Cat Ba Island

A panoramic view from the highest point in Cat Ba island

Instead of visiting Vietnam's famous Ha long bay, I opted to visit the bordering bay, Cat Ba. We spent our nights on Cat Ba Island, and spent our days looking at the amazing rock formations that make this area of Vietnam famous. 

The best way to see the bay is by boat and there are many tours to choose from. There is one main street on the island and several tour companies have set up camp there. For similar prices, you can see the bay any amount of time and with similar extra activities. Since it was cold when I visited, I decided to pass on the "snorkeling" tours. Instead, my hostel owner offered my friends and I a really good deal. For about 10 dollars an hour, we could hire one of his friend's boats. That would be split four ways. We thought that was a pretty good deal, so we were lucky enough to be shown around by a local fisherman. He spoke no English, but body language is pretty effective :)

Our seaworthy vessel

Monkey Beach, the first stop on our boat tour

A standard fishing boat

A tourist boat

The fisherman's village at the opening of Cat Ba Bay

For lunch, the fisherman brought us to his house. We were able to meet his daughter, son, and wife. For an extra fee (and a very expensive price for Vietnam), his wife cooked up a fish from the farm off their house boat. It was really special to eat in their home, even though they didn't share our meal. Their daughter was adorable and very friendly...at least to humans. To her cats, she was quite a terror.

  

 

After, we started our boat tour again, but this time with an extra guest. 

 

After dropping off the little girl after our boat ride together.

 

 

The next day, we looked at the beautiful bay from the land. We went for a walk and used mopeds to get around the island. Here's some of the views we saw...as well as the biggest zucchini I've ever seen!!

Yeah....You know you're impressed