Advertisement
Published: November 19th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Ha Long Bay
On the way to Cat Ba From Hanoi, we aimed to make our own way to Cat Ba Island, which is billed as the quiter way to enjoy the karst coastal landscapes of North East Vietnam. The aim of making our own way there was to avoid the craziness of Ha Long City, the gateway to what must be one of the most visited areas in South East Asia I would guess (Ha Long Bay). We failed miserably, booking our journey through our hotel without checking the route, which was a bit dumb! This meant we were effectively hitching with organised tours, joining their cramped bus journey to Ha Long City where we were finally ushered on to a boat (after a maybe 2hr wait) which was with another tour group. Once this got to Cat Ba Island we were free to leave the tour and head off on our own. We spoke to people on the various buses/boats which really showed the problems with booking tours to Ha Long Bay - the price ranges people had paid for the tours was enormous, inevitably with some having paid huge sums (relatively) to simply then be ushered on to one of the more rubbish tours. But never mind
Ha Long Bay
Relaxing on the top deck - we certainly paid over the odds, but did get to see Ha Long Bay itself which we would not have otherwise (but if you are doing this trip and really want to miss Ha Long City, apparently these instructions are very good: http://www.slopony.com/index.php?option=com_sloponycontentlon&Itemid=27&Id=1).
There is no doubt, the bay was amazing. Similar amazing rocky outcrops as at Yangshou, hundreds of them all around coming straight out of the sea to form a mass of islands, each with hidden bays, rocky arches, and caves, and covered in lush vegetation. Most have been eroded at the base by the sea, with a small shaded overhang - this means that from a distance a dark band at their base almost makes it look like the islands are floating in the air slightly above the sea....honest! Against a backdrop of blue sky and inviting sea as you potter along on the 'authentic' tourist junk (some a bit worse for ware!). This went someway to soothe our disappointment of the journey, and by the time we had got to Cat Ba Island and had been bused to the town in time for sunset over the bay all was forgiven! Found a very cheap
Cat Ba Island
Sunset view of boats, floating shacks and restaurants hotel (which we promptly moved from the next day as the other floors were building sites, but just moved next door to an almost as cheap hotel) and booked a one day boat cruise with Slo Pony - would have been good to do an overnight trip but there was no gaurantee the trip was going to be filled, in which case it would not have gone ahead.
Next morning we got on our boat (another authentic junk but this time with ralings which were not rotten and falling in to the sea!) and headed off through the maze of towering karst islands south of the island around Lan Ha Bay. This area is less visited, much of the time there were no other tourist boats in sight. There were probably about 12 of us on the boat and we lay about on the roof as it wound its way through the islands, past floating shacks (some small hamlets) where people had set up fish farms with a series of part floating, part submerged cages for the fish and shellfish. Each floating shack/hamlet had a few dogs which run around the floating walkways and presumably never get their paws
on dry land, but must do a grand job of gaurding the fish stocks from theft.
After a while we picked up kayaks from one of the floating shacks and set off, gliding through the very flat seas, under a two metre high archway through one of the island's rock faces (avoiding the stalagtites) and in to an entirely enclosed lagoon - it was absolutely stunning, surrounded by high rock faces on all sides, dripping with lush vegetation. Rach had the best idea of the day, and we 'moored' our kayac between a few rocks and went for a swim. It was stunning! The day carried on with alternating pottering along on the boat and little kayak trips. On one trip under an arch through to another lagoon a fisherman on a wooden longboat, beckoned us over and pointed and we saw our first wild monkeys scrambling over the rock faces and in to the forest - the beautiful, serene experience only punctuated by Rach's squeals of 'monkeys, there are monkeys'! On another trip, we paddled in to a low cave, 40m deep or so, and were circled by large bats (good for some of us, but not everyones
Cat Ba Island
View (Rach's photos are better!) cup of tea). On a wildlife note, alot of the islands seemed to be alive with small bird song, and in these parts sea gulls are replaced by large kites which circle above the islands, glide across the cliff faces and swoop for fish - definately more elegant than our sea gulls!
Needless to say we got back to Cat Ba very happy! The next day we hired a moped and scooted around the island a little. First we headed inland and climbed to the top of a hill to a very rusty, creaky viewing tower surrounded by massive hornets. Rach made it most of the way to the top, I made it all the way but almost wish I hadn't as my faith in the Vietnamese construction was not that great! View was great with mountains and forest all around (if I could take my eyes off the steps!). Also stopped at 'Hospital Cave' - a single storey concrete building had been made by the locals inside a huge cave to provide a safe hospital during the American war - loads of rooms including operating theatres (apparently sometimes using implements made from bomb shards). On the roof of
the concrete structure was a swimming pool even, and a third storey was formed from natural tunnels (we weren't allowed up - secret!). Had 20 doctors, up to 150 patients and also army trained there - I don't think the US actually landed on the island but it was certainly bombed. After this we headed to one of the beaches on our trusty moped...or not so trusty as the brakes could not cope with a hill, luckily my trusty flip flops were a bit more trusty and did some breaking while Rach expertly steered us in to the kurb - no harm done!! Had a swim which was lovely although we were surrounded by the bad side of tourism - loads of litter from the thousands of boats had floated in to the bay, not so nice.
The next day, with a sigh, we headed back on to the tour trail for our journey back to Hanoi - roasting on the boat and then we were all piled in to a tiny minibus. Got back to Hanoi ranker than rank itself, but luckily our hotel let us have a shower (despite having checked out) before we got on a
night bus to Hue. The night bus was good fun - everyone on reclined chairs, almost lying down, which overlap so your legs are under the head of the person in front. Had a surprisingly good sleep!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.088s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0379s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb