The Hai Phong People’s Committee on March 31 held a meeting to inaugurate the Cat Ba tourism season.
Deputy Chairman of the Committee Nguyen Van Thanh affirmed that the attractive Cat Ba Island lures many tourists at home and abroad. Ca Ba is also one of the five sea conservation sites of Vietnam and has sufficient factors to build geological park.
Sport events such as traditional dragon boat racing, volleyball tournament and kayak boat racing were organised at Cat Ba Bay on April 1 to start the tourism season.
Also on the occasion, the authority called on the local people and tourists to vote for Ha Long Bay to become one of the seven world wonders. More than 1,000 people, including 160 foreigners have voted for Ha Long Bay on the day.
Theo Nhan Dan/Vietnamnet
Cat Ba Tourism - Drinking Beer with Monkeys.
Not many people have known the existent monkey islet in Cat Ba with more than 30 monkeys who regularly frolic on the beach, even tease and steal food from visitors. It takes about 45 minutes to travel on boat from Hai Phong city to Cat Ba island (Cat Hai district, Hai Phong city), and 10 minutes more by canoe to the Monkey Islet. The island features a long sandy blond beach with blue water waves, which is an ideal place for swimming in the hot summer.
However, the alluring factor that makes the tourists desire to once come here is not only the natural wild sight but also the attraction of the more than 30 monkeys living here half naturally. Primarily, this island used to be called Pandanus beach because the pandanus grew luxuriantly, but it is rather more common to be known as Monkey islet since the Cat Ba Tourism Joint Stock Company brought these monkeys here to bring up. Surprisingly, the monkeys really adjust well to the weather and living conditions to develop quickly. With an initial intent to raise the monkeys for fun, if the tourists visit the island and see the monkeys, they feel warmer and not desolate.
Unexpectedly, it is the monkeys who become the “tour guide” for the visitors traveling to this spot. “More than 30 monkeys live scattering around the island. In the summer, the number of tourists visiting this place are crowded (about 3000 people per day), we do not have to feed them at all as bananas, cakes and candies of the tourists bringing along can make them full.
In the winter, we cook porridge or rice for them”, said Mr Nguyen Van Chung, an employee in the Cat Bat Tourism Joint Stock Company. The monkeys are quite bold because they live close to the human and get quite familiar to them. Sometimes, they encroach upon the tourists and make the coward tourists startled. However, almost all of the tourists have fun with these mischievous kings. The tourists will desire in their lifelong once to visit this islet to experience some pert baby monkeys approach and one of them tease his leg to gain attention of the tourists, another glances their eyes while his right hand is taking a coca on the table to drink. Especially, after “Sniffing” the roasted groundnuts served to the tourists to drink beer, several monkeys rush to them to beg. If not being given, they will think of stealing. The monkeys on the islet have been living quite well, some of whom are pregnant and the numbers of monkeys increase significantly over the years. The visitors are quite surprised by the funny names of the monkeys called by the employees from Cat Ba Resort and Spa. An example name for the handsome, clever and loving football monkey is Beckham. The old looking and the biggest will be called an Old Man. The female big monkey is called an Old Woman because she is the wife of the Old Man.
Unfortunately, the Old Man has recently coupled with some younger female monkeys including a Lips Splitting (the monkey who has her lips splitting in the middle and looks very sexy). After more than one hour discovering the Monkey Islet, the tourists will feel love for the nature and half wild monkeys. Enjoy the tour to the Monkey Islet to relax for this summer occasion.