Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [302]
Ha Long Bay and the northern seaboard |
North to the Chinese border
Few travellers head on up the coast to Mong Cai, unless they’re looking for an adventurous route into China (see "Across the border to China" for general information on crossing into China) or a back road to Lang Son(See "Southeast to Lang Son"). Mong Cai is simply a thriving frontier town, booming on the back of cross-border trade, but the journey there offers great views. This is particularly so if you travel by hydrofoil, passing through the eastern extent of Ha Long Bay. The hydrofoil comes to rest in a protected bay near the northeast border, where at low tide you have to transfer to a smaller boat (in rough weather this can be precarious). On coming ashore, foreigners must present their passports to the immigration police (same procedure on leaving). The final fifteen-kilometre bus ride into town passes duck farms and buffaloes ruminating in paddies, before reaching the broad boulevards of Mong Cai, lined with karaoke and massage signs.
Travelling by road offers an altogether different experience. The first stretch with views over Ha Long Bay is promising enough, though the road is choked with trucks from the huge open-cast coal mines of Cam Pha, where the whole landscape is shrouded in grey dust. You wouldn’t want to linger, but the scene possesses a certain post-apocalyptic power. About 20km beyond Cam Pha the scenery gradually revives, as the highway winds through a spur of hills, with signs of shifting agriculture practised by local Thai people, while down below mangroves invade marshy, saltwater lagoons. Then suddenly you’re out onto densely populated coastal plains, a fertile landscape painted every conceivable shade of green, where the only town of any size since Cam Pha, Tien Yen, marks the turning to Lang Son, a slow 100km away to the west on a rough road. North of Tien Yen, it’s all flat rice-growing country until an incongruous clump of high-rise hotels and apartment blocks announces Mong Cai.
Ha Long Bay and the northern seaboard | North to the Chinese border |
Mong Cai and around
Since the border re-opened for trade in 1992, Mong Cai has been booming, as witnessed by the massive hexagonal central market (8am–noon), north of the main roundabout and dominating the town centre, and the vast Chinese-built casino and hotel development under construction across the river. Vietnamese tourists flock here to snap up cheap Chinese clothes; the Chinese for gambling, girls and to visit the nearby seaside resort of Tra Co. Few Westerners pass through, which means hardly anyone speaks English (Chinese is the second language of choice), but the town’s compact centre, radiating from a large roundabout, is easy to negotiate and the raw, frontier feel has a certain attraction.
Once you’ve explored Mong Cai’s markets, the main excursion takes you 7km southeast to Tra Co, a windswept beach resort frequented by Vietnamese and Chinese tourists in summer. Though there’s the usual ribbon of rubbish and the water is unlikely to tempt you in, the seventeen-kilometre-long strand is good for peaceful walks past the curious boats of bamboo and styrofoam lying like beached whales on the grey, hard-packed sand. A one-way taxi ride out here costs around 100,000đ, while a xe om will set you back 20,000đ.
Ha Long Bay and the northern seaboard | North to the Chinese border | Mong Cai and around |
Practicalities
South of the central roundabout lies the post office and a clutch of internet cafés. The town’s long-distance bus station – for buses to and from Hong Gai - is about 400m west across the river. The Chinese border is just a kilometre away to the north; walk straight up Tran Phu to the junction and turn left to reach the border gate (daily 7am–5pm). The hydrofoil offices, from where buses leave to start the journey to Bai Chay or Haiphong, are both near the central roundabout: Pearl Cape (or Mui Ngoc), 1 Tran Phu (033/388 3988), which operates services to Bai Chay, has its office