Cat Ba island

What a beautiful place! Cat Ba island is situated in Lan Ha bay, a relatively quieter and lesser known (but equally beautiful) neighbour to the more famous Halong Bay. It is also the largest island in the area and the only one that you can stay on. The attraction of the whole area, which brings in more than 6 million tourists each year and earns it the title of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destination, is the specular limestone karst geology in the area which gives rise to conical, tree covered peaks rising out of the tranquil waters. It really is breathtaking! Interestingly, the karsts originally formed as a mountain range, and were later engulfed by the ocean, transforming the peaks into islets. Cat Ba provides opportunities to see the formations in both mountain range and islet form, so is particularly interesting. It is also much cheaper to stay on Cat Ba in a cheap and cheerful hostel than to stay overnight on a multi-day cruise!

I stayed on the island for 3 days and 2 nights. I arrived on the first day around midday, after getting the bus from Hanoi. Eager to make the most of my time on the island, I quickly dropped my bag off at the hostel and arranged a motorbike taxi to take me up to the national park, where you can hike up to a mountain peak and viewpoint. The ride there in itself was a great experience – the driver kindly suggested taking the slightly longer, scenic route so that I could see more of the island (despite having pre-agreed the price, so he wasn’t making any more money out of it,) and the joy and exhilaration of driving around bend after bend of the twisty road, wind in my face and warm sun on my back as view after spectacular view of the island spread out in front of us put me in a great mood already, before even reaching the national park. When we got there, I thanked the driver, paid the entrance fee, and set off along the path to the peak and viewpoint, eager to get stuck in to discovering the island. The path was well a maintained tourist track, easy to follow and not too challenging to walk, despite some relatively steep sections in places. It wound up through the jungle which was alive with the calls of birds and insects – on a few occasions birds even hopped out onto the path right in front of me – they had evidently got used to tourists passing by! On reaching the peak and viewpoint I was not disappointed – there was a spectacular 360° view of the conical limestone mountains which dominate the centre of the island, clear skys, and birds of prey wheeling overhead – it was magical! On the way back from the park I walked down the road to visit two nearby caves – one with beautiful rock formations, and the other which had been converted into a hospital and bunker during the Vietnam war. Then, just as I was starting off on the long walk back to town (with an idea that maybe I could get another motorbike taxi if I passed one) a passing Spanish guy on a rented motorbike stopped and offered me a lift back to town – win!

For the second day I had booked a boat tour of Lan Ha and Halong Bay in advance, so I toddled off happily down to the harbour to see what the day would bring. It was AMAZING! I really feel that the area’s celebrity as a natural wonder and must-see destination is deserved. The sight of the rocks rising out of the tranquil blue-green waters was just breathtaking, and by good fortune we also had near-perfect weather, which always helps! The tour company that I went with sold itself as going to the quieter, less touristic areas and they did manage to find some pretty secluded spots, which was nice. We stopped twice to swim off the side of the boat, which was so much fun, and so cool to be able to look up at the peaks from the viewpoint of actually being in the water! We also stopped once to go kayaking, which included going through some cave tunnels and into some hidden lagoons on the other side! Additionally we stopped to visit one of the floating fishing villages in the area, and learn a bit more about the people who live there.

One thing I should mention at this point, although we didn’t actually see too much of it, is that there is a big problem with rubbish and particularly plastic waste in the Halong Bay area, caused in a large part by the pressures of mass-tourism on the area, and the frequent lack of awareness of tour companies who hand out plastic bottles, plastic wrapped snacks, mini bottles of suncream, etc. to their customers, many of which end up in the sea. The fishing villages are also a source of much of the pollution (old nets, fishing tackle, household waste) and although our tour guide informed us that there are now fines in place for villagers who don’t dispose of their rubbish correctly, this has not always been the case. Things are gradually changing. Tour companies are becoming more aware of the need to be sustainable (although there is still a lot of variability with how much this buzz-word actually gets put into practice,) and the authorities are doing more to educate local people or fine them if they don’t comply (stick and carrot approach.) As much as anything else, the Halong Bay area is both a UNESCO world heritage site and a major source of touristic income for Vietnam, so it’s not a particularly hard sell to convince people to try to look after it, but in practice, changing the habits of both people and businesses is a slow process.

Back to the main story – the tour got us back to Cat Ba island just in time for me to walk up to the headland to see watch the sunset, which was beautiful! It really was a brilliant end to brilliant day. I also decided to get up early the next day to see the sunrise, and this turned out to be equally lovely. Once the sun had risen, I walked in the direction of the island’s “cannon fort” viewpoint, which I knew was closed due to nearby construction work, but… I had read something that someone had posted online about a secret way up to a nearby spot with a similar view by following an overgrown access route up to some electricity pylons… time to explore. I found it! And the view was great! I could see mountains on the one side and the harbour on the other, as well as islets poking out of the sea in the distance. I got onto the bus back that afternoon feeling that I had truly made the most of all of my time on and around the island, and enjoyed every minute of it.

The one controversy about Cat Ba island, which I was thinking about as the bus drove away, is the effect that its recent surge in popularity and influx of tourism is having on the island. On the one hand it is an amazing place which I really enjoyed visiting, but on the other it was until fairly recently a somewhat untouched paradise next door to its touristic neighbour Halong Bay. Now, the surge in tourism has bought along with it an influx of construction, high rise buildings and hotels, and urbanisation around Cat Ba town, with more developments still starting every month. It feels that we are damaging Cat Ba in our rush to enjoy it, with echoes to the pollution problem in Halong and Lan Ha bay. Personally I would advocate a more sustainable, constrained approach to developing tourism on the island, but then it is hard to deny the local people the chance to make a quick buck, when the demand is clearly there from tourists, and many people struggle to afford to send their children to school or to pay for healthcare, since this is not provided by the state. It’s a tough one…