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Private tailor-made journeys of a life time
Jul 27, 2023
By Ms. Minh Thu
Monkey Island in Cat Ba Islands is becoming more famous among the travel community because of its pristine and unspoiled beauty. More and more people choose this island to escape from the hustle and bustle of daily stressful life with the hope of restoring energies and healing their mental health after the trip. So what are you waiting for? Let’s explore this beautiful place with Vietnam Escape Tours.
Monkey island has another name, which is “Cat Dua” island. This name is more familiar with the locals here because “Dua '' is a kind of wild pineapples, which grow wild a lot on the island. Since the dawn of history, these pineapples have been a valuable source of food and medicine.
Out of about 400 islands belonging to Cat Ba island complex, Cat Dua island is the most well-known among tourists and is being exploited as an attractive tourist destination. Because there are more than 20 cute big and small monkeys living there, tourists often call this island a homely name “monkey island”. Therefore, this name gradually became more popular than the old name.
Monkey Island is 5 km from the northern- west direction of Cat Ba islands’ center and 60 km from Hai Phong city. If you depart from Hanoi, first, you can get to Hai Phong City by car, bus or limousine. Going along the expressway can save time effectively.
From Hai Phong City, the best way to get to Monkey Island is to book a cruise, which includes a tender giving you to Cat Ba islands as well as Monkey Island. This can be expensive but worth it because a Halong cruise can give you a complete experience to discover the island. Or respectively, you can get to Cat Ba Islands first by a ferry or cable car. Cable cars are more advised because it takes about 10 minutes to travel rather than 20 minutes if you go by ferry. From Cat Ba island, you can get to Monkey Island by day boat.
Admire the landscape
Monkey Island has a unique wild beauty. Coming here, you will be able to see the sharp peaks, where the bushes full of life grow on. The beaches here are also clear and blue, with fine and clean sand, maintained by the people and tourists who are aware of preserving the pristine beauty. The water is clear and blue, reflecting the vast blue sky. In the distance are majestic mountains rising to the surface of the water. You will definitely be impressed and feel calm inside because of the unspoiled landscape here.
Play with monkeys on the island
Living on the island are around 20 cute big and small monkeys. They are friendly with the locals and tourists so you can approach them. Meeting these cute monkeys, you can feed them fruits such as bananas or apples and watch them make fun. Taking photos with these monkeys can be a pretty memory when you come here. But try not to throw fruits or any items into these animals. These monkeys are friendly but they still take time to get acquainted with you so just don’t rush.
Check-in on the beach
As mentioned above, the beach on Monkey Island isn’t only clean, blue and stretching curly and beautifully with fresh water and fine sand, but its surrounding landscape is also wonderful with majestic mountains. So coming here without checking in with trendy poses at the beach here is a pity. Monkey Island has 2 famous beaches which are Cat Dua 1 and Cat Dua 2. Of both, Cat Dua 1 beach is more popular because of its length.
Kayak and Swim
Because Monkey Island in general and Cat Dua beaches have not been overexploited to maintain their virgin beauty, there are not many modern services here. However, if you still want to try kayaking and swimming, the locals still provide kayaking boats and paddles as well as swimsuits. Kayaking is a favorite activity of many people when traveling to beaches. This is not an exhausting activity but just requires graceful movements of paddling. Swimming and merging into the fresh atmosphere and cool water of Cat Dua beach is the best for your summer vacation. After that, you can order some drinks and fruits to perfect your experience.
Lan Ha Bay
Lan Ha Bay, belonging to Halong Bay, is a destination worth visiting when you come to Cat Ba island. Situated on the East of the island, Lan Ha Bay is famous for its jade green water with magnificent mountains of green bush, coming out of the flat and peaceful sea surface. You can try kayaking and swimming here and these activities will help you let your hair down.
Cat Ba National Park
Also known as the biosphere reserves of the world, Cat Ba National Park is a good spot for you to admire the rain forests and caves. Many rare and valuable animals live here and songs by a lot of birds here contribute to the lively ambience of the forest. You can try jogging, trekking or biking here while listening to the birds’ songs to completely dive into the beauty of nature. You can even live virtually here because this is also called the paradise of diverse types of flowers.
Trung Trang Cave
Trung Trang Cave is located on the cross-island road, 12 km from Cat Ba town to the northwest to the northernmost point of Cat Ba island. This is the largest valley of Cat Ba island, an area of 300 hectares, 10-30m lower than sea level, inside the cave, you will see many shapes formed by stalactites. In addition to the beauty of natural stalactites, Trung Trang cave also has a mysterious dark ecosystem. The cave is home to many species of creatures such as reptiles, insects, birds, and bats.
Than Cong Fort
To both visit and rest, visitors can go to the relics of Than Cong fortress, also known as Peak 177. Two large cannons and a system of trenches on the top of the mountain, built in the 1940s, are still quite intact. The elevated location, from which you can see the entire bay, is what draws a lot of tourists. This place is suitable for watching sunrise and sunset on the island.
Viet Hai Village
Viet Hai continues to uphold the distinctive culture of villages in the Northern Delta compared to other fishing communities in Cat Ba. The unique feature is that Viet Hai is located separately from the outside, surrounded by four sides of sea forest and overlapping limestone mountains. In recent years, Viet Hai has become a community ecotourism destination attracting tourists, especially foreign tourists. Coming here, visitors seem to be separated from the noisy life outside, immersing themselves in the peaceful and unspoiled space of nature, forests and sea.
You should go to Monkey Island in spring and early summer. Because at this time, the weather is very suitable for going out, sightseeing and swimming. Months like July, August, and September are prone to storms and boats are not allowed to operate. Therefore, if you want to go to the island during these months, you must keep track of the weather to avoid traveling during the time a storm makes landfall.
When going kayaking, you should prepare a waterproof bag to protect your phone or just don’t bring it with you.
You should leave your valuable items on land when you go swimming to avoid losing them.
Remember to protect your skin by applying sunscreen whenever you go outside.
Vietnam Escape Tours hope that after reading the article above, you now have useful information and experience to start your journey to Monkey Island in Cat Ba Islands. The island will give you relaxing minutes and valuable moments with your beloved ones.
