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Published: April 25th 2013
The station at Long Bien is at one end of the bridge that crosses the river. It’s felt small compared to the massive main station we’d come into a few days earlier. It was also on an elevated section of the railway. Standing on the platform I got views along the section of straight track that is alongside the local’s balconies towards the city centre and over the bridge in the opposite direction.
We sat Anna in the waiting room with her now very sore foot elevated on our bags while I took a look around the station. As the train arrived at the station we watched the familiar crowd surround the ticket checking staff by a gateway. On the other side, the train arrived and emptied everyone off, seemingly half of the city came from the train, some waiting by the luggage car and unloaded everything from huge boxes, bicycles and scooters. After the crowd had been ushered off the open platform the gate opened and the flow onto the train began. I grabbed both of the big bags leaving Anna to carry the much lighter day bags, however this meant I was all but useless when it came
to lifting her onto the train. Something that is common with trains in this part of the world, is that the platform is at the same height as the track, leaving people joining the train having to climb the 3 very steep steps up to the carriage. Normally this had not been a problem, but with Anna barely able to put any weight on her ankle, a pair of very kind fellow passengers practically lifted Anna onto the train between them.
We booked a soft seat for the journey out to Hai Phong, what this turned out to be was a padded version of the third class wooden benched seats. The old wooden carriage was tastefully decorated for the 1930’s but was surprising comfortable. We were sat in fairly close proximity to a older lady and her late teen daughter as being Asian size seating my legs were most of the way to their seats facing us. Shortly after the train left with the carriage mostly empty, they moved seats to face the direction of travel and to have some more room, leaving me with almost enough room to straighten my legs.
The train ambled its way across
the countryside with some impressive views of the sun setting over the rice fields on the way to the coastal town.
When we arrived at the station, we found the usual collection of vulture like taxi drivers chasing for off the meter fares. With Anna not really able to walk further than the entrance to the station, the negotiations began, ending fairly quickly as none of them were willing to budge on the fare. Taking the hit of a UK priced taxi for the 1.5km to the hotel was a little painful, but handing the driver the big bags, I got something back, as he almost fell over trying to take my bag. Arriving a little late at the hotel we found the two night staff playing a game of Chinese chequers. Neither were able to speak much in the way of English, so with a little rough translation, and with the old gents realising they’d have to use the computer to check us in, they made a call to one of the day shift who told us he’d be over soon to sort us out. The friendly gents sat us down to wait, and sure enough, in less
than 10 minutes a young guy arrived on a scooter, albeit looking a little sleepy. With us all settled in the room and it being late, we skipped dinner in favour of a good night’s sleep.
The next day I headed out mid morning to get a few supplies for Anna and to work out what the deal with tickets for the ferry would be. We had the advantage of our hotel being centrally located between the city and the hydrofoil terminal. After a little explaining with a phrase book to the hotel staff I had some rough directions to a pharmacy that would be open so headed off into the warming morning sunshine. After a 10 minute walk through the compact but friendly city centre I found the large pharmacy on one of the main streets. As I was the only customer the two serving staff took great delight in my poor language skills having several bottles of potions presented to solve the problems they perceived I had. Resorting to some Pictionary skills, I drew out a rough sketch of an ankle to explain the problem, followed by a roll, then the bandage on the ankle. This resulted
in more success, but after dismissing the pain relieving jells, a elasticated bandage roll appeared from behind the counter. Handing over some cash I retraced my steps back towards the ferry terminal. After a bit of looking around the deserted terminal I took a photo of the ferry times and prices posted on the glass ticket window and walked out in the direction of our hotel. As I left I was spotted by a couple of guys in a coffee stall up the road who started shouting in Vietnamese. As I passed what appeared to be a collection of tout signs someone appeared and began asking me questions in very clear English about where I was going. A short conversation later & I was in their office talking through the ticket options from the ferry terminal. Knowing how much the ticket I wanted was advertised for in the terminal was an advantage as the price started out at almost double, but after some bartering and walking out I had a fair price, so gave him the ‘I need to get my money & bags before I can pay you’ line, promised to return to see him later.
Back at
the hotel Anna was almost ready for the day, so we strapped up her ankle and headed down to the restaurant for some breakfast. Discussing my mornings outing with Anna over some Pho and a Vietnamese coffee we decided to get checked out and try to catch the lunchtime ferry. With me taking the heavy bags Anna and I made steady progress along the 500m to the ferry terminal. As we approached the guy I’d spoken spotted me from 50m away and rushed over to complete his sale. Explaining we wanted to get out of the hot sunshine and our bags dropped at the terminal first he offered a hand. After checking over the tickets, seeming they were genuine enough, we parted with our cash and got comfy to wait for the ferry to arrive. Our hopes of not being swindled with the tickets were raised slightly when we watched some locals arrive and buy their tickets off the same guy. As we sat, reading books, a few sellers had approached us offering a wide selection of unidentifiable snack foods. One type had caught my attention and while discussing what we thought it could be the lady came over and
sat down next to Anna. Asking the lady what it was resulted in one serving being thrust into my hand after which she gestured for me to eat. I was faced with a pair of white sticky squashed golf ball sized objects sandwiching a chunk of a cured salami looking product sprinkled with seasoning. One bite & the favours mixed through my palate. The balls were a rice tasting substance with the filling resembling a very seasoned cured pork sausage. Seeing my subtle enjoyment the lady prompted for payment, of two something. We assumed for the small snack she meant 2000, much to our surprise she insisted it was 20,000. Not wanting a scene with a lengthy wait till the ferry, we parted with our cash and got back to ignoring all the sellers that descended on us having seen a transaction take place. A little later after the remaining seller had taken the hint and left us alone, a Chinese couple arrived and asked where we bought our tickets from. Gesturing to the guy stood next to him and explaining that’s we’d got ours, as well as all the locals in the waiting room, we watched another transaction take
place. We had a nice conversation with the couple, having come from China to here, we shared our experiences and comparisons between the two countries travel arrangements. Another 30 minutes later and the boat arrived, we waited for the locals who bought tickets from the same seller head through the gate before following. We were told to leave our big bags by the far door and take a seat. A little nervous about leaving our bags out of sight, it soon became clear this was fairly standard as the boat began to fill with late comers the luggage area was soon overflowing with boxes and bags bound for the island, some unaccompanied with a small incentive passed to the crew.
The ferry journey was fairly uneventful and quick trip along the estuary and north western coastline of Cat Ba. As we approached the island we expected to be dropped at the pier in the middle of the town, with luck still against us we ended up at an alternative dock at the northern end of the bay, leaving us with almost a kilometre to our hotel rather than 100m. Grabbing the big bags I headed out onto the dock
to help Anna off, as I stood waiting, the crowd waiting to join surrounded me. A couple of helpful locals got Anna off the boat while I had to find my way past the crowd eager to get onto the boat. Having reunited at the top of the dock and past the collection of overpriced moto’s and taxis, Anna’s ankle was feeling supported enough that she wanted to try the walk to the hotel, so we headed off along the link road and down the bay front to find our bed for the next few nights. After checking in we headed up the steep first flight to the elevator and got into the spacious room overlooking the bay, unwrapped Anna’s ankle and found it was an eclectic mix of colours. With Anna comfortable with her foot raised and resting, for dinner we ate our way through some food that we’d bought for the journey and not eaten.
The next day was more R&R for Anna, setting her up with books, laptop, water and snacks I headed down to have a talk through some travel options with the hotel staff. We hadn’t got transport back to Hanoi booked yet, and
with us not able to head out exploring we had decided to try and book an extra night. Our accommodation sorted I went down the road to find the official tourist information office, however with everywhere offering ‘tourist information’ finding it was harder than I thought. Visiting half a dozen places and getting quotes for a bay boat trip and transport options gave me a good feel for the ones I felt we were able to trust to book. Feeling like a break from transport hunting I headed up to a monument to Ho Chi Minh that was on top of a hill that overlooks the bay. Once up the steep winding staircase I found panoramic views over the bay and onto the beach resorts at the southern end of town. While at the top I spotted a concrete roadway leading over the hillsides behind the town so decided to head over and find out where it lead. At the top of the road I was greeted by a guy in a small wooden shack offering to relieve me of 50,000 dong to see the remains of the hill fort and views over the three sand beaches at the southern
end of the town. Deciding I might return with Anna later in the week I headed back to the hotel to talk our travel and sightseeing options for the week ahead. Later on we strapped Anna’s ankle back up and ventured out to find some food, as we passed through the lobby it seemed all the staff had been told of the injury and were on hand to offer sympathy. We took a gentle wander down the street to a backpackers restaurant liking the options and prices on offer for the food. We were offered a table in the rooftop bar for food, but finding no elevator, opted to have our dinner in the new year and Christmas decorated ground floor restaurant. After dinner we continued down the road to see how Anna was faring, before long we turned back, stopping at a collection of plastic chairs at the end of the pier for a couple of beers to break up the journey.
Deciding Anna felt well enough, we rented a scooter the following day with the idea of exploring the island, after all, it wasn’t very big so there was no way we could get as lost as
we did in China. Checking over the bike I found the usual battle scars of a few forays on the roads of Asia as well as almost bald tyres, the kind you could colour in with a marker pen to double the tread depth. As it was the only one available and, other than those things, was in good working order, we jumped on and headed off to find the nearest petrol station. Heading out of Cat Ba town we found a junction, thinking we were further out of town than we were, we headed down the left fork, only to find the road looped round a small second bay back to the pier we’d arrived at a few days before. Awesome start. Looping back round we were soon on a scenic road out of town winding round the western coast of the island, eventually finding ourselves at the car ferry that links across to the mainland. Not wanting to return there just yet, we turned inland, joined the main road and ambled though the rainforest reserve in the centre of the island. After about 45 minutes we found the end of the road and another ferry terminal, this time
to Halong city. As we approached we spotted a small cafe, with us both being a little hungry and cold we stopped in for lunch. We ordered a couple of our new favourite tipple, Vietnamese coffee, and a plate of noodles to share. As we were enjoying our lunch a group of English guys arrived on scooters, asking if the food was any good, we gave them our positive opinion of the delicious noodles we’d just had. They ordered much the same as we had and we got chatting about they’re journey. They’d come up the country from Ho Chi Minh City to Hue on scooters they’d bought, then sold them and taken the train up to Hanoi and bussed it out to Cat Ba. We exchanged our experiences of Hanoi street dining & drinking with their experiences of the south of Vietnam as well as the roads we’d taken on the island. After lunch we all headed off almost at the same time with them heading back to Cat Ba the way we’d come and vice versa. After a little way a bunch of local youngsters offered one of them a race, after which they disappeared over the horizon.
We took our time heading back through the national park and took a few back roads as we approached Cat Ba so we could get a look over the sandy beaches at the south of the island. Heading over the small headland at the end we found each of the beaches guarded by resorts with only one having any kind of easy public access to it. A little disappointed and cold we headed back to the hotel in the early evening sunset. After a little time warming trough we booked a boat tour for the following days, the guys we’d met earlier had mentioned they’d booked a private tour that sounded cool, so we went for a group tour version. We also talked through our transport options for getting back to the mainland and onto Hue, finding out the soft sleeper tickets had sold out, we were faced with choosing between an overnight bus or going hard sleeper class on the train. Needing some time to mull over our option we headed out for dinner, but on our return, everyone had gone to bed for the night. In the morning we attempted to get the train booked but the
man we needed to speak to had gone to Hanoi on business for the day. We headed over to the pier to meet our tour boat vowing to get something booked when we got back. As we walked over we found the guys we’d met the day before also waiting for their tour. They told us they were still waiting as the boat they were meant to be on had broken down. We had a bit of a joke and banter as a pair of boats limped over to the quay that the nicer boat they’d been promised would have the broken one lashed to it for the day. An oil covered crew member appeared with part of the engine and disappeared off on a scooter as the guys were ushered aboard the working boat. They relaxed in and resumed the banter from the water. After about 30 minutes the crew member returned and shortly later the group we’d been stood with were ushered aboard the boat being repaired. With a few conversations going on between the two crews, both boats were cast off, and we left Cat Ba bay being towed by the other boat. As we rounded the
headland, the crew member we’d seen earlier crawled out from under the deck, now with more oil all over him. A few nervous minutes of cranking the engine later and it burst into life. We were cast off the other boat, waved goodbye to the guys and headed off in a similar but slightly different direction.
Our first stop was at ‘Monkey Island’, as you can imagine, they have a couple of families of monkeys that inhabit the island. Being regularly spoilt by the selection of food on offer inside tourists bags they can get quite close looking for the next source of amusement or food. As we arrived we spotted the English guys walking along the beach, we docked and ventured down the beach to see what there was to see. As we found them, they flagged their boat back to head off as they were bored with the 100 meter sand beach, and we couldn’t blame them. After a small fight over a group of girls straw mats the monkeys lost interest and headed back off into the forest. The only other thing to do on the island was climb up to the top of the hill,
an adventurous path that has you free climbing/scrabbling your way up sharp rocky terrain. With Anna’s ankle and me in sandals, we opted to stay on the beach, spending the next 30 minutes waiting for the two or three people that decided they had to make it to the top and back. For almost the entire day, we’d arrive about 30 minutes behind the English guys boat. The next few hours were spent winding our way through the pearl growing area in the nature reserve area as we got closer to Halong Bay national park. Once at the park we stopped off to go kayaking through some of the shallower areas of the park. We were given a kayak between two of us and some vague directions to the caves we could get through. We jumped in and paddled off in the direction of all the other kayaks hoping we’d not get lost. We found an impressive open span with rushing currents against us, pushing on we headed through to the daylight we could see on the other side. We found out fairly quickly that this was a dead end so turned around and headed back to another cave we’d
seen on our way. Passing back with the aid of the current was a lot easier and we were soon through the second cave and into a huge bay surrounded by mountains. Having been told we could loop round back to the boat we paddled our way round the shallow bay, finding quite a lot of it was less than a meter deep. Back at the boat we were told we’d wait for all the others to return before we had lunch. With everyone back and sat inside the boat we were presented with a selection of squid and veg, fried cabbage, whole fish with tomatoes & veg, a massive pile of sticky rice & deep fried spring rolls. As we all had our fill it became evident that one of the guys on the tour required more than anyone else as he proceeded to finish up everything that had been left over by the rest of the table. With lunch finished we headed back in the direction of Cat Ba, but with an extra passenger of a national park ranger. We stopped in at a small cave where we were ushered through the gloomy darkness and found a small
lake in the centre of the hill, completely isolated from the sea. We continued our journey back to town, choosing not to stop for swimming due to the overcast sky and single figure air temperatures. We stopped along the way at a floating village, there were houses lashed together on plastic barrels as far as we could see, some were fish farms, others just floating storage. We waited a while there not really knowing why, only to find the English guys getting thrown onto our boat and the couple that were on an overnight stay on a boat trip were swapped onto theirs. With the exchange completed we headed back to town, comparing the English guys day with our own.
Back in town we returned to our hotel to attempt our booking for transport, only to find the guy we needed to speak to was still out of town. Heading out for dinner we walked into a couple of places offering sleeping train tickets only to be told the soft sleeper was booked out at all of them. Ending up at the official tourist information office, a small office with a half round end to the office nearest the
street, we gave in and booked hard sleeper tickets and a bus off the island the following morning.
The following morning we packed up all our baggage, had breakfast and headed the short distance back to the tourist information office to catch our bus out of town. It arrived and loaded us before stopping at most of the hotels along the front and by the time we left town it was almost full. The bus headed off the car ferry side of town before taking a small lane off before the end of the road. We were dropped at passenger terminal with our bags and given no instructions, so after a little asking around I found out we were waiting for the boat to arrive and unload before we could join it. As the gate opened we were all ushered through followed by a small group of people on scooters. As we got onto the boat we were told that we’d have to leave our big rucksacks on deck and take a seat inside. At little concerned by this we did as asked, and watched as all the passengers were loaded in the same way, including the scooter riders,
who had their bikes roped onto the small deck area at the rear of the boat. After all were aboard we pulled out of the dock and crept along the small waterway. As we arrived in the open water, it became fairly evident why this had been called the speed boat option, wasting no time the guy at the help gave it all it had an pointed it towards Haiphong. Along the way the guy swapped with a collection of people all seated in the front few rows, all with a different style of handling the passing traffic. After a couple of hours, and with our destination in sight the original crew member took the helm and guided us into the dock. From here we collected our slightly salty luggage from the open deck and were ushered past a similarly confused looking westerners onto a waiting small bus. The bus took us through Haiphong to the dock we’d used to get to Cat Ba, where we were told to wait for the big coach to Hanoi. It arrived in a rush a little while later, barely stopping long enough to load us all on, the guy loading the luggage for us having to run alongside the door to get back on. This was the case at almost every stop, with people having to jump into and off of the moving bus. In his defence, the driver made up the time deficit and we arrived in Hanoi almost exactly when the timetable said we should. While I recovered the bags Anna got swamped by the taxi vultures, managing to barter down the cab drivers against a pair of industrious moto riders to get a reasonable fair from the bus station to the main rail station. Leaving Anna with the bags in the ticket office I headed off across the city to collect our train tickets from the agent. Once I’d found the hotel lobby I found the guy I needed had dropped out for lunch, figuring I had a little time before he returned I left to go to find an ATM that didn’t charge commission before returning to collect the tickets and get back to the station. With everything in hand we had most of the afternoon between us and the overnight train, so we took a little walk towards the city centre to find some dinner. We ended up in a chain looking burger type place that served mostly chicken in between sticky rice patties rather than buns. It made an interesting and filling dinner and kept us from needing to eat again before getting to sleep on the train. After dinner we headed back to the main train station to try and work out where we needed to be to catch the train, finding the waiting room tucked off to one side of the main ticket area, we settled in to wait for the train to arrive.
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