Ha Long Bay, Cat Ba, Vietnam

I took a mini-van bus from my guest house in Hanoi and began the journey toward Ha Long Bay where I would then go to Cat Ba Island and try to climb some. My health was still pretty terrible but I wanted to see the bay which is world famous, as well as check out the rock as much as I could. I would be spending 4 days there then heading back to Hanoi before flying to S. Korea.

For hours we drove though countless rice fields that covered the countryside’s. As I watched the workers laboriously tending the crops, it really began sink in exactly how key rice is to Vietnam’s economy.




I arrived to the bay, and the place was swarming with tourists preparing for boarding onto the dozens of docked junks that littered the bay. It was an interesting sight…bursting with activity from all directions. From this area I would then transfer onto a junk for my guided tour of the bay and spend the night on the boat.

Throughout the day on the junk we toured the bay. It was a little surreal for me to be a part of a tour group. I had spent the entirety of my time in SE Asia independently and subject to only my whims and wants. To be on a boat with about 10 other random tourists was a little difficult for me to acclimate to. Something most people don't come to accept when traveling, is that just because you are surrounded by loads of tourists doesnt mean you must become a lemming and follow the norm. I found myself not socializing as much on the boat, and spending most of my time alone throughout that day, and it was wonderful. I figured there would be pleanty of time to be social when I would be climbing in Cat Ba.

As the boat passed through the beautiful limestone karsts, all I could think about is how bad I wanted to climb at the level I was at before. Such a pity to know that my body has been through the ringer here, and is still recovering and there’s no way I could climb the way I was before. Lame. Regardless, it was nice to see the rock up close on the boats as we passed while winding our way through the maze of islands.

We passed many local fishermen working away for their daily catch. It was one of my favorite views while on the boat, it was something out of books and movies, and it took my breath away every time I watched them as we slowly passed by.



The tour took us all to a cave that was incredibly cheesy and over toured in my opinion. After seeing the raw nature of the caves in Laos where headlamps are required 5 feet into the caves, this place was ridiculous with a capital ‘R’.
The walk-ways had been paved, and they even had really corny colored lights and fake animal statues trying to scare people. If I were 5 maybe it would be awesome.

But on the bright side of things, when I left that cheesy cave, my tour guide told us all that we would have a half hour to wander the paths and he said there is another cave up one of the paths and we can go check that one out too or return to the boat and wait until we leave. I decided to check out the other one.
Now this second cave was much more natural as it is a UNESCO site. Wooded walk ways and normal colored lights guided my way as I entered the cave. I even saw some bats flying deep inside the cave….good thing I already had my Rabies shot!

Back on the boat we had lunch then we were touring the bay more and the tour guide told us we would be taken to an area where we could go to the floating village and kayak in the ocean. On the way there we passed many fishermen and it was so beautiful to see them in their boats catching food to sell in the markets. I really love Ha Long Bay.

I went into my room to lie down until we arrived to the kayaking area but fell asleep. I really wanted to kayak, but hiking up to the caves and walking around all morning, I was so exhausted. I was woken up by a girl who shares my room, she said it was dinner time…7pm. Guess my mind is ready for adventure but my body begs to differ…I needed to rest more or I would never be able to recover.

The next morning I slept in until 8:30 which is when breakfast was being served. I quickly packed my things after eating, and we were taken to Cat Ba National Park. The boat dropped us off and we were going to spend the morning hiking up into the mountains to an old military watch tower which over-looks the valley below. I was a bit hesitant of doing so much physical activity considering the level of exhaustion I was experiencing on the boat simply from all the travel I did coming from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay; but I decided to try anyway.

I got out of the van and the group began to head toward the mountains. I decided to hang back a bit since I was sure I would be a hindrance to the others. After thinking over the fact that if I got lost I would probably be too worn out to try to find my way back or look for help, I made sure not to be the last since one. There were so many people it was really easy to follow the well-worn path up the mountain…just follow the chatter. The group was comprised of a variety of people capable of different physical abilities, and surprisingly I found that I ended up passing many of them!

Hiking up was beautiful, the beginning was fairly steep and there were steps made of rock that people placed in the dirt and packed with mud. This portion lasted about 30 minutes, but soon after the path turned into what seemed like a steady stroll that was very pretty. It took about an hour to get up to the tower, and I arrived with the fist 5 or so people.

I climbed the stairs to the tower and it had clearly not been maintained since the war. It was extremely rusted and many pieces of wood from the floor and stairs were missing. I had to be sure to watch my step! The view was incredible and well worth the exertion; from up so high you could see the countless domed mountains disappearing far in into the distance. I felt like I was in the middle of no where, but in reality, the ocean was less than 20 minutes away yet you couldn’t even see it from here.









After the hike, the tour group took a bus to the hotel on Cat Ba island. The rest of the group would be leaving Cat Ba town the next day but I planned on staying a little longer so I could climb.

Once I arrived, ate lunch and checked into my room, I soon took a much needed nap. Upon waking, I decided to explore a little of the island. It was a fairly small town and easy to navigate, and I found out that there wasn’t much to it besides being a hub for the tour boats to drop groups off and then pick them up after they stayed a night or two on the island. I was disappointed in general at how over-run Ha Long Bay is with tourism. It’s a money-maker’s market that’s for sure! You really gotta watch what you spend!

Something I still find pretty funny is the construction sites in Asian countries. In Laos, I had the photos of the bamboo stalks holding the building skeletons up while being worked on; here in Vietnam, they move rocks with baskets they carry one their heads.


The next morning I headed to the climbing shop to see if I could connect up with climbers that I could climb with. There weren’t any individual climbers going out on their own that day, but quite a few were people going out on one of the climbing tour boats that would take you to some of the islands to climb, so I joined one of the groups.

We took a junk out into the bay, it was really nice to be around people with such a similar thinking as climbers have, totally different atmosphere than with tourists. I felt more comfortable and it was over-all a really enjoyable day. we passed a floating pearl farm, and of course I bought a few strands of pearls from Cat Ba, so cheap; one strand was about $6 USD. Earrings were about $1 USD!!

From the junk, we took a small boat to shore where the climbing is located. I was about to get my hands all over some Vietnamese rock, and I could barely contain myself. After being so sick for as long as I was, this was a day I though may never come. When I was sick I literally thought i would never leave Thailand unless it was in a body bag, so to be here about to partake in something that over the years had become such a large and incremental portion of my life, I was ecstatic.







The climbing was a lot of fun, it was really nice to be climbing by the ocean again, something I really enjoyed in Thailand. The rock here was a lot more sharp than I was used to but it was just a fun day to get out and enjoy the climbing.



MARKET
One afternoon after climbing, I went to the local market to stock up on food and supplies. There were so many interesting things to be seen here…some of which I tried to understand and lots I just simply didn’t!

The variety of vegetables including lettuces, greens, and herbs is unreal here. Walking through this section I just wanted to buy everything to take home with me for Lucky to eat…he would love all this!

RICE, RICE, AND MORE RICE!!!!
In this photo these ladies are making sugar.

As I was walking around just absorbing my surroundings, there were lots of people selling snacks and drinks. I noticed quite a few tables had colorful, gelatinous, things inside glass cups.
I had no idea what it was but one lady kept trying to get me to come and try it. I don’t speak Vietnamese and she didn’t speak English..so no luck figuring out what it is. Only way is to just try it. The neighboring lady at her table was competing for the price I would pay. I eventually got it for less than 5 cents. She motioned for me to pick one of the jars since there was a row of many different ones.
The then showed me to mix it all up while she added a few more things to it. Bon appetite! Turns out it a sugary, bean, dessert drink. She mixed ice with it so it was very refreshing in the heat.

These are photos from the fish area of the market. There are so many species…some of which are rare, but these people are trying to just survive and don’t really care about the environmental or conservation side of things...that’s a luxury of the wealthy to be choosey.

They cut large fish into smaller sections and sell them off by quality, size, cut, weight, and type of fish.


Squid….so many species, colors and sizes.

Fish jerky!! Another section of the market is the dried fish area. They have basket after basket of fish that have been dried to preserve them. Many Vietnamese people buy these for cooking to make soups and sauces. Also, many people just eat pieces as a snack as we do with jerky.
All the things that they catch and dry out just made me so sad….starfish…These stringy things are actually seahorses that the people dry out and sell…really sad. And lets not forget the sea cucumbers…these guys are about to be dried out. Seeing all the styles and things these people in such a poor country do to survive really drives home how different of a culture we live in....