Vietnam 14 - Phong Nha, Ninh Binh and Cat Ba Island

In my opinion Hoi An is the most beautiful town in Vietnam.  

But – apart from the beaches and rice paddies – the local landscape is a bit – meh.

So what to do?

Head north of course.

Between Hoi An and Hanoi are a few truly spectacular areas.  First we visited Phong Nha, which is home to some giant caves some of which have only become known in the past few years.  Phong Nha considers itself the adventure capitol of Vietnam and is full of cave touring companies some gear shops and low priced accommodation to meet the needs of young adventurers.

Our travelling companions (daughter and friend) are in the demographic of high interest to Phong Nha.  We on the other hand are, well, not really.  So, while the girls did a 2 day
cave adventure complete with headlamps and ropes, Bob and I did the basic tourist version of a couple caves namely Paradise cave and Phong Nha cave.

Why a hat inside a cave?  Great early warning system for head bumpers.

Paradise Cave is approached by what seemed like an endless series of switchbacks to get to the cave entrance.  Once inside of course, there is a massive wooden stairway down.  The interior of the cave is high and quite spectacular.  It is enormous 31 km, of which the public generally only sees the first 1 km.  It was only discovered in 2005!

Phong Nha cave is a different beast, being approached and entered by water.  It is said to be the longest wet cave in the world.  The actual boat that is used to enter the cave is rowed, not motorized.  This leads of course to a quieter cave experience and was quite lovely.  The cave itself is 7.7 km long, but tourists are only allowed in the first 1.5 km.  While it was used as a hospital during the American war (aka Vietnam war) it was only mapped and recorded in the 1990’s. 

The next day we headed for the botanical gardens which bear no resemblance to any botanical gardens I have ever seen, and instead are more of a jungle trek.  After scrambling over rocks, on all fours we do eventually see a beautiful waterfall – but by this time are sweaty and very out of breath.

Post jungle walk stop at Wild Boar Eco farm where they specialize in, what else, chicken!

After Phong Nha we moved to an area called Ninh Binh.  Ninh Binh’s landscape is remarkably like that of Halong Bay (think some of the those James Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies) only instead of being in the water the mounds rise from the land.  The thing to do in Ninh Binh is to head to Trang An and get rowed through a series of water caves (or tunnels).  The rowers work hard – as the tour is about 3 hours with limited stops.

Then on to Cat Ba Island.  A boat tour from Cat Ba is similar to what Ha Long Bay used to look like before it got too crowded with tourists.  Both starting points basically are looking at the same landscape (or seascape I suppose), one coming from the north (or Ha Long Bay) and one from the south (Cat Ba Island).  Cat Ba has it in spades over Ha Long Bay as everyone we spoke to who did Ha Long complains about the crowds, oil on the water, etc. 

Cat Ba is a bit harder to get to and cannot be done as a day trip from Hanoi.  We did a 2 day cruise with a focus on kayaking and it was truly wonderful.  The company had scheduled our visits to certain areas to avoid other boats and we kayaked through cave tunnels which opened to secluded lagoons with only our group of 8 kayaks in sight.  

Weather was misty, and a bit rainy, but even so the majesty of the landscape shone through as mounds appeared in the mist.  My favourite part of this journey north.

Colourful fishing boat

Floating village with fish farm