighed more then 50kgs and was around 2 meters in length. A very powerful man who opened a resort on Monkey island a short distance away had a brother who owned a large hotel in Ho Chi Min city and would regularly make offers on the fish so that he could display it in his 5 star resort in the reception area. Despite the latest offer being $10,000 U.S. dollars a life changing figure to any Vietnamese let alone one on a floating village the man still resisted. When I asked why, he said that the fish was a gift from the gods and gave him good luck and he would not sell it until his work was done living in the ocean. I gained a new respect for the people of these villages at that moment.
Money means nothing to them, they live for happiness, not objects or shoes. For food, for water and to survive the next storm.
Lan Ha bay has 427 islands as we were approaching the border between Lan Ha and Ha long bay I could see absolutely NO difference.
Ha Long bay is 20 times bigger and has a total 1983 islands. But I honestly could have been toured around Lan Ha bay all day and told it was Ha Long bay.
The rocks were stunning, and you could imagine dinosaurs wandering around the land 500 million years ago prior to the ice age.
After the 3 hour journey, through the mist and without seeing one single other tour boat we stopped for some lunch. By which point 1) I was starving and 2) I couldn't help but think, once you see one rock, you've seen them all! I was glad after considering the live aboard 2 night 3 day trips or 1 night 2 days that we had decided against it. One day is all you need here. Perhaps in the summer my opinion would be different as I could spend hours climbing the rocks and jumping in the crystal blue sea in the sunshine. But in the current temperature no thanks.
After our feast we went kayaking, Chris and I had the usual debate over who was better. I was a sea cadet so obviously it's me. And we headed straight for a grotto labeled 'DANGER DON'T ENTER' we ignored it and went through. The ceiling was really low and it was pitch black so if the tide was high and you didn't have your head torches then I can see why it would be dangerous. It went on for about 500 meters and then it revealed the most beautiful secret cove, surrounded by rock you would have no idea this was even here passing by on a boat you would assume it was solid not having this almost lake inside. It was about the size of a cricket field, Chris says maybe a bit bigger.
We spent some time here just sitting there watching the trees, wandering what we might see and THEN we saw 3 monkeys just sitting there eating. They were brown monkeys so nothing rare for the area but it was still so exciting to just see them in there natural habitat like that.
After 2 hours kayaking the boat took us to the north section of Ha long bay, now I'm not entirely sure if it's because it's winter season at the moment here or wether its a normal thing but there were literally tons of beaches revealed, untouched and completely natural beaches. So inviting, Chris and I braved it and jumped off the boat. We chose our own private unspoilt beach and swam too it. Although the water was freezing and I'm probably not the best swimmer, standing on Ur own piece of sand with not a sole there, surrounded by untold sea mountains was something indescribable.
When we returned to the beach I decided to have a hot drink, with not much other choice I tried coffee.
4 cups later.
Not only do I like beer nowadays... I'm drinking coffee too now, and enjoying it!
The next morning we had our spare day, which if the weather had been as we had hoped would have been lovely, but as it was cloudy, windy with some spots of drizzle so it was hard to decide what to do.
We decided to go for a walk and explore the island. After some walking we found the most stunning beaches completely deserted, one of them looked to be having a hotel or something built next to it ready for the summer then we carried on walking around the cliff edge and discovered another. I've never been on a beach of that size completely on my own before so even tho it was windy and we couldn't put on our swimsuits it was actually so nice and relaxing just to sit there.
As it was my baby sisters birthday that day we decided to do an Art Attack style birthday message in the sand. It was actually a lot harder then it looked, the 'H' in the happy birthday message written on the sand was double the height of Chris and I had to keep climbing up and down the bloody cliff to check that it looked okay!
It turned out amazing. And Gabriella loved it.
After this we walked back to the town and then found a market to wander around. Wasn't much Id like to buy though, more Fish guts then shoes lol. After feeling satisfied that we had walked as much as there was to walk and seen all we wanted too, the only thing left was the 30p beer to drink and pool to play. I got drunk on £1. And we had an early night, like 8pm I was asleep haha.
It was time to leave Cat Ba and head on to our home stay scheduled in a town 20 hours south.
Dong Hoi caves here we come....
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