La Han Bay

Early breakfast this morning … we’re off for a boat ride. Same procedure as before … picking up people along the way. Total chaos appeared to be the order of the day at the dock as coaches and buses disgorged hundreds of milling passengers … but everything was in hand. Sorted into tour boats and assigned a guide (ours was Donny, pronounced Don nay) … small but with a mighty voice … he had a system all worked out. All we had to do was listen as he boomed out his name, and we knew to gather or look for further direction.

Not a big group … maybe 30 or so, all nationalities and ages. Slightly overcast this morning (but then you rarely get completely clear blue skies in Vietnam) … and surprisingly few tour boats (I guess it’s still early in the season). La Han Bay is the less busy, cleaner version of Ha Long Bay but with equally stunning views and dozens of floating fishing villages.

Out past one of the largest villages/fish farms (we’ll visit this properly later) … past the vegetation-covered limestone ‘casts’ rising dramatically straight out of the ocean. Glimpses of Fish hawks soaring overhead. Kayaking was first up. Life jackets on … two to a kayak … meet Donny over at that far archway. Off we set. Under the low arch (mind your heads) and into a perfectly enclosed, massive lagoon.

The bases of the casts, or islands, are encrusted with shellfish … first thought to be something like mussels or limpets … but turned out to be small oysters. In fact there are oyster platforms dotted all around the bays … suspended strings beneath allow the shellfish to grow.

A stop for those who wanted to swim or snorkel … many of the younger set opted to canonball off the deck and film themselves … the more sedate used the swim ladder. Water was nowhere near warm enough for me, but Glen tried out the mask and snorkel. Apparently he only saw one fish off in the murky depths.

Excellent lunch on board … a wide assortment of foods. Then over to Monkey Island – proper name is Cat Dua. You could swim to shore … but most piled into the local water taxis – cheap at 30,000 Vietnamese Dong per person ($1.50). This link has good photos but some misinformation. https://pioneersailtravel.com/monkey-island-lan-ha-bay/ The primates are a variety of macaque known as langurs … some say the rarest monkey in Asia and possibly the world. Originally kept in captivity to create ‘medicinal’ applications for men!! The island was given over as a refuge for them … but sadly hunters (who could make as much as $50 per specimen – when a yearly salary netted them around $350.00) knocked the numbers down to almost zero. Today there are around 40 living on the island. As with any wild animal, caution is best … these monkeys are used to people, will steal unapologetically, and will bite if you object. Donny has a special rapport with them … visits every day … and they adore him … from the tiniest babies up to ‘the king’, who will sit at his feet and accept his due payment in fruit.

Some in our group decided to climb the trail to the top … probably not wise in flip flops, but whatever! We did our climbing yesterday, so sat on a rock in the shade and enjoyed the views.

Before heading back we stopped at a fish farm … dozens of tanks connected by a grid of narrow wooden planks … and containing all manner of groupers, carp, sharks and even puffer fish! Some of the groupers were gigantic monsters, and after seeing the feeding frenzy when fish bait was dropped into the tanks, one wondered what would happen should a person fall in. According to Donny, apparently nothing, they’d swim away in fright <shhh don’t tell the loud Australians, though – they fully believed it!> … but I still wouldn’t want to try it! Half of the fish were kept for breeding purposes … the rest were returned to the wild after reaching a certain size. Caretakers lived aboard 24/7 … no doubt to keep opportunistic people/animals from helping themselves. One needed a reasonable amount of balance to move about.

Back to the dock … past the floating fishing village, with colours glowing warmly in the evening sun, and back on the bus to the Home Stay. What a glorious day.