Vietnam – Cu Lao Cham – Nilda Cerna´s Blog

Cu Lao Cham

The Cham islands are a biosfere reserved islands that belongs to Hoi An district, in the middle of Vietnam. My friends Bibi, her husband Cam and myself, spent 3 days and two nights in Cu Lao Cham.

In Cu Lao Cham there are only a couple of small rural villages, were people live of fishing and turism.

As the islands are a biosfere reserve, they forbidden use of plastic bags, among other thing, such as, cars and foreigns driving a motorbike.

We arrived on the 30th April, the liberation day, so every house and boat had the Vietnamese flag, which gave it a charming atmosphere.

What to see

The main island is the only one which you can visit, the rest are only rocks. You can visit the small village or spend time in one of the several paradises beaches.

If you arrived by a speed boat, you will pop in to a crowded beach with tourists. It worth walk or take motorbike tour to discover stunning and white sand beaches that are only visited by locals in the evening. Vietnamese like white skin so they avoid high sun light.

There are couple of small villages where you can see there tipical architecture houses, which most them have their doors open, to delight you watching them eating either on the floor or a tiny table.

Activities

You can take a boat tour and enjoy the same water activities, such water parachuting, snorkeling and fishing.

We went for this option: snorkel & fishing. We pay 200K each for 3-hour ish session.

We had for dinner the fish caught! The owner of the mostay that we slept prepared it for all the crew, it was such an amazing time.

You can arrange the activities in your hostel.

Eating out

There are a fish market and several restaurant that sells fresh fish and seafood to cook for you. We eat at one who had chairs on the street/beach. We paid total of 230K (£7) for a selection of differents seafood prepared on a barbaque, and beers.

They have some improvised restaurant at their front house door where you can eat Pho and others Vietnemese food. Don’t ask for a menu. They have only one dish to serve. We had a My Quang (Pho sin caldo) mas una cerveza: 40K VTN.

Where to stay

We stayed in a homestay, which is a family house that have rooms to rent. They also have food and drinks at very convenient price. We paid $6 USD per night. Beers 15K VND (£0.50).

How to arrive

To arrive to the island you need to take either a ferry or speady boat. We pay 300K VND to arrive and 150K VND to leave it.