A Unique Experience on Monkey Island – Cat Ba

Written by Mike Tran (mike@vietnamimpressive.com)
Monday, 03 August 2009

This is my third time in the summer to join with my football club Thang Long FC for the holiday and friendly match event.

Cat Ba island, the name which does not sound any strange or unique to you and you seems have been there at least one time but the way we went there is, most probably, very different.

We departed Hanoi to Tuan Chau island of Halong quite early in the morning in order to reach to Tuan Chau ferry to Gia Luan of Cat Ba island at 10.30 hours (there are 07.30, 09.00, 10.30, 14.00, 15.30 and 17.00 from Tuan Chau daily). My first impression on this ferry was a big WOW as there were expected 700 people – all local people waiting for departure. We bought tickets (30.000 dong or US$1,7 person) and waited for 10 mins to get on the ferry – why there are so many people as I guess this is summer time and people would like to escape from summer heat.

The ferry trip takes you about 1 hour to reach to Cat Ba island. You have great chance to experience of kind of slow means of transport (the ferry) throught out Halong Bay like you are sitting on tourist boat, however, not too sure on weekends you will have place to sit on this ferry!!

We arrived Gia Luan at 11.30. The new road from this harbor to Cat Ba center is perfect snake up with undestroyed tropical forest surrounding. The road passes Viet Hai village where normally you have biking and the entrance of Cat Ba National Reserve Center.

We arrived Huy Hoang small hotel (near Princers and opposite Sun Flower). Indeed we could not stay at Huy Hoang but stayed at Quang Minh which looks acceptable anyhow this is our first unpleasant thing…we donot expect…

The lunch went, very fast and enjoyable as we were very hungry. It was a simple lunch though.

Check in at hotel was a nightmare – this was my mistake not to control strictly as the group leader and I had to go up and down the staircase so many times for this, oh shoot!

The room at this hotel is ok but remember to choose the one with window. I experienced the so-called no window room and it was really a pain…

Cat Ba island during summer time is really crowded. You should plan yourself much time ahead of your journey and book hotel and try to avoid, if possible, the weekend trip – it is full everywhere and definitely you can’t enjoy your holiday.

Beach at this island is really simple and again filled with local people. The best experience perhaps go to the trekking side or cruising along the Lan Ha bay which I will mention later.

As said, this trip is a combination of a friendly football match and holiday and we played against the local team. This is a strongest team here probably. The match was awesome despite the fact that we lost…

We drank ‘bia co’ – a kind of local draft beer at the beach side but we all enjoyed and chatted with excitement.

‘Gala’ dinner begins with various kind of seafood of course with French wines and X.O brandy we brought from home. Dinner atmosphere was extremely warm, joyful and impressive!

For those who love night life: a nightclub or a bar! Although, the quality is that good but at least you will have a place to entertain yourself.

We woke up early the next morning, enjoyed simple light breakfast and ready for the ‘highlight’ of this trip – swimming, sunbathing and kayaking at Monkey Island!

This is small island which is abt 30 mins boat from Cat Ba Beo harbor which is not far from mainland Cat Ba inside Lan Ha bay. There is a little retreat resort here called Monkey Island Resort under the operation Trekking Travel. They normally donot receive accommodation booking only but to combine with their travel package.

But…we did not go to this resort. We went to a private beach where our kayakings were waiting for us! WOW- really a nice chance since most of us have not done this kind of activity before (remember, we are amateur football players). We organized a kayaking race: 2 persons in 1 kayak to a smaller beach on the other side. Water, weather are wonderful and we played, laughed and enjoyed very much.

Lunch on boat was another amazing time. We stopped at a fishing village to buy food – big fish, fresh shrimp and squid at a very reasonable price. The crew is best chef ever!! They cooked perfectly.

We returned to hotel at 13.00 and ready for a quick refreshment before checking out to get ready for 15.00 ferry of Cai Vieng – Cat Ha. Cost is VND5.000 person (abt 0,3US cent). This is a bit slow ferry which takes abt an hour or so. The road from Cat Ba to here is in excellent condition (30 minute drive). This road reminds you the road on the Pass of Ocean and Cloud (Hai Van) in the center of Vietnam where the ocean meets the cloud!! You will see salt fields as well as shrimp farms along the way.

Cat Hai is fish and salt farming village which is very famous for fish sauce production. This village is actully a small island of Cat Ba group of islands where Cat Ba is biggest. From here, you have to take another ferry called Cat Hai – Dinh Vu to Hai Phong which is already the mainland.

Cat Hai – Dinh Vu ferry is more or less same like Cai Vieng which is also abt 1 hour length under same ticket fee although the ferry is bigger and faster.

We arrived Dinh Vu at 18.00 and began to drive back Hanoi in more or less 3 hour drive.
It is time to say goodbye to Cat Ba – we miss you so much and we promise to come back to see you again surely in the near future.

If you want to see illustrated photos, please visit Thang Long Football Club gallery page at:
http://www.thanglongfc.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1113