Overlooking Cat Ba Bay is Cat Ba Cannon Fort. An old military compound dating back to World War II, the fort is a fun activity for while you are on Cat Ba Island. Even if you only make it for the views, you won’t be disappointed.

Cat Ba Cannon Fort

With our gas tank nearly on empty and the sun beginning its descent into the ocean, we made our way back to Cat Ba town from Hospital Cave. But we had one last destination before returning to our room: Cat Ba Cannon Fort. We knew that atop the mountain overlooking the town lay a fort and some spectacular views of the island, so we knew we had to check it out.

Reaching the Fort

We made our way down the waterfront street of town and turned up the hill opposite the pier. As the road began to curve to the left a turn opened up the right and we took it. Almost immediately, there was a big sign saying “Cannon Fort” and a steep road going up.

If you are inclined to do so, you can make the hike up to the fort from town in about an hour. But we had a bike, so we gunned the throttle and headed up the mountain. The road made its way through the winding paths and eventually put us at the very top, which was an old helicopter pad – now converted to a makeshift parking lot, van drop-off, and (oddly) older women’s aerobics exercise spot.

Entering Cat Ba Cannon Fort

We took a few minutes to marvel at some of the views this spot had to offer then proceeded on to what appeared to be the beginning. We passed a large howitzer installation set inside a deep pit, and a shell display and came to the East Observation Post. Here we paid our 40,000 Dong admittance each (~$4 combined) and began our tour of the facility.

Great Views All Around

We started by looking through a set of binoculars, which gave us a greatly detailed view of a few islands of Lan Ha Bay and the floating village off to the east of Cat Ba. Monkey Island was also well within view and we gave it a good look – no monkeys to be seen sadly.

We descended past the cafe that resides at the top and made our way down a path that ultimately disappeared a few hundred feet in. We turned around and made our way up, at which point a bunch of children came running up to us and gave us high-fives and took our pictures. They didn’t seem to really speak any English (many of the children here speak pretty good English) but they sure seemed enthusiastic.

Entering the “Museum”

We finally found our way through to the rest of the “museum” and began to truly explore the cannon fort. The entire top of the mountain holds the remains of the military installation originally built by the Japanese in WWII.

Narrow trenches meander through the hills taking you from one point to the next. The French and Vietnamese also used the fort for their purposes during the many subsequent wars.

We explored a U-shaped tunnel, that served some sort of purpose (obviously) though we could not figure out what. We also came across a small museum displaying relics from wars past as well as local art that could be purchased.

More wandering through the jungle paths brought us to a second gun installation, this one “manned” by life-size mannequins. Descending into the pit, we walked through some of the deep trenches and came to the munitions storage alcoves. It would certainly be easy to get lost in the maze of trenches here. But we found our way back to the gun and climb out of the pit.

Cannon Fort West Observation Post

Proceeding on down, we came to the West Observation Post. There were no binoculars here, but it wasn’t necessary. Instead, we found spectacular views of the small cove before Cat Ba Town, as well as the town itself.

The sun was setting, and we could see the dozens of boats and floating restaurants sparkling on the bay. We stayed here for a bit before we began to make our way back towards the bike. We did not really know how to get back properly. But with some searching, found what looked like a path and climbed our way out.

Here we found ourselves a few hundred feet down the road from the helicopter pad. So we made our way to our bike and then proceeded to ride down the mountain road once again.

With a full day behind us and the sun setting, it was a great end to the day.