I'm going to break travel writer ranks and make a bold but honest statement: the main beaches at Cat Ba island just aren't that marvelous. There. Said it. Shot me, slander me or write indignant letters to my editor, I don't care.
Of course, they're not terrible and I'm sure with a weighty thesaurus and some time (maybe years) spent buried neck deep in the bleak pebbles of England's worst beaches they could be made to sound utterly lovely. But compared with the breathtaking postcards of Central Vietnam's coast they pale noticeably. And the town in summer becomes as painfully crowded as the sand.
But there's an unexplored side to this island that makes it worth the few-hours' trip from Hanoi. Cat Ba National Park is a place so replete with flora that the honey produced with flora that the honey produced there is touted as some of the best in Vietnam. The bees have so much to feed upon (1561 species of flora belonging to 186 families).
Despite this only 10% of Cat Ba's 450 000 annual visitors actually make it into the park and fewer than that enjoy any of the hikes on offer, whether to the lookout on top of the mountain, to Viet Hai village or to Frog Lake. Yet fewer still head off to explore the small fishing and farming villages that dot this island of only 18000 people.
For 150 000VND for little over a half-day trip my guide Khan, who runs a barber shop and a small tourism business with his wife, took me around the less-explored regions of Cat Ba.
Like Ha Long or Tam Quoc, Cat Ba is filled with limestone karsts; they poke out from the land pretty much anywhere the crops don't grow. And little Cat Ba seems to grow everything, lychess especially. While driving Khan pointed out oranges, lychees, jackfruit, bananas, longan, arrowroot, persimmon, sweet potatoes and beans growing. Stopping at Gia Luon village, he told me the best oranges were grown here.
Gia Luon is small and there are absolutely no tourist attractions to speak of, but as a stop off for a quite and shady beer it's more than comfortable. Unlike other villages on the mainland, the local rich bloke hasn't knocked up some frightenningly huge concrete housethen painted it pink and turquoise. Things are more low-key.
After we drove to a small port connecting Cat Ba to the mainland. Picturesque as it was, it's virtually useless for the tourist looking for another way back to Hai Phong City and then Ha Noi. Boats only transport tour groups and skipper, after thinking hard, estimated a lone passenger would have to pay at least 2 million VND.
Hien Hao village, like the better-known Viet Hai, hosts home stays, but unlike most places in Vietnam it's not an ethnic minority village. Hien Hao is a very ordinary but very pretty Vietnamese village; houses are the standard vrick and cement, with patterned tile floors and beds made from split bamboo. New, communal bathrooms have been put in for the benefit of guests.
Khan was one of the architects of this project and proundly tells me that every house in the village is his home, or at least 50%. As we drove slowly through lanes overhung with trees and flowers he made a pint of waving to everyone.
The home stay project, which as of writing had hosted approximately five separate groups in over a year, was dreamt up as a means to keep people from peaking in the national park poaching in the national park by offering a new source of income.
The village, whilst enjoying views of neighboring gardens rather than soaring mountains, is undoubtedly pretty and very, very peaceful. And the residents, stocking bia hoi kegs and about 300 different kinds of fruit are friendly, if a little confused at what to do with you.
An interesting excursion within the village is to see the beehives. We visited one honey farm run by Duc, who's been bee-keeping 20 years and claims he is now totally immune to bee stings. The air soft with the noise of hives, we squatted to look at honeycombs, honey (250 000VND/ 650ml bottle) and the five litre glass vats of young bee wine he brews using only honeycomb, honey and bee larvae mixed with rice wine.
We had no time to stay the night and pressed on along the intra-island road to the two ports near Phu Long fishing village in the northwest. The scenery as you hug the coast leading north, beaches interspersed with mangroves and the occasional small stilt restaurant standing in water, is lovely. Not dramatic; there are no waves crashing against cliffs, but the peace and inland views are worth it. If you choose the bus over the hydrofoil at Cat Ba town's main port, this is the route you'll take but it's best seen from the over-air vantage of a motorbike
Driving back, we passed though many smaller villages, going by deserted beaches until reaching the town. Despite the straw cowboy hats, painted shells and one noisy disco of downtown Cat Ba, you're better off inland on this island.
