Cat Ba Island and Lan Ha Bay

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After cruising Halong Bay, the boat dropped me off on Cat Ba Island - the largest Island in Halong Bay. The island is straight out of Jurassic Park. It's raged, mountainous and covered by thick forest. I met other travelers on the pier and we decided to have dinner in town. We went to a local place that was totally empty. 5 minutes later it was full of local women. When they were done, the place got crowded with local men all feasting and doing shots of vodka. It was fantastic. We had a really nice dinner, and proceeded to walk to the beach to find a place to stay. It was dark by then. On the advise of the Dutch couple I met earlier, we proceeded to Cat Co 2 beach. When we got to the beach, we had to walk on the sand to get to the resort as no road leads up there. We got bungalows right on the sand surrounded by a nice garden. The bungalows were tiny - mine was just big enough to hold the bed, but the setting was simply stunning. The resort is surrounded by limestone cliffs on 3 sides, with a stone island right in front of the beach, and other limestone islands in the distance. The setting of this beach is the most beautiful I've ever seen. It the water was turquoise blue, this beach would totally rival Ko Phi Phi Islands in Thailand.
Anyways, we spent a day on the beach and then walked to town for dinner and drinks. Coming back late at night, we found the reception of our resort closed - which was a problem since we left our keys there. The first thought was to sleep in hammocks on the beach, but then we figured out we could open the window and get in that way 😊 Which we did. We were lucky to do so, as later in the night it started raining so hard, it looked like a hurricane. The wind was so strong I thought my bungalow was going to blow away 😊
Next day we went on a boat tour of Lan Ha Bay. It is similar to Halong Bay, except the cliffs are smaller. It was amazing. We kayaked around there as well. Went into a cave and a lagoon. The place is simply stunning. Some of the guys also rock climed. I wish I new how - it looked like a lot of fun. They did deep water soloing - which means climbing with no ropes and falling in the water when they made a mistake or were done climbing!
The third day - I spent relaxing on the beach before catching a bus-boat-bus back to Hanoi.
Next stop - majestic Sapa.

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Comments

[dave reynolds]

really enjoying your blogs. travelling to vietnam next february/march. regards abd keep publishing. dave

[richie]

Lunch?
Please tell me that the stuff in those bowels wasn't lunch. I would lose a lot of weight.

[arctangent]

Yes, that was our lunch. The stuff in the bowls is Pho - rice noodle soup that has meat in it, usually beef. It's quite tasty and pretty feeling. But I agree - there is a reason Asian people are so skinny :)