hiking in Cat Ba National Park

(December 30 - January 2) The weather forecast for my first full day on Cat Ba Island was overcast with scattered showers. I had heard that it was best to visit surrounding Ha Long Bay on a sunny day because the clouds often obscured the beautiful limestone cliffs, the main feature for which the Bay is famous. Accordingly, I opted to postpone my tour of Ha Long Bay for the following day and instead arranged to do an all-day hike in Cat Ba’s national park that included one of my trip goals: climbing a mountain. I was told that group hikes through the park could include groups as large as 15 which didn’t sound especially peaceful to me. So I booked a solo guide for my hike.

I was waiting for my guide to pick me up at 7:30 am as arranged when a large tour bus pulled up in from of my hotel. An older man came into the lobby. “This man is your guide,” the desk clerk told me. I followed him outside and he motioned for me to get on the bus. I obeyed, but of course a million thoughts began racing through my head. Why, when I had arranged a solo hike, was I on a bus with about 40 other people? Then I began to notice that many of the Vietnamese women on the bus were wearing high heels. Now Vietnamese women wear high heels almost all the time. They go places in them that I would never dream of wearing stillettos. But hiking a mountain??!! Surely there must be some mistake. I must be on the wrong bus. “Are you going hiking?” I asked the stilettoed woman sitting next to me. She didn’t speak English. Learning to suspend my curiosity and my desire to be in control has been one of the greatest learning experiences I’ve had while traveling throughout Asia.

After a thirty minute bus ride, my guide got off and motioned for me to follow. Two other Vietnamese men and three Western women also got off. The bus rumbled on and left us at a trailhead. Long story short (which after 6 months you must know I’m not good at), my solo hike turned into a group one, but at least the group was small and the company fairly enjoyable.  

most water in Vietnam still comes from a well

We hiked up and down for about five hours before stopping at a small village in the middle of a number of rice fields for lunch. Just before we finished our hike, our guide announced that we had just hiked 14 km, up and down three mountains and across the width of the island. THREE mountains? I had only signed up for one. Three was fine with me … except that I never got the spectacular views that I expected from summiting a mountain … or frankly even the knowledge that I HAD summited a mountain, much less THREE. Given that we accomplished all of that in 5 hours, I think the word “mountain” must be used loosely on Cat Ba. Although I got some great exercise, I don’t quite feel like I’ve yet climbed a mountain as I had envisioned it so I’m going to refrain from checking that one off my list.

Lunch in the village was lovely. I tried out the little Vietnamese that I knew on the family hosting us, probably butchering every word (the night before, Chung and his family had taught me how to say delicious, how are you and good bye expanding my vocabulary from mere hello and thank you) and they were delighted. People in these Southeast Asian countries are so gracious. If you make any effort to speak their language, they act as though you are fluent and praise you up and down. As usual, my Western dining companions/fellow hikers, although nice gals, had not ventured beyond the restaurants serving Western food and were pleasantly surprised at how delicious the homey Vietnamese food was.

woman carrying firewood

After lunch, we hiked some more (this time all on flat ground) to the boat which would cruise through Ha Long Bay and take us back to our side of Cat Ba Island. The walk was lovely, cutting through villages and rice fields surrounded by mountains. I saw people using water buffalo to plow their rice fields and a woman carrying two large baskets of firewood using a long piece of wood that stretched across her shoulders and suspended the two baskets. Although most of the houses in the village were made of concrete, about one third were made of mud and straw. I don’t think any of the houses had running water, but instead utilized a well. Almost all the houses, however, including the mud and straw ones, had a TV as evidenced by the old fashioned antennas strung up in a variety of ways outside each house.

The villagers were all quick to either initiate or return smiles and greetings. I caught one old woman as she emerged from behind her house carrying an armload of firewood. When I said hello to her, she smiled so big her face couldn’t contain it. She threw down her load of firewood and ran to hug and kiss me like I was a long lost daughter. She invited me and the German woman I was walking with into her house as did many of the other villagers. At that point, I was greatly disappointed that my solo hike had become a group hike because all the rest of the group along with my guide had walked on ahead, leaving me unable to accept any of the friendly villagers’ invitations. What I didn’t know at the time is that over the next month I would have an abundance of similar invitations as well as the time to accept and enjoy them.  

a typical Cat Ba landscape

The hike became more and more beautiful as we got closer to the harbor that housed our boat. The water was green and crystal clear at the same time. The mountains that surrounded it (probably the same size “mountains” I had hiked that day) reflected in pools that were so still they looked like glass. The sun even peaked out a time or two and everything felt absolutely perfect.

We caught a sailboat back to the side of Cat Ba Island where the hotels were located. I had seen many pictures of Ha Long Bay but could still scarcely believe the beauty of the limestone karsts emerging from the water in craggy, interesting shapes that, like clouds, which simply invited comparisons to animals and people.

In addition to its beauty, Ha Long Bay has a colorful history. Difficult as it is to imagine, during the 1970s, this beautiful water park was once stocked with mines, placed there by the American military during the war. Thankfully, one year later most of the mines were removed although some undiscovered ones still remain and pose threats to shipping and tourism.

me in Ha Long Bay

Pirates roamed the Bay as recently as the mid 1980’s. During that time, many exceedingly poor Vietnamese families, starving and desperate, made world headlines as “the boat people.” They sold all their belongings for gold, packed into small fishing junks and sailed, among many places, through Ha Long Bay headed for international shipping lanes, hoping to be rescued and taken to Hong Kong, China or anywhere where they could find food to eat. These boats were easy prey for pirates who would attack them, kill the people and steal their gold. As the boat people either resettled into refugee camps or met varying other fates, the pirates who preyed on them gradually disappeared as well.

The Vietnamese are very imaginative, poetic people as well as great storytellers. The say that they are the prodigy of a dragon king and a phoenix queen. Ha Long means “descending dragon” and the local legend of Ha Long Bay is that many years ago, when their ancestors were fighting off prospective invaders from the north, a family of dragons descended upon the bay to help the Vietnamese people defend their land. The dragons spat out pearls and jade which turned into all of the thousands of stone islands. The islands created a stronghold which permitted the ancestors to force out the invaders. The dragons were enchanted with their beautiful creation and decided to stay in the Ha Long Bay area. I was enchanted too and decided that the 1 hour cruise through the Bay that afternoon wasn’t enough. I booked a second, full day cruise two days later.  

stunning Ha Long Bay

That evening after the hike, Chung came to check on me to see how it went. (I came to learn that the Vietnamese are very protective of their guests in this way and Chung had come to regard me as his family’s personal guest.) We went for a drink and ran into the girls who had been on the hike with me so we all had drinks together. Chung, ever hospitable and gracious, extended an invitation to all of us to come to his house the following evening, New Year’s Eve, for a crab dinner. “We can all meet here at 5:00 and go to the market together. I’ll teach you how to buy crabs. Then we can go to my village and have dinner with my family. We’ll be finished by 8:00 and then you can go party as I’m sure you must want to,” he told us.

I was thrilled and immediately accepted. My jaw dropped with Abby and Emily declined in unison without missing a beat. “We’re planning on partying really hard for New Year’s so we were thinking we’d go for a really heavy pasta dinner early to soak up all the alcohol. I know you’re probably getting the best cultural experience, Beverly, but I think will pass. Thanks anyway though.”

THIS is the reason I avoid hanging out with Westerners when I travel! I will never understand why people are content to travel to foreign countries, take pictures of the beautiful touristy sights that every other tourist sees, eat only at restaurants that serve Western food and make zero effort to get off that beaten path to discover the real essence of the country, particularly when it’s right in their laps as Chung’s offer was for these girls. I realize that I’m incredibly elitist about this but I think these kinds of tourists might as well stay home, buy a coffee table book and save their money … or spend it getting drunk there. Why obliterate your mind when you can open it by having real adventures just by stepping in a different direction from the crowd? Don’t get me started. Whatever. I got Chung’s family all to myself.

boats on Cat Ba Island

Chung and I made plans to meet at 5 pm the next day. When 5:30 rolled around and I hadn’t seen him, I called. For a while, I stepped into the Twilight Zone. “Are we still going to the market to buy crabs?” I asked. “Oh there won’t be any fresh crabs at the market at this time of day.” Hmmm. “Ok … Am I still joining you for dinner?” “Oh. You want to eat dinner with me and my family?” It was as though the exchange from the previous day had never occurred which was odd because Chung was extremely organized and very punctual.

“I don’t want to intrude if you weren’t planning on me coming for dinner.” “Well, we don’t have much for dinner tonight, but please come out and eat with us anyway. Maybe we can get an extra chicken.” “Oh, I don’t want to be a burden, Chung. I just thought you had invited me to come for dinner.” “OK, then you can buy the chicken.” I laughed. “Sure, I’ll be happy to buy the chicken.”

I drove my motorbike out to Chung’s and when I arrived, we drove down the road to the chicken farmer’s house. Chung selected a plump chicken from all those running around and it was weighed, tied up and carried home. I still haven’t gotten over this live food business. It bothers me terribly, but I still eat the meat which tastes delicious. However, I feel I’m daily becoming closer and closer to becoming vegetarian. I didn’t start that night, however, and dinner was amazing. Chung’s father warmed to me even more than he had the first time I was there for dinner. “My whole family is so happy that you like our home enough to eat dinner here twice,” Chung told me. “Like your home? I LOVE your home!” I told him.  

shrimp boat in the bay on Cat Ba Island

After dinner and a visit over tea, I headed back into town and joined the party already in progress. I’m thrilled to say that not all Western tourists are like Abby and Emily, but the good kind are needles in a tourist haystack. I had managed, however, to meet a couple of really cool ones, both American, who ran a rock climbing business on Cat Ba and was looking forward to winding up the old year with them. Unfortunately, they were no shows at the party (smart guys!), but I met a couple of beginning travelers at the bar. We talked travel, of course, and I evangelized about getting off the beaten path. One, obviously in the Abby-and-Emily camp, drifted away to do shots. The other was obviously like-minded and we swapped stories. After a bit, conversation ran short so I began to speculate with him about who in the bar had the best travel stories. I selected a dread-locked, tattoo’d guy across the room. His appearance certainly indicated that he wasn’t afraid to go against the grain. I asked Ben who he chose. “You! You’re about to motorbike Vietnam! You have the best stories!”

Amazing Cave ... as big as 3 football fields

I appreciated the vote of confidence, but since I hadn’t started my trip yet, my money was still on Mr. Nonconformist. Thirty minutes later, he bellied up to the bar for another round and I took the opportunity to bestow the compliment. “I’m betting that you have the best travel stories here. Will you tell me a good travel story?” I asked. “You have the wrong guy,” he replied. “You ought to talk to my friend here. He’s been traveling for a long time. Jim! Tell this lady a good travel story,” MN ordered. “Yeah! Well, the other day I booked one of those boat tours and we brought tons of liquor on board with us. We started doing shots and by lunch we were so hammered! You should try it! It accentuated the waves of the boat and all the big rocks looked like animals swimming.” Oh my god. That was the best travel story he could come up with? Sheesh! With that competition, I had to agree with Ben. I was bored, but it was 11:45. I stuck it out until midnight, counting the minutes. Midnight rolled around and Ben gave me the obligatory peck then said, “My hotel has a really big lobby. You can park your motorbike there tonight if you want.” Whoa! Time to go … and park my motorbike in my own hotel lobby. So that’s how 2009 rolled in for me. Thank goodness for my Vietnamese friends.  

the friendly Vietnamese honeymooners

The next day, I boarded the boat for my full day cruise through Ha Long Bay. My jaw was on the floor in disbelief at the beauty just as it had been on the first day I saw the Bay. In addition to sailing through Ha Long Bay, we stopped and explored several caves. One was very appropriately called Amazing Cave and it was just that. The interior was cavernous, probably able to hold 3 football fields inside. The rock formations were astonishing. Lit with colored lights, I felt like I was walking through a rocky fairytale land, a stone version of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

After exploring Amazing Cave, we had a delicious and traditional Vietnamese lunch on board the boat and then went kayaking in the Bay. The sun was out (finally!) and the day was spectacular if a little chilly. It was too cold to swim, but still a fabulous day to be out on the water and I soaked up the sunshine.

On the boat with me were two absolutely precious young Vietnamese couples. It turns out that they had each just gotten married and were on their honeymoon. We all hit it off and they invited me to join them for dinner. They knew of an amazing seafood restaurant where the fish was so fresh, it was still swimming in the tank until you selected the one you wanted for dinner. I realize my hypocrisy in eating meat but not wanting to be the executioner, but that’s just the way it is. Fortunately, my new friends did not have the same qualms and were adamant that they would order for me anyway so I was relieved of any guilt for having sent Ralph the Fish to the frying pan instead of his cousin Joe. Dinner was spectacular and my kind friends insisted on treating as a “welcome to Vietnam” present. Needless to say, I was touched.

All in all, my time on Cat Ba had been lovely, but I was anxious to hit the road and see the rest of the country. So I packed my bags and went to bed by 10 pm so I could catch the early ferry back to the mainland and get an early start for my trip to Ninh Binh.

Take a cruise through Ha Long Bay with me via video by clicking here.

If you’d like to see more photos of Cat Ba Island and Ha Long Bay, check out the “Photos of Her Adventure” page of my blog.