Cat Ba Island, Halong Bay, Vietnam
Travel Location: Cat-Ba,Vietnam
It took a couple of hours on the Bay to reach Cat Ba, so we were sunning on the deck of the transfer boat (John says: Where very kindly the skipper brought me a cold beer!), until we could bear the heat no more and went downstairs to the shade (John says: Here Lynne said, in that innocent 5-year old “I didn’t do it” voice, “I could use the laptop couldn’t I” She typed away merrily for the rest of the trip). As we pulled into the harbor of Cat Ba, we looked at each other and said that we may not stay here for long. It looked like a deserted Western town – you know where the sheriff has run everyone out and there’s one hotel, and one liquor store and a few locals sitting around smoking. Well, that’s what our first impression of Cat Ba was. Boy were we wrong!
If you are every in Vietnam – don’t miss this one.
We popped into the only hotel in town to ask where the Noble House (the name of our hotel) was. I can take you, the desk clerk said, on my motorbike. Okay then. So, with great aplomb, John saddled up on one bike and I took the “friend’s” bike, and we rode over the hill to the real Cat Ba Harbor. There were instances on the journey, where I was definitely muttering, I think I can, I know I can, I think I can, I know I can – just like the little engine who could – as the poor motorbike was going up and over the hill.
What we saw when we finally made it was akin to Brighton, with lights, and a pier, and a fountain, and people! It turned out that our hostel (loose description, because it was far from a hostel) was dead center of town, next to the post office, across from the pier, with the best views.
Noble House – if you ever go to Cat Ba, stay there. Our host, Peter is Australian (although his accent is English as he spent 12 years in the UK) and his wife is Vietnamese. The hostel is a four storey building facing the harbor. The ground floor is the restaurant, which pours out on to the street, so you can sit and eat there and watch the world go by. There is a mezzanine to lie around and play games in. Then, the piéce de resistance, a bar on the second floor which was open to the world.
We sat there and just gazed out for ages, it was brilliant. (John says: It was also Happy Hour, every third drink was free!) The third floor housed our room, which was okay, and was typical hostel – with a separate bathroom/shower (no actual shower, just a shower head and a drain on the floor of the bathroom). There was wicker furniture and a TV and fridge. All you really need. We had hit the jackpot again, as this was all for $22 a night and that included breakfast. Peter told us that most folk are in Cat Ba on a tour and only stay one or two days – we were there for four. He jokingly said after three you are considered an expat, after four, you are a positive local!
Peter set us straight on the lay of the land and how to pay for things – there are no ATMs on this island, everything is cash and we needed to pay for our hotel in US $$. There is a “place” on Cat Ba where you can go and get out dollars on your credit card. They charge a 5% commission, but as there is no other way of obtaining more cash than you bring with you, that’s your only option. I won’t go into more detail, because I’m sure it’s probably not kosher to do that, but we used it. We found an internet café too, although there must only be one phone line on Cat Ba as it was SOOOO SLOW! We did go early in the morning once, and that was much better – fewer people on I guess.
We walked around the market, but it was late in the day and so not much was going on. The Vietnamese take siestas from 11 – 3 every day. They pull out their hammocks, wherever they are, and string them up, and take a nap. So, at the market, the stall owners had frequently hung their hammocks high over their produce. (John says: If you have read any of our stories of Vietnam you will know by now I have fallen in love with Vietnamese coffee. The one thing we did see was the small filter cup that sits on the glass to make the coffee. We got one for about $1.50 and I can’t wait to use it. Now I just need to find the coffee!) No matter, this gave us an opportunity to walk around this side of town and see what was up. The weather was warm (bordering hot) and so it was a slow walk. As we got off the beaten track a little, one woman came up to me and shook my hand and smiled. She said something, but I’m not sure what she meant. I smiled back and said hello. All the kids we saw laughed, and giggled and shouted hello. In the market, the women loved my dress (the yellow one with the fringes cut) and would play with the fringes on the bottom and giggle and point.
Dinner that night was back at Noble House. We sat upstairs in the amazing bar and watched the people on the promenade and pier, and ordered dinner. At 8pm, the fountain right in front of the hostel came on and for the next half an hour put on a water show. Not quite the same as the fountains in Xian at the small goose pagoda, but pretty cool for a tiny island in Halong Bay. They also have street lights which are neon – yep, neon. They are – well – just check out the photo we took, they are hard to explain.
Next morning, after skyping the kids and going to an internet café and checking internet (which, remember, is SOOO SLOW) we headed back to Noble House where Peter rented us a motorbike for a whopping $6! Cat Ba is a World Biosphere and a Nature Reserve. They have the Cat Ba monkeys which are very rare. In fact, there are only 56 left in the world, and all of them live on Cat Ba. Needless to say, we didn’t see any of them. But what we did see were hundreds of butterflies. When we went up to the nature reserve we drove through positive swarms of them (well, maybe not swarms – but lots). On the way to the reserve, we stopped at the Hospital Cave, where a funny little man popped out and said he would watch our bike (we later discovered that there was a fee of 5000 dong (John says: We also discovered later that we could just have left it beside the road at the bottom of the track up to the hospital, but 5000 dong is 30 cents so what the heck!) while his wife (the cave keeper) charged us 50,000 dong each to enter the cave and showed us around. (John says: Lynne asked for a ticket to the hospital as a souvenir. The Cave Keeper just shook her head…I’m not sure every ticket sold is completely and accurately accounted for….)
The information on the Hospital Cave says that: during the war whilst attempting to destroy the US air force (in 1965 and 1972) the Vietnamese and Chinese army built a big hospital inside the mountain. The cave has three floors including a cinema, table tennis room, swimming pool and 17 rooms for quarters and wards. There is an entrance on one side and an exit on the other side of the mountain.
What this actually meant was that it was built, although there is no record of it being used – ever. The cinema is a huge room with the cave being the ceiling. The swimming pool is just a small concrete bath which was going to be used for physical therapy rather than actually swimming. All the 17 rooms were empty, it would have been nice if the government had actually gone one step further and put objects in the rooms indicating what they might have been, or even just labeling them on the outside. While we were being shown around, a tour group of about 8 came through, and their tour guide was telling the group completely different information than our cave keeper. We had been warned about the validity of what tour guides in Vietnam actually knew, so it was funny to see it in process. All that aside, it was an amazing feat. Just the thought of dragging all that concrete up the mountain, whew. (John says: Reading between the lines I think that this was a big mutual friendship thing between the Chinese and Vietnamese, the Chinese wanting to help the communist Vietnamese brothers in their time of strife (and therefore gaining access to the shipping lanes into Haiphong harbor with all the materials they were supplying) and the Vietnamese who could have used the manpower to better effect elsewhere not being able to say “Thanks, but no thanks” to their large northern neighbors. Witness the fact it was never used.)
Back on the bike and round the island again. We saw water buffalo, dragon flies, more butterflies, and green, lush fields with women working in them. Small villages, children coming out of school in their uniforms. It felt like being in the Motorcycle Diaries, (John says: The bike felt almost as old!) the movie about taking a bike through South America.
We made it back to Cat Ba town and had a very late lunch, and then John dragged me down to check out the beaches. They are called Cat Ba 1, 2 and 3. Original huh? (John says: Here they try to fool you with 1 in the middle with 3 to the right and 2 to the left!) Cat Ba 1 and 3 both have four/five star hotels on them, and one has a waterpark, so brilliant place for families. I can imagine people going there and not moving the entire time they are there. We decided to check out Cat Ba 2 the next day. I was tired, wanted to go back for a nap – or a glass of wine – and we did just that.
Next day, we headed out early for Cat Ba 2. It took about an hour to walk around the boardwalk which was erected on the outside of the cliff. You can’t get to Cat Ba 2 via road, only on the outside of this cliff or by boat. We rounded the corner of the cliff – and wow! This amazingly pristine beach appeared. A sheltered cove, with a restaurant, showers, no hotel, bathrooms and most of all, no people! There were grass huts with hammocks, which had a sign on saying tent for rent, so while I paid for that, John went back to the hostel to grab towels, camera, change of clothes, sun tan lotion and stuff we might need to spend a day in this little slice of paradise. It turned out that when you rented these grass huts, (along with being given bathroom and shower passes) a tent was erected inside the hut. Yep – a tent! We took pictures. Yet again language plays a part in our adventure. When John came back he couldn’t believe it. We only wanted the hut with the hammocks, but oh well (John says: We later found out that it was set up for an overnight stay. It had a quilt on the floor with pillows and a blanket).
We did actually use the tent, after lunch I took a nap while John read, and it was great to be out of the sun. We had lunch at the restaurant, which was great, and a glass of wine (which explains the nap). We did go swimming and a few others showed up, but the beach couldn’t have had more than a dozen people on it all day. I think it was just too far to walk for most folks. As the sun began to set, we gathered up our things and headed back to our hostel. Yet another great day. We were going to be going to Hanoi the next day and had still to organize that, so dinner, and drink in the bar, and then off to bed.
Our host’s wife told us we could catch an 8 am bus to meet the Haiphong ferry, so we were up at the crack of dawn again, having our breakfast and settling our bill. In true Asian fashion, our 8 am bus turned out to be a 9:15 bus, no matter. It took us to the top of Cat Ba where we picked up a fast boat to Haiphong. Goodbye Cat Ba – you are a pearl in Halong Bay, we will be back.
