Cat Ba was always contentious for us. We hummed and hawed about if we really wanted to go; Was it the right choice for us or should we go on a Ha Long Bay cruise instead? Was there a better option altogether? In the end we settled on Cat Ba, but where to stay on the island itself? The internet wasn't much help, everyone seemed to have such divisive opinions, the town was either a over touristed shit-hole or a paradise. Not wanting to risk it we decided on a well rated place twenty minutes walk from town (from the majority of reviews we would be able to grab a taxi pretty easily so the distance didn't bother us).
It was easy enough to get there, a taxi to a travel agents, then a bus, then a boat, then one last bus that dropped us near enough to our accommodation. It might sound like a lot, but it was all arranged by someone else so all we had to do was follow the crowd. Even better, we arrived with half the day left. The only thing I found the surprising during our journey was the cable car that spanned the space between Cat Ba and the mainland, it just never showed up as an option when we were looking into how to get there.
First impressions, we may have messed up on location. It was nice and quiet, and beautiful, and secluded but there weren't really any amenities nearby. When we had looked it up on google maps it showed at least a few restaurants around, but that no longer seemed to be the case. Maybe, during the middle of the season there are more options, but for us it looked like a trip to town would be needed for every meal.
So we walked to town, well we started to when a taxi pulled up and offered us a not to expensive ride. Feeling pretty hungry, we decided to accept and within minutes we were wandering along Cat Ba town's main drag. Unlike what we'd read, the town was nice. The buildings weren't the prettiest, but they were typical Vietnamese apartment style buildings and the town itself was clean. More importantly, the view across the bay was gorgeous.
We refuelled with some Korean food before heading further into town to check out the beach. There were three main beaches near Cat Ba town, Cat Co 1, 2 and 3. Cat Co 1 was the easiest to get to, so thats where we headed. It was a mistake. The beach sits in a cove, down a heap of steps that we clambered down before coming to the realisation it wasn't for us. It was way too busy, there were hardly any spots left to sit and the blaring music was coming from the nearby hotel was a bit too much.
So we left, sweatily dragging ourselves back through town and heading to the beach near to where we were staying instead. This beach - Tung Thu Beach - was a lot quieter, there was sun-beds available at only a semi-exorbitant price, and it was also beautiful. This beach just had one real issue (besides the fact I had to pay every time I needed to pee) and that was the "team building" events that seemed to constantly happened. I don't know where all these teams were coming from, but they sure loved loud annoying repetitive music, loudmouth mc's and running en-mass into the sea. Chalking it up to an unavoidable cultural phenomenal, we decided to try and zone it out and enjoy our afternoon of relaxation.
That night, a thunder storm rolled in and once again our accommodation choice let us down. Not only were the eco-cabins we were staying in rather thinly walled, shaking alarmingly when the thunder rumbled, they turned out to be less than waterproof, explaining the musty smell that constantly lingered. So we didn't sleep well and woke up to a puddle. Luckily, the boat trip we had planned for the next day was put off. None of us fancied bobbing around in rough seas for eight hours.
Looking back, it might have been a sign*.
Moving on. With an entire day suddenly free and nothing planned, we decided to go and check out a different beach - this time Cat Co 2. To get there, we once again had to walk through the entire town, past the steps down to Cat Co 1 and down a steep winding service road. While the beach is technically part of the Flamingo Hotel, visitors are welcome to enjoy it as long as they avoid occupying the numerous unclaimed sun beds: they don't seem to like this. After a couple of hours and finally getting bored of the ever present team building exercises, we decided to venture to the Roza Hotel upon noticing that their pool was open to the public. Each of us paid 100,000VND, received a towel, and were escorted to the completely deserted pool area. It felt a bit strange but we gladly made the most of it.
That evening we headed out for a fancy fish dinner (thanks Mum), afterwards when heading to the shops to pick up some supplies, the weather yet again turned. Thunder rumbled through the air, lightning spread across the sky, and the rain fell ... and it rained hard. We had taken refuge in a ice cream shop and before we could blink, the road had been replaced with a rushing river, it's current slowly sweeping chairs and tables down the hill as their owners struggles to pull them inside. Thinking it would soon let up, we contacted our lodging to see if they could arrange a taxi to pick us up - they couldn't.
We were on our own. They suggested we hang tight and wait things out, so we did. After an hour, the rain wasn't really stopping but it had lessened somewhat. When the street rivers flow was starting to look manageable we ventured out, sticking to the sides of the street where the water was shallowest. We headed towards the main street, if the taxis were anywhere, this is where they would be. We saw taxis, many of them in fact, but none of them would pick us up, lightning was still cutting up the cloud filled skies, and we were getting more dejected with every rejection we faced. So we walked, skirting around the puddles that spanned across entire roads, flinching as the thunder seems to shake the world around us.
Overnight the weather cleared up, so when we got up for breakfast the next day we were told that our boat trip would be going ahead. We booked the trip through our hotel, we were looking for a private boat trip, not wanting to be stuck on an overcrowded boat, and wanting a little customisation. Our host knew a guy, so the trip was arranged. It was surprisingly cheap at £40 each and included a freshly cooked lunch, we thought we had really cheated the system here.
We were picked up in a nice car and driven to Cai Beo Ferry, the starting point for most La Han Bay boat trips. A guide met us at the car, he had tickets ready for us and quickly brought us through the queueing system to small boat. He then promptly disappeared. The small boat was to take us to our boat, why our boat couldn't meet us at the docks, I don't know, but our boat met us at a random pontoon at the edge of the harbour. We had been told the first boat would be taking us to a larger boat, if anything the next boat we got on was smaller and much to our dismay louder.
As we juddered out of the harbour, our boats engine only seemed to get louder and louder. We all sat in silence, looking out at the stunning view of limestone towers, thinking the same thing: this was going to be a long day.
We were first taken to look at monkey island. We initially wanted to go onto this island, but due to new government rules, this wasn't going to happen... so we just boated near it instead. The aim was to see some monkeys, but without the tourists on the beach, the monkeys seemed to have no reason to go there so it was a bit of a bust. From here we seemed to sail straight out into the open water, aiming for a series of island off in the distance. As our boat only had two speeds (slow and loud or very slow and loud) this took forever and it could have been relaxing, for me at least, had it not also sounded as if were sailing inside a metalworks factory. For my Mum, having discovered a deep dislike of being in a small decrepit boat sailing away from land, I don't think a quieter boat would have helped.
We discussed the possibility of turning back: cutting our losses before it was too late. Being the glass half-full people that we have tried to be on other such occassions, (see Borobudur or the whole of bloody Kashmir etc) we persevered, despite the unsettling feeling that were going against a greater plan.
So along we noisily chugged by breathtaking scenery while navigating through the rubbish-strewn water; playing a game of plastic bag or jellyfish. In reality, La Han Bay's pollution problem wasn't as prevalent as I'd imagined - it was still present but not as shocking as photos I'd seen at the nearby and more touristed Ha Long Bay. Eventually, after traveling through the water-filled alleyways between karst towers, we came to a small corner of sand - to call it a beach would be misleading. Here our boat captain and tour guide gestured that we should disembark. We didn't. It felt a bit pointless, as all three of us would barely fit on it if we were alighting for sunbathing, and after the tendrilous jellyfish we'd just spotted, we weren't fancying a swim. So we politely declined, and after a bit of back and forth where it became apparent that our guide only knew a few words in English, on we went.
The next beach we were taken too had a smidgen more space, so we all decided to get off the boat. Before we could settle in however, he was gesturing for us to crawl through some tiny stone arches. Ben and I decided to follow, Mum decided to do a spot of sunbathing instead - our captor i mean captain didn't seem very happy about this but unable to convince her he let it slide.
The cove we were led to had a tunnel leading into the rock face, one that we would need to crawl through to see what was behind. As he was unable to explain what on earth we were doing, I decided to give it a miss, Ben however, bravely followed. After a fair amount of crawling, and a lot of sore skin due to the abrasive coral he was crawling through, they entered the jungle on the other side and a path leading them forward. They came to a strange rock circle, here visitors had collected and balanced smaller rocks upon the jagged peaks of the formation, giving the area a otherworldly vibe. Just beyond was the crash of the sea, and another larger tunnel to go through. Looking at the video footage, it did look pretty spectacular but I still wouldn't have followed that man through.
The rest of the day followed the same vein, our captain would sail us to a spot before repeatedly shouting the word camera. If we didn't immediately start posing and snapping he would appear with his own phone, by the end of the trip it was starting to feel as we had been captured by an insane and incessant photographer.
The best part of the day was lunch. That and a spot of canoeing Ben and I did in the afternoon. Alongside the three of us and our ever chatty captain, was a woman who spent the morning preparing us a feast. I was initially a bit hesitant, but the food was seriously delicious, some of the best that I had while in Vietnam. There was tiger prawns, squid and papaya salad, scallops and fried spring rolls, all prepared in a foot of space behind the wheel of the boat.
What happened next somewhat marred the experience.
After we had eaten and we were floating serenely in a beautiful and secluded bay, our captain disappeared into the toilet. When he was done he grabbed a bucket of seawater to help him flush away the situation. That's fine, we all have bodily functions. What happened next was a strong choice: he started up a pump, and soon enough what should have been happily stored away in a tank was floating by. And it lingered. We and his mammoth shit continued to drift around together for another twenty minutes... he didn't even wait until we were leaving.
Side note, there wasn't a sink for him to wash his hands afterwards. Lovely.
After lunch was the aforementioned canoeing and more sightseeing. We were honestly over it by this point, we were bored, we were uncomfortable and we just wanted it to be over. How were we going to communicate this. First we tried showing him the harbour on the map and looking hopefully, this somehow resulted in us going even slowly. I was really starting to feel like i was being held hostage on this boat. Due to a stroke of luck, we sailed (practically drifted) through a spot of signal and Ben quickly headed to google translate, preparing the simple message of "can we go back quickly". Sadly, he looked a bit hurt by this, but after a few more attempts at getting us to pose for photos, he ramped up the speed and we were on our way back.
I can't decide if we were mis-sold or if what we thought we wanted wasn't what we wanted. I wanted for there to be more, somewhere to buy a drink from and more than hard wooden benches to sit on. I imagined the boats engine to be less noisy, and perhaps for us to be able to communicate at least a little with our guide. I wasn't ever expecting to see our guides faeces. Yes the scenery would have been the same on another boat, and after the 4 hour mark it was already getting repetitive, but it we were able to move around, or talk without shouting, we would have more to do than continually stare at it. It was a private boat, with lunch included that took us to Ha Lan Bay and that's all we were promised really.... It did sting a little more, us chugging past the beautiful (and surprisingly empty) traditional wooden junks in our noisy piece of junk.
We rounded off our Cat Ba adventure with a trip to a rooftop bar punningly called The Cat Bar. From here we enjoyed a stunning vista, as the sun set over our last night on the island.
*On reflection and after a few more instances of us boldly ignoring the universe's signs, we have come to the conclusion that were not that great heeding advice. We do pick up the signs, but always seem to ignore them, following the path of resistance instead, it's not always the most fun but you do get some funny stories out of it.
Trip date : May 2024
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