🇻🇳 Cat Ba: Lan Ha Bay and Ha Long Bay

With the bus company “Good Morning Cat Ba”, we travel from Hanoi to Cat Ba on January 19, 2024. We want to quickly take advantage of the mild weather to get to Lan Ha and Halong Bay. According to the weather report, temperatures are expected to fall in the following week. 🙈 It's a very pleasant bus ride, we stop once and have a nice travel companion. The group is regularly checked for completeness and there is a bottle of water :) In addition, the roads in Vietnam are extremely well developed. To get to Cat Ba, we have to briefly change to the ferry or speedboat, then we get on the bus again. They even drive us to the hotel entrance. We are greeted warmly again at reception and first made aware that there is a power outage. 😅 So we drag our luggage through the stairwell to the fifth floor.

We don't hesitate for long and first look where we can get something to eat outside. A restaurant on the promenade has electricity and is open 😄 Jackpot!

After we fortify ourselves, we go to “Cat Ba Ventures” tour office next door to book our tour for the next day. Fortunately, this is possible without any problems because they still have free capacity 😇 we book the two-day boat tour with an overnight stay, with a guide, with food of course and a kayak tour through Lan Ha and Halong Bay 🥳🥳 By the way, we pay 254 .42€ for 2 people.

The next morning we pack and walk the few meters to the “Cat Ba Ventures” office, where we are picked up and taken to the boat. When we get on the boat with our guide, the sun is shining beautifully ☀️ we can hardly believe our eyes, with only 6 other travelers (plus crew) we set off. Our small group consists of just 8 people... the madness! We meet four young people from France and another young couple from Switzerland, with whom we quickly become friends. Our guide is also super friendly, funny and open-minded and clearly enjoys his work. It doesn't get any better.

We drive through an impressive landscape of huge rocks and can't help but be amazed. There are chairs and sun loungers on the upper deck where we can make ourselves comfortable and enjoy nature. At some point we stop, throw on our bathing suits and go into the water. It takes a little effort for us because the water is anything but warm 😅 but it's worth it. We swim to an island nearby. We are far and wide the only ones here at this spot. We still can't quite believe our luck.

After swimming there is lunch. 🥗 The selection is huge. There is fish, spring rolls, fries, pineapple, tomatoes, cucumbers, chicken, something else rolled and nuts. 🌰 Water is included in the price, unfortunately all other drinks cost extra. As we continue our way through Halong Bay, we enjoy the view from the upper deck, the sun is still shining and there is a light wind.

At our next stop, the kayaks are prepared, we put on our life jackets and climb into a kayak two at a time. 🛶 Together with our guide we paddle through caves into various lagoons. Since there is no tide at the moment, the water level is correspondingly low, so we can drive through the cave entrances. What a beautiful experience and once again we are all alone. It is absolutely quiet and peaceful in the lagoons. After the kayak tour, we leave the smaller boat and go to the large boat where we will spend the night. We drive a little further, drop the anchor ⚓️ and have reached our destination for the night. Little by little more and more boats join us, it gets dark and at some point we only see the lights of the boats around us in the darkness. Then it's time for dinner. We put on our long clothes and our rain jackets over them because the wind was blowing and it really cooled down in the evening.

We have a great bedroom with a view outside, blinds on the windows, two double beds in it, a closet and of course a bathroom. We didn't expect such luxury.🙂 After dinner everyone gradually goes to bed. The next morning we have breakfast at eight o'clock and then we all go out again in the kayaks.

By the way, the weather has changed, it's cloudy, the wind is blowing and we're freezing. When we later stop and linger in Lan Ha Bay, at least no one from our boat wants to go into the water anymore 😂 we all have lunch together, then we slowly start packing and head back.

It was a great experience. On the first day everything was just right: the group, our guide, the weather, being alone while swimming and kayaking... when have you ever had something like that? Our guide also told us that the high season is probably not until March/April, even if the weather and temperatures are right. In January there are fewer tourists and the groups are therefore slightly smaller. On the second day we were at least no longer alone on the kayak tour into the lagoons. 🙃 On the contrary: the boats sometimes got in the way and traffic jams regularly formed through the caves. 🛶 But whatever, we really liked it and it was money well invested.

We stayed another night in Cat Ba, again at the Mountain Pearl hotel. The price was right and there was breakfast. Here too we paid at check out. On January 22nd, 2024 we take the ferry and bus to Ninh Binh.