Cat Ba Island

A long sleeper bus to the coast took us from the mountains to the ocean. We woke up to the oversized bus trying to fit on an undersized ferry. A nervous Cam took a quick survey of the nearby emergency exits, determined herself satisfied, and relaxed.

Cat Ba Island has turned itself into somewhat of a hippie backpacker destination. It is the alternative to the world renowned Ha Long Bay, a massive bay of jagged limestone islands surrounded by ocean. Here though, there is the same.

We finally arrived to our hotel, and the town. It is entirely hotels and restaurants. But for how resortified the area was, it was somewhat quiet. We found what became our favorite restaurant on the island, Yummy, and had some pho and spring rolls for breakfast. Delicious as always.

Without a total plan for the day, we decided to wander to the beaches of the area, using a nice coastal route. There were three beaches, each with a resort attached to them, and maybe 10 lounging people total between all three. The sand was warm and soft, and the water surprisingly cold, but refreshing. We parked up at the second beach for a couple hours, splashing in the waves, and enjoying the sun. The partly cloudy skies made the sun a lot tamer.

We decided to leave when the gang of tourists on rented mopeds showed up, and wandered back to the hotel. A quick rest, and then back out for dinner! There was lots of really good seafood in town we wanted to try. So just a short nap…

Twelve hours later, it was a bright, confusing and refreshing 6:30 wakeup for us. The best sleep we have had in Vietnam so far. This was good, as we had a jungle hike planned for the day. The hotel breakfast was lovely, and we loaded up on pancakes. Every hostel/ hotel breakfast we have had has had pancakes. The French influence at work.

We took a taxi to Cat Ba National Park, and began the 13km hike to the Viet Hai ferry terminal, where we would boat back to town.

The trail started out quite pleasant. A degraded paved path lead through the flat portion of the jungle. Thick luscious green on either side. It began to slowly elevate, and we took a detour on the educational path. There were no signs. It was not educational.

Past the educational path, the trail got crazy. Cat Ba Island, as well as the surrounding Lan Ha and Ha Long bays, are all chunks of porous limestone that have been dissolved and massacred by annual rainfalls and other geological nonsense. This has created massive pillars, caves, and extremely random and uneven terrain that is hard to navigate. We scrambled up 60 degree sharp rock inclines to the top.

There wasn’t much of a view at the top of the island. Vegetation covered most of it. The down was really chaotic though. Both hands on deck, slowly lowering ourselves through the sharp limestone points to the village.

The village was a weird snap back to tourist reality. The “authentic” village as its advertised was full of homestays and tourists casually cycling the one road in the middle. To be fair, it was a really pretty village and valley. The opening of the valley meant you could see all of the karst mountains at once.

Getting passed by bicycles, we walked along the road to the harbour, admiring both the easy path and the landscape around us. The harbour had massive sheds of identical bicycles, and many small cruise boats that took the tourists here. The local boat was what we were after though. We got beckoned on and sat on the top, while the locals unloaded all of the cargo supplies ordered, and then loaded up all of the villages trash to journey back with us.

The 50 minute ferry ride back to Cat Ba was our first taste of Lan Ha bay. And it was fantastic. Around us were all sorts of oddly shaped islands stretching out of the water, a maze of passages between them. Each island had sheer cliffs on the side, and dense vegetation wherever it could cling to the rocks, often hanging down the side. The whole thing blended together and was a web of beauty.

We had a seafood and meat hot pot for dinner from our favorite restaurant, Yummy. A whole plate of chicken, beef, clams, squid and oysters arrived for us with a nice vegetable broth. It was delicious. Again, another early and exhausted night from us. We will recover soon.

The bay was beautiful, and we are headed back out on it now. A cruise! We will see you on the ocean.