Ba Be

Ba Be is a lake in the far north that most itineraries never reach. The reason is simple arithmetic: six hours from Hanoi, and not on the way to anything.

Is Ba Be worth going to?

If you have the days, yes. It is the largest natural lake in Vietnam, inside a national park in Bac Kan province, surrounded by limestone hills and forest, with Tay villages along its shores.

The name means three lakes, and that is literally what it is: three linked basins running roughly 8 km from one end to the other, at about 145 m above sea level, fed and drained by the Nang river.

The appeal is quiet rather than spectacle. There is no cruise industry here, no ticket queue and very little English. What there is: a wooden boat, a lake, a cave the river runs through, and a stilt house to sleep in.

What is there to do?

Get on the water first. A boat across the lake and up the river takes a few hours and covers most of it. The Puong cave comes first, where the Nang river runs through a limestone tunnel with bats overhead. The Dau Dang falls sit further downstream.

Kayaking is the better version of the same trip if you are up for it, and several homestays keep boats. Walking is the third option: trails run between the Tay villages on the shore and up into the forest behind them.

An Ma islet sits in the middle of the widest basin with a small temple on it, and every boat trip stops there. It takes ten minutes and is the only built thing on the water.

Who lives here?

Tay villages, mostly, and they are the reason a night here is worth more than the day trip. Pac Ngoi is the largest and holds most of the homestays; smaller hamlets sit further round the shore and up the side valleys.

The park itself is a protected area of limestone forest, and it is one of the better places in northern Vietnam to be woken by birds rather than by traffic. Guides from the villages take walks up into it, which is worth arranging the evening before rather than on the morning.

What is a stilt house at Pac Ngoi like?

In a Tay stilt house at Pac Ngoi or one of the shore villages. The houses stand on posts, you sleep on the floor under a net, and dinner is with the family. It is the same shape as Mai Chau or Pu Luong, with a lake instead of paddies.

A few small hotels sit near the park entrance. They are less pleasant and no cheaper, and staying on the water is the reason to have come.

What does two days at the lake cost?

Cheaply. A homestay bed runs roughly 150,000 to 350,000 dong, dinner around 100,000 to 150,000, and a shared boat trip a few hundred thousand per person. At about 26,000 dong to the dollar, two days here is a small line in any budget.

The park charges a modest entry fee. The journey is again the real expense, and a private car from Hanoi costs many times the bus.

When is the lake fullest?

September to November or March to May. The lake sits fullest after the summer rains and the forest is green; the falls are loudest at the end of the wet season.

Winter is cold here and often misty, which suits a lake less than it suits mountains. The month-by-month guide covers the northern year.

How far is the lake from Hanoi?

By road from Hanoi, roughly 240 km and five to six hours through Thai Nguyen and Bac Kan. Buses run from My Dinh and Gia Lam to Bac Kan town, and homestays arrange the rest.

No railway and no airport come within useful reach, which is the whole explanation for how quiet the lake is. Ba Be also connects east towards Cao Bang in about four hours, and the two together make a genuinely off-track five days in the northeast.