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Published: February 1st 2015
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From Hanoi it is an easy excursion to get to the limestone islands of the world famous Ha long bay. Every shop offers a tour. We preferred the option of going independently to Cat Ba island and then picking trips from there.
You get a flavour of the other side of Vietnam as you pass through the industrial port of Hai Phong to catch a small ferry to Cat Ba. This arrives in an area of mangroves where another bus takes you to the main town.
The beach front of the main town has been developed and there are many many hotels of all standards. Judging by the development hoardings we saw it has only just started. If you return in a few years you will probably find a golf course, brand new water fronted apartment complexes and more resorts. For now though it has the air of an out of season resort. (Apparently the Vietnamese holiday en masse from June to August, if they take a holiday at all.) It meant we could check out a few rooms at our leisure and select the one we preferred (Green Cat Ba Hotel).
We opted for a day tour with Cat Ba Ventures around Lan Ha Bay. This is the southern end of Ha Long Bay and much quieter. One of the best things about the day was that the other four participants were such interesting people. Jonathan was a Canadian American based Boulder, Colorado. He was having a weekend of R&R before doing a week's work in Hanoi. He had been hired by a government ministry to train them on resolving environmental conflicts. He had lived in many interesting places particularly in the Middle East and was the son of a Mennonite Architecture Professor at Penn State.
Mariana was a Greek translator who had gone freelance after many years in advertising. She had just married Seto, a professional flamenco singer who she had met at a big Greek wedding. As the boat cruised back to port Seto gave renditions of songs from his repertoire. Lastly, Joseph was a German lad on a break from his studies, who had just completed two semesters in China.
The boat was equipped for many more passengers and had a spacious indoor area as well as a sun roof. The weather
was warm and pleasant without being sunny, a characteristic of this time of year. We motored through the famous islands, many of them sheer and sharp and yet still covered in vegetation.
You first pass through floating fishing villages. One thousand people live in one room houses on the water typically surrounded by a few fish pens. We were told that most make a good living and also have houses on land. In the past many were ethnically Chinese until the late eighties when they were expelled during the war with China. The guide of course did not mention that. Some of his commentary, as with other guides, did portray how they mistrust, fear, even hate the Chinese, the country that occupied Vietnam for more than a thousand years.
In a sheltered spot we boarded canoes and the guide lead us through grottos into hidden lagoons. We paddled round the edge and saw monkeys and a black Asian squirrel. You could hear birds and could not see them as they were hidden in the foliage.
The chef laid on an excellent spread of traditional food. There was plenty of seafood something
we have missed as we have travelled through the middle of the Asian continent.
In the afternoon we stopped for a swim. It was fresh without being cold (Jane was not tempted) and we could dive off the sun deck. I swam with Jonathan, actually in his distant wake, to a couple of beaches with limestone cliffs towering above us. Seto and Mariana joined us too. The Nepal apple brandy I had stashed in my day pack came in handy when got out to warm us all up.
As the locals only know know too well the best way to get around a lot of Vietnam is by motorcycle. The hotel had one we could rent, actually an automatic scooter, so we used it to tour the island. The key roads were good and one coast road was a building site. We visited a cave that had been filled with concrete and turned into a 200 bed hospital during the American war. The scenery with the towering hills covered in jungle made it difficult to keep one's eyes on the road.
At the port we watched a fishing boat unloading its
A few fish from a lot of net
We have seen this technique of square framed nets in rivers as well as in Lan Ha Bay catch. It was all surface fish the size of a large whitebait. The scene reminded me of Javea, Spain forty years ago. In this case the fish were washed by ladies waiting on the dock and spread on flat nets to dry. We later saw the dried fish for sale as we strolled around the local market. There is a lot of dried fish for sale and also squid dried flat with their backbone removed. We haven't worked out how they are eaten yet.
The geology in the Ha Long and Lan Ha Bay region is truly unique, each island it's own shape and it is not surprising it is on everyone's Vietnam tour. Let's hope they can use some of Jonathan's advice to stop over development. From what we saw at Cat Ba Island it is difficult to be too optimistic.
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Sameul david
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Very Nice
Good blog. Liked reading it.