Vietnam - Cat Ba Island

I’ve been a member of the Boy Scouts of America for many years, both as a youth and an adult, and I’ve practiced many water rescues and assisted with training many young people how to get someone out of the water properly.  Up until two days ago, I had never seen an actual rescue, but I witnessed a textbook water retrieval just off the shore of Cat Ba Island in Vietnam, of all places.  

We began our Friday with an early wakeup and Uber ride back to the old quarter of Hanoi to commence a half-day journey to Cat Ba Island, which involved a long bus ride, a ferry trip, and another bus.  Cat Ba Island is a popular destination in north Vietnam because of the beauty of Halong Bay. Many people book package tours from Hanoi which include transportation, hotel, and tours of the bay— at a cost of hundreds of dollars.  Deena cracked the Cat Ba code and booked all aspects of the trip into separate parts. Her additional research and follow-up allowed us to visit this spectacular World Heritage site for three days for about forty dollars a person—the meals are extra, but they cost only about a dollar each.

We sat on the stairs in front of the booking agency where we secured the first bus journey and waited for our ride as the businesses on either side were opening for the day around 7:30.  We must have looked pitiful and homeless because people kept walking up and giving us bottles of water and bags of fruit with concerned looks in their eyes—this may turn into another money-saving strategy during our time in Vietnam.  We sat waiting in the chilly morning air and watched as thousands of passing motor scooters carried parents and children, businessmen, and entrepreneurs with their wares strapped on two-meters high as they headed off to another day in Hanoi.  Inside the small cafe across the street, people sat close together around low plastic tables and attacked big bowls of noodles with chopsticks as they prepared to face the day.  Our bus showed up right on time, and we crammed our luggage into the hold, found seats, and sat back for the three-hour ride east out to the coast.

Once we left the busy streets of Hanoi, the land became green and pastoral with farms dedicated to rice fields, and banana trees lined the highway for the entire trip.  The rice was still young and grew just above the level of the water in the paddies while workers in conical straw hats squatted to their tasks in scenes from a living postcard.  As we drew near the coast, the bus entered a restricted area patrolled by guards, and we drove for many kilometers through an area designated for industry and cargo transport judging by the huge factories belching thick fumes from smokestacks behind multicolored shipping containers stacked in long rows like giant legos.  The driver stopped on a dirt road bordering a canal, and we could see numerous wooden piers with canopies along the waterway with several ferry boats in the distance making their way toward our group with air horns blowing.  The no-nonsense crew stowed our gear, helped us aboard, and we were off into the bay as the small craft weaved around hulking tankers and massive cargo ships sending waves of brown water slapping against their rusty hulls.

Our boat was nearing the dock after a thirty-minute ride, and all the passengers looked starboard to see a young man in the middle of the harbor bobbing up and down in the murky water.  His wet black hair was stuck to his face as he crested the waves, and he was struggling to stay afloat.  Our captain spotted him, wheeled the boat around, and leaped from his seat grabbing a life preserver as he ran to the rail, and tossed it right in front of the young man, who made a desperate grab for it.  One of the mates steered the boat closer, and the captain took a coil of rope and tossed a line to the young man and pulled him in, hauled him up, and set him down exhausted on the deck.  He was questioned in rapid fire Vietnamese as the ferry passengers speculated on his situation.  There were a few other ferry boats in the near distance. Did he fall off?  Was he tossed overboard for trying to cop a free ride?  We’ll never know the answer, and the young man slipped away as soon as we docked at the small ferry harbor on Cat Ba Island.  We stowed our luggage on yet another bus, found seats, and the successful rescue efforts of our astute ferry captain were soon forgotten as we drove into Jurassic Park.

The terrain of Cat Ba Island is incredibly beautiful with slender, rounded-top mountains sweeping up from the jungle valleys along with tall monodocks, their sheer rocky sides capped with green covers of thick foliage.  There were leftover morning mists still swirling around the mountains as we made our way along the narrow twisting road that eventually led into Cat Ba Town, built in a semi-circle around a natural harbor fortified by a thick seawall.  The bus dropped us off at the center of the township, and we had about a ten-minute walk to our hotel on the far side of the harbor.  We had fun checking out the cafes and shops as we strolled along and picked out possible spots for meals later in the day.  Our hotel was tall and narrow, three rooms deep and seven stories high with the front rooms looking out over the harbor.  We were fortunate enough to be assigned to a harbor-view room on the seventh floor, and our brightly colored chamber sporting a gray tiled floor and windows framed by gold curtains cost us a whopping twelve bucks a night.

We settled in quickly and had success finding a small cafe run by a friendly young family, who served us steaming plates of fried noodles with crispy vegetables and tender slices of chicken.  I finally had the opportunity to try real Vietnamese drip coffee prepared in yet another way humans have devised to brew this excellent beverage.  The server brings a clear glass cup sitting in a bowl of hot water with a small metal pot that resembles a creamer cup perched on top of the glass.  The metal pot contains finely ground coffee and boiling water, and the coffee drips slowly from a filter in the bottom of the pot into the glass.  It’s a lengthy process, and the hot water in the bowl keeps the coffee hot until it’s ready to drink.  The resulting coffee is an intense, aromatic brew that could best be described as an elixir that leaves a thick amber residue on the sides of the glass when it’s tipped and would have one’s teeth looking like yellow corn after drinking it for a few weeks.  The world looks different after consuming a cup of this stuff, and I loved it and considered swimming across the bay or running through the jungle up a nearby mountain, but once the travel weariness took over, I settled on walking back to the hotel for a nap instead.

The hotel owner arranged our trip out to Halong Bay, and the next morning our driver showed up promptly at 8:00 to take us to the harbor, which was only about a fifteen-minute drive.  We met our captain and crew and boarded the junk with two men from Poland and a young couple from Maine.  The air was cool and the sky was cloudy, but the sun was starting to break through occasionally, and there was a soft breeze coming off the water as we set sail.  It was too chilly to sit on deck, so for the first part of the tour we sat in the front cabin on foam beds looking out the windows.  The walls of the cabin were made of three-inch tongue-and-groove boards, which were cherry red and shiny from years of sanding and the oft-repeated application of thick glossy varnish.  Halong Bay is famous for its emerald green water and thousands of limestone islets called karsts, which are topped with thick rainforest verdure.  The bases of the karsts have eroded away by time and tides over the millennia, and the result produces an illusion that makes it appear as if the islets are floating on the surface of the deep green water.  There is no place like Halong Bay in the world, and we were fascinated with the views as the boat took us deeper into the basin cruising past floating villages populated by fishermen and their families.

We sailed for two hours until the boat reached an inlet surrounded by towering karsts, and we were joined by two other boats that tethered together with our craft.  We all boarded kayaks and spent an hour exploring the calm waters and picturesque rock formations, and we enjoyed it tremendously considering the majority of our kayaking excursions over the years have resulted in unmitigated disaster such as requiring rescue from the strong current of the Puget Sound and cowering in a mangrove swamp seeking shelter from an epic south Florida thunderstorm.  

We returned to the upper deck of the boat and shared an excellent luncheon with our fellow passengers and told travel stories as we devoured plates of fish, rice, and vegetables prepared by the multi-talented crew.  We cruised for a couple of more hours after lunch and stopped at Monkey Island for a challenging hike to the top of a mountain where we enjoyed the view before descending back to the beach to see the resident macaque monkeys scamper around.  These critters put on quite a display for the tourists. Joseph decided to get some up-close footage of these playful primates, so he crouched down next to one and focused his camera.  His subject was picking up sand and dropping it, so Joseph decided to pick up some sand and toss it to the monkey which resulted in the little beast baring its teeth and charging my surprised son.  The rest of the monkey tribe joined in and chased Joseph down the beach while his mother prepared to step in and defend her son with a water bottle.  Fortunately, the creatures gave up before their visages were altered by a 1.5 liter Aquafina-packing mama, and we made it back tour our boat unharmed with some great pictures.  

Mountaintop

Hiking up

Before the charge

We were close to the harbor, so we bid our fellow passengers farewell as they prepared to spend the night on the boat, but we boarded a water taxi for transport to the dock and the driver that was waiting to take us back to our hotel.  It was a fun, full day of beautiful scenery, new friends, and adventure that left us exhausted.  Deena and I enjoyed a dinner date in town since the kids elected to stay in the room and rest, and we shared a nice evening together in a quiet cafe.  We talked about the amazing day we had, and got a bit melancholy as we discussed how one day these grand adventures will end, but we’re thankful for the opportunity to see all these wonderful things together with our kids.

We slept a bit later the next day and enjoyed breakfast prepared by our hotel owner’s wife and had great fun playing with their kids as they mooched all the watermelon from our plates.  We sent our laundry out to be done for about $1.50, and we’re planning to spend the day completing some school assignments and relaxing in town along the seawall as we watch the boats in the harbor with their red and yellow Vietnamese flags snapping in the ocean breeze.  I’m sure that coffee and naps will place prominently in our itinerary as well.  Tomorrow we pack up again and head south to the village of Ninh Binh and get a little deeper into the jungles and mountains of Vietnam as we get to know this compelling country and its friendly people a little more each day.

Hotel owner's kids