Cat Ba Island, Vietnam – Feb / Mar 2017

After spending 5 chaotic days in Hanoi, it was time to head to a more relaxed location. We arrived on Cat Ba Island, Vietnam on Feb 28th 2017.

Our 6 hour travel time from Hanoi was relatively painless. We spent a couple hours on a nice large bus (with comfortable seats) to Hai Phong. In Hai Phong, we transferred to a similar bus for another hour + ride to the Port. From the Port, we took a short (less than an hour) Hydrofoil ride across to Cat Ba island. Upon landing at the island, we had one more bus ride to town.

Upon our arrival in Cat Ba Town, we both knew our decision to travel here was a good one. The town’s vibe was much slower and considerably more quiet than our previous days in Hanoi. We could almost walk across the street without looking both ways for traffic (we didn’t do that as we’ve become accustomed to watching for any moving vehicles). It even took us a while before we realized there were no horns honking either. All of this, plus we were located right on the water with a beautiful view looking out over the bay. Not much more we could ask for, but there was an additional bonus being on Cat Ba Island (also one of the reasons we chose this destination)…we had very easy access to Lan Ha Bay and the more well known Ha Long Bay.

Our 6 days spent on the island were met with mostly cloudy and wet weather. However, as luck would have it, we had one sunny beautiful day and it also happened to be the day we took our boat trip. The trip to Lan Ha Bay and Ha Long Bay was filled with beautiful large limestone karsts, kayaking through caves, and the double extra bonus was seeing a family of Cat Ba Langurs. Cat Ba Langurs are only found on Cat Ba Island. They are possibly the rarest primate in Asia and are among the most endangered primates in the world. They were put on the endangered species list several years ago when they were nearly extinct. With their current population around 80 or 90, our guide said we were very fortunate to see them as it doesn’t happen very often. We all sat in our kayaks and watched the langurs eating and playing in the trees, we even caught some of it on our Ha Long video below. Seeing these rare langurs in the wild was the icing on the cake for a perfect day on the water and was one of the highlights of our time on the island.

See video and photos below highlighting our days in Cat Ba Island, Vietnam. To see all images of this location click the link at the bottom of this post or go to our gallery.

Evening view from our balcony of the main street in Cat Ba Town. Notice there is very little traffic here, but we were on the island during off-season. We were told it is very crowded and busy during their peak three months of the year.

Video – Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

View looking out from the entrance at Hospital Cave. The cave is roughly 10 Km from Cat Ba Town and was used as a bomb proof hospital during the war. It was built from 1963 to 1965, has three levels, and was actively used from 1965 to 1972. This historical location has mostly empty rooms now (except at the entrance where they simulate a typical scene from the war), but it’s still worth a visit. The cave inside is massive and hard to imagine it only took them 2 years to build.

Second floor of hospital cave. This was a massive room and was used as a training area. You can see Rick standing in the distance which gives a sense of size of the room.

One of the views from the Cannon Fort, used during three wars and sits on a peak 177 meters high. This is looking down at Cat Ba Town. You can see old bunkers, cannons, trenches and tunnels, and views of Cat Ba Island and limestone karsts in Lan Ha Bay.

This was one of the many seafood meals we had on Cat Ba (squid and prawns). The town is known for their fresh seafood, and they were right. There wasn’t one meal we had where the fish, squid or prawns weren’t fantastic…they were all delicious and very cheap. Our dinners usually consisted of two fresh seafood dishes and a few beers and cost us on average $15 US (this even included a tip).

Rick and Alisa kayaking in Ha Long Bay.

One of the endangered Cat Ba Langurs we saw while kayaking in Ha Long Bay. There was a whole family eating and playing in the trees above us. They were too high up to snap any photos of them swinging from the branches, but this one was relatively close to the water eating. You can see him better in the video of Ha Long bay. We were very fortunate to see these Langurs as their current population is only between 80 and 90.

Video – Cat Ba Island, Vietnam – Ha Long Bay

Some of the many limestone karsts in Ha Long Bay.

There are so many beautiful limestone karsts many with small caves running under them.

Sunset as we were coming back to town from our Ha Long Bay day cruise.