October 26 to 28, 2019
150km of Hanoi
Population: 17,000
Another essential visit in North Vietnam is the world-renowned Halong bay, a UNESCO world heritage site.
These days, it is so touristy that the place is overcrowded and water is polluted. To get a more authentic experience, one could take a junk boat tour but prices are through the roof.
The alternative is to be based in Cat Ba island, south of Halong bay, and find a tour in less touristy Lan Ha bay.
Lan Ha bay is Halong bay's sister, same geological background therefore similar landscapes.
To get to Cat Ba, we took a shuttle from Hanoi, full of travelers. We had enough time to connect with some of them, 4 Québécois and a Danish family of 4 with 2 young kids, that we also saw downtown a couple of times. The trip was 1 hour by bus then 8 minutes on a speedboat and 40 minutes of bus once arrived on the island.
On our way to Cat Ba
As soon as we dropped our bags in our 2 hotel rooms, we walked to the nearby beach, Catco 1 for our first dip of the trip. The water temperature was perfect making it easy to get in. Then we explored the area and watched the sunset, a beautiful one!
Finally the beach
Sunset
The next day, we took a tour in Lan Ha bay with a group (we were 15). We had an excellent tour guide who spoke very good English (although he learned everything watching videos online).
We got on a mid-size boat. On the lower deck, a dining area was set up with tables and benches, the kitchen and bathrooms were at the back. The upper deck had seating areas, some were in the shade. It served us well because we had lost our hats in the morning transfer that day.
Getting away from the port, we first saw a floating village where fishermen live. Then, we started seeing the first karsts in the water and hidden beaches. And we sailed on.
Floating fishermen village
Karsts
Lucky Rock
Turtle Rock
Our first stop was kayaking in a cove going through caves. We were the only ones on the water (our tour apparently started 30 minutes earlier than all the others) and had a chance to appreciate the karsts from up close, paddling in a lagoon and even seeing a monkey on the cliff.
When we got back to the boat 1h later, gazillions of tourists were pouring in as a larger-sized boat had just docked in. We were so glad it was time to leave before they got in the water.
We continued passing by the magnificent geological formations, high, black and white, of various shapes onto our swimming spot.
The boat stopped and we got to jump in the water from the upper deck. It was just incredibly awesome to be again, the only ones in the area, feeling alone in the whole world. Laurent was the first one to jump, followed by Salah and myself. We managed to convince Naema to jump from the lower deck and everyone clapped when she did. She was proud of herself and so were we. Lana was having fun on the lifesaver in the water, held by Laurent.
Diving in the bay
Afterwards, we had lunch in the cabin on the tables of 5: fried spring rolls, lemongrass chicken, roasted fish, fried rice, tofu with tomato, ... It was hard to believe that they had been able to cook all these good things in such a small kitchen. We enjoyed our meal and could sit back for an hour or so until our next stop, Monkey Island. Some took a nap and some played "Guess who" with Naema to distract her (she can get seasick).
On the boat
Before we arrived in Monkey Island, our tour guide briefed us on not bringing food as the monkeys can smell it and get aggressive trying to grab it. It is also preferable to stay away from them. We got the rabies shot but don't want to take a chance 😉
While the rest of the group climbed to the peak of the island, the hike was too steep and rugged for us, so we quickly headed back to the beach and relaxed. Laurent showed us nice pictures taken from the top when he joined us. At the beach, the water was transparent and the beach was sandy. It was paradise!
The monkeys were just behind us and we assisted to a lot of scenes of people feeding them, trying to get really close, even monkeys stealing food and drinking just-opened cans of beer. Someone even threw a small rock near a monkey who responded back by wanting to hit and showing his teeth. We were far enough but the crowd scattered after the incident. It was insane! As suggested, we didn't get too close and let them live their life! We observed a mom and her baby that she was carrying, hanging from the belly.
Monkey Island
After a nice break on the beach, we headed back to the boat and back to the port.
What a day and lifetime memories we have made today!
On our last day, we headed down in the lobby for breakfast and the elevator was down. We found out that the electricity in Cat Ba was down from 5am to 5pm today. The owner had a gas generator outside feeding the essentials such as lighting and fans in the rooms. So we made many trips using the staircase, including going down with our big backpacks.
Gas generator (like in Lebanon)
That day, we visited the market and went to the Catco 3 beach, nicer than #1, had a last swim before heading to the Haiphong airport (tiny) and getting on our flight (which got delayed) to Danang with VietJet Air, a low-cost carrier.
A little anecdote, we took a bus then a boat and a bus again to get to the airport. Without knowing what was going on, the 5 of us and 2 other girls were dropped off at a hotel in the middle of nowhere. Taxis had been ordered for us, those got us to the airport.
Coralie☀️
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