When we were planning our Vietnam trip I looked at accommodation in Ha Long Bay and my eyes nearly popped out of my head! Even the cheapest room was more expensive than our entire daily budget. I knew we could go to Hanoi and take day(s) trips from there but then I read online about Cat Ba island. It’s slightly more effort than going via organised tour from Hanoi but I’m glad we did it this way.
We left Hanoi for Cat Ba via train. The train was brand new, with tables and charge points and I was really impressed! You also get some interesting countryside en route. It takes two hours from Long Bien Station (just outside of Hanoi’s old city) to Hai Phong and costs 65,000 VND / £2. Hai Phong is 2km from the port so you can either walk or take a taxi. The taxis here do that strange thing where they charge per person. We paid 20,000 VND / £0.60 per person but I expect you can get it down more if you bargain better than us!
We took the ‘slow’ boat (150,000 VND / £4.90, 2 hours, direct to Cat Ba Town) because it was just leaving as we got to the port. There’s also a ‘fast’ boat (180,000 / £5.91, 45mins, to other port on the island). This requires a 45min transfer to Cat Ba town but this is included in the ferry price; 1hr 30mins total travel time.
We stayed at Pineapple Hotel, right by the port. Amazing rooms and a decent breakfast for 180,000 VND / £6. The hostel owner greeted us; “HELLO! I AM MR. PINEAPPLE!”. We booked our Ha Long Bay through the hotel. Even if you don’t stay here I recommend using Mr Pineapple to book your trip. He is honest and we had a great tour.
We set off for Ha Long Bay at 8am the next day. “HELLO! MY NAME IS NUMBER TEN…!”. We get used to these strange names that they have picked for themselves, but wonder what their real names are. We had a great day cruising around Ha Long Bay and the other islands. First we kayaked, then we sailed through Ha Long itself. We had a great clam and rice lunch on-board. We jumped from the boat’s upper deck in to brilliant blue sea and swam to a little island. When it got cold we moved on to Monkey Island to do a little hike (horrible little monkeys terrorised everyone. This is Asia; they are tempted by food from the guides until they are too big to be cute, then suddenly the guides are throwing rocks at them to scare them off instead.). We kept well away from the monkeys but saw a girl who had let one climb on her with a vicious open wound on her back, so beware! Last stop was the floating island villages. We got back to our hotel at 5pm and aside from the monkey scandal, we had a fantastic day and a brilliant guide.. All for 335,000 VND / £11.
Cat Ba itself is what you’d expect. A lot of neon, a lot of restaurants and some REALLY loud bars. It wasn’t particularly busy when we visited yet bars were thumping out music until well past 2am. Strange. Still, staying on the island is worth it for the amazing sights of Ha Long. Definitely the most stunning view we have seen in South East Asia thus far.
I must admit we did not take time to explore the rest of the island but left the next day to go back to Hanoi. We had arrived here the day before wondering if Ha Long was going to be worth the effort.. and it certainly was!
GETTING HERE | Train from Long Bien, Hanoi > Hai Phong; 65,000 VND / £2 followed by slow boat; 150,000 / £4.90.
STAY | Pineapple Hotel; 180,000 VND / £6 for a double room
SEE | Ha Long Bay one day tour booked via Pineapple Hotel; 335,000 / £11
GETTING OUT | Mr Pineapple booked us a bus/ferry/bus combo which took us all the way to Hanoi Old City, for 150,000 VND / £4.90. This was great value considering all other companies were selling this trip for 200,000 VND and the bus even had wifi. Go and see Mr. Pineapple!
