The great Escape

Despite having to haggle over the price of your dinner, Quan Lan island is blissful getaway spot, says Van Cong Tu.

There’s no doubt the sleepy island of Quan Lan, which is situated in Bai Tu Long bay, has the potential to become a highly popular holiday destination for both local and western tourists. Though still not on the typical tourist itinerary, the island has long been a destination for knowing expats and locals, who are aware of its beautiful sandy beaches and lush green countryside. The island covers an area of just 11sqkm and is home to no more than 6,000 people. At the moment most islanders’ idea of mass tourism probably means a dozen tourists arriving on the same day. Quan Lan is not the easiest place to get to, which inevitably keeps the number of tourists down. The journey takes a full day of independent travelling, first by public bus from Gia Lam bus station in Hanoi to the ferry terminal in Hon Gai. This four hour trip is not for the faint-hearted as these bus drivers often appear to be under the delusion they are Formula One drivers. In fact, on one occasion my friends and I abandoned ship less than halfway to Haiphong after several near misses. We ended up ordering a private car from one of the roadside restaurants, which admittedly blew our budget but we wanted to live! From the ferry terminal, it’s another four hours on an often overcrowded boat. It might sound like a bit of an Odyssey but that’s why this beautiful island is such a quiet getaway spot. Five years ago, on my first trip here, in one week I saw just two other tourists. I had to order my meals in advance and rent one of the local’s motorbikes to get around. Since then, guest houses have nearly tripled in price and, like in other tourist spots, the owners bump up prices for national holidays and long weekends by charging extra-high rates for quite basic rooms. You might pay VND400,000 for a double room with a fan or VND600,000 with air-conditioning, bearing in mind that electricity is a new commodity on the island only supplied from 6pm to 11pm. If you are lucky your guesthouse will have its own generator. You can find food at a number of small restaurants and guest houses around but don’t expect a menu. What you eat depends on what came over on the ferry with you or what the local fishermen reeled in last night. You should also ask the price before placing your order. Some restaurants take advantage of the isolation of the island to charge wildly inflated prices. I had to bargain for every single dish, which is not much fun when you’re trying to relax. Compared to five years ago, the residents of the island are now even more commercially-minded. On my last visit when I asked one of the locals about this obvious change in attitude, he answered “five years ago we were dumb.” The one-road village of Quan Lan has also undergone some transformations with a spate of new houses now standing in the place of traditional ones. But in general this is still very much an old fashioned town. Wandering through the narrow alleys I can see courtyards filled with food drying in the sun, women hand-washing clothes and children playing with sticks and stones. Almost every single house has a dog or two, which are not at all aggressive, though it seems they tend to bark during the night and sleep during the day! To get around you can rent a motorbike or bicycle.There are dozens of xe lam (tuk tuk) drivers roaming the streets but this form of transport is quite expensive for tourists and, again, requires hard negotiation. We had to pay VND100,000 for a 7km round trip, while motorbikes and bikes can be rented for VND100,000 and VND50,000 per day, respectively, plus petrol. But despite the endless haggling in the end it’s all worth it. If you spend one day on one of the islands isolated beaches the chaos of Hanoi traffic will seem a million miles away. Not even haggling for your dinner will get you down.