Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [294]
Handspan 04/3926 0581, www.handspan.com. Reliable operator with excellent vessels and a range of tours; perhaps of most interest is the trip around the less-visited Bai Tu Long Bay ($165 per person), which eschews the usual caves for excursions to fish farms and local schools.
Kangaroo Café 04/3828 9931, www.kangaroocafe.com. This Aussie-owned outfit pride themselves on the small size of their groups (no more than sixteen); fewer passengers means that more attention is paid to the onboard meals, which are nothing short of superb. Two nights on board for $155.
ASlo Pony Adventures 031/368 8450, www.slopony.com. American-run team that have single-handedly established Cat Ba as a rising star in the rock-climbing world: they also organize the hugely popular “Rock Long Rock Hard” Ha Long tours booked through Hanoi Backpackers (a two-night tour $150, including climbing. Other agencies also offer Cat Ba rock-climbing trips at slightly cheaper prices, but minus the qualified guide – there are far safer ways to save a couple of dollars.
* * *
* * *
Ha Long Bay and the northern seaboard | Ha Long Bay | The caves |
The battles of Bach Dang River
The Vietnamese navy fought its two most glorious and decisive battles in the Bach Dang Estuary, east of Haiphong. The first, in 938 AD, marked the end of a thousand years of Chinese occupation when General Ngo Quyen led his rebels to victory, defeating a vastly superior force by means of a brilliant ruse. Waiting until high tide, General Ngo lured the Chinese fleet upriver over hundreds of iron-tipped stakes embedded in the estuary mud, then counter-attacked as the tide turned and drove the enemy boats back downstream to founder on the now-exposed stakes.
History repeated itself some three centuries later during the struggle to repel Kublai Khan’s Mongol armies. This time it was the great Tran Hung Dao who led the Vietnamese in a series of battles culminating in the Bach Dang River in 1288. The ingenious strategy worked just as well second time round when over four hundred vessels were lost or captured, finally seeing off the ambitious Khan.
* * *
Ha Long Bay and the northern seaboard |
Cat Ba Island
Dragon-back mountain ranges mass on the horizon 20km out of Haiphong as you approach Cat Ba Island. The island, the largest member of an archipelago sitting on the west of Ha Long Bay, boasts only one settlement of any size – Cat Ba Town, a fishing village now redefining itself as a tourist centre. The rest of the island is largely unspoilt and mostly inaccessible, with just a handful of paved roads across a landscape of enclosed valleys and shaggily forested limestone peaks, occasionally descending to lush coastal plains. In 1986 almost half the island and adjacent waters were declared a national park in an effort to protect its diverse ecosystems, which range from offshore coral reefs and coastal mangrove swamps to tropical evergreen forest. Its value was further recognized in 2004, when the Cat Ba Archipelago was approved as an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. One of the most rewarding ways to explore the area is by boat from Cat Ba Town, passing through the labyrinth of Lan Ha Bay, a miniature version of neighbouring Ha Long Bay but one which receives fewer visitors. There are floating villages and oyster farms in the area, which can be included in tour itineraries. Other options are kayaking, rock-climbing and visits to isolated beaches where the water is noticeably cleaner than elsewhere in the bay. Be warned, though: Cat Ba is by no means undiscovered and during the local summer holidays (June to mid-Aug) hotels and beaches in the area can be swamped.
Archeological evidence shows that humans inhabited Cat Ba’s many limestone caves at least six thousand years ago. Centuries later these same caves provided the perfect wartime hideaway