For the past few days Jay and I have been in Ha Long Bay, northeast of Hanoi. We signed onto a tour because we were told it is the easiest and best way to see the bay. Though the tour did allow us to see some things we wouldn't have on our own (beautiful caves that have been spoiled by dreadful blue and green flourescent lighting) it was a typical gringo tour and we were happy to part with the group once we made it to Cat Ba Island, the largest and one of the few inhabited islands in the bay. As Lonely Planet describes it, Cat Ba resembles Jarassic Park, with dense green bush and steep rock cliffs. Because of this there is little agriculture. The main source of income for the locals is fishing. Most of these people have established floating villages throughout the bay, some even with primary schools and places to eat. As a result of the loads of tourism, the bay is polluted with trash and waste water from the tourist boats.
Ha Long Bay is famous largely due it's thousands of spectacular limestone cliffs that tower hundreds of feet out of the water. It is a place of true beauty that cannot be described properly; hopefully we can send some pictures out... After we abandoned our tour we rented a motorbike and cruised along the coast through small villiages and rice patties. We ended up at the public car ferry, primarily used by locals. The ferry looked like a very retired and rusted-over Washington state ferry. Our bike broke down on the way back to town, or so we thought. Turns out you cannot ride on half a tank of gas and our bike quit on us. A local guy came to see what was wrong and immediatly told a woman on a bike something, and she was off to get us petrol. We were told to sit in this man's house with him and his wife and child for a while, soon becoming an attraction to all those who were passing. Finally a water bottle filled with petrol showed up and our bike immediatly started up.
Cat Ba also has some great white sand beaches with clean and warm waters in relax in. The evenings were especially wonderful: at 6pm it became dark and the temperatures cooled. Groups of women came to the waterfront with tables and chairs to sell beer and calamari- a relaxing drink before dinner. To top it off, every evening christmas lights would turn on all over town and around the harbor where we sat.
The following day Jay and I found a guy who started a climbing company on the island. His company takes people all over the bay to do all sorts of climbing, especially deep water soloing. The first day he befriended us and took us on a 5 minute moto ride to a wall right in the middle of a village. He has been setting up a few routes on this wall with some friends. I decided watching was best as the easiest climb was around 5.12b- this is ridiculously hard.
The next day we arranged a boat through his company, SloPony, and went out with another couple to go deep water soloing. We took a wooden junk about 25 minutes into the bay. From there we jumped on a "basket boat"-a small, leaky wooden and tar row boat with a local guy who rowed us to the wall. The basic idea of deep water soloing is that you climb up the huge limestone cliffs and instead of falling onto a rope you fall into the water. The kicker is that how ever high you want to climb, you have to jump down. It was a little hard to get used to, but it was a thrilling and an amazing time. The wall we went to had a huge variety of climbs so we all got to do as much as we could. It is really quite safe as the water is deep and the walls are overhung so there is nothing to hit. Though landing wrong from 45 feet could leave you in some pain. It was quite the experience and definitely opened up a new world to climbing.
Thats all for now. We were waiting out a huge thunderstorm in Hanoi. Tonight we grab an overnight train to the mountainous Northwest part of Vietnam in a village called Sapa. More will follow then and hopefully some pictures when we get a better computer.
J & L
Ha Long Bay is famous largely due it's thousands of spectacular limestone cliffs that tower hundreds of feet out of the water. It is a place of true beauty that cannot be described properly; hopefully we can send some pictures out... After we abandoned our tour we rented a motorbike and cruised along the coast through small villiages and rice patties. We ended up at the public car ferry, primarily used by locals. The ferry looked like a very retired and rusted-over Washington state ferry. Our bike broke down on the way back to town, or so we thought. Turns out you cannot ride on half a tank of gas and our bike quit on us. A local guy came to see what was wrong and immediatly told a woman on a bike something, and she was off to get us petrol. We were told to sit in this man's house with him and his wife and child for a while, soon becoming an attraction to all those who were passing. Finally a water bottle filled with petrol showed up and our bike immediatly started up.
Cat Ba also has some great white sand beaches with clean and warm waters in relax in. The evenings were especially wonderful: at 6pm it became dark and the temperatures cooled. Groups of women came to the waterfront with tables and chairs to sell beer and calamari- a relaxing drink before dinner. To top it off, every evening christmas lights would turn on all over town and around the harbor where we sat.
The following day Jay and I found a guy who started a climbing company on the island. His company takes people all over the bay to do all sorts of climbing, especially deep water soloing. The first day he befriended us and took us on a 5 minute moto ride to a wall right in the middle of a village. He has been setting up a few routes on this wall with some friends. I decided watching was best as the easiest climb was around 5.12b- this is ridiculously hard.
The next day we arranged a boat through his company, SloPony, and went out with another couple to go deep water soloing. We took a wooden junk about 25 minutes into the bay. From there we jumped on a "basket boat"-a small, leaky wooden and tar row boat with a local guy who rowed us to the wall. The basic idea of deep water soloing is that you climb up the huge limestone cliffs and instead of falling onto a rope you fall into the water. The kicker is that how ever high you want to climb, you have to jump down. It was a little hard to get used to, but it was a thrilling and an amazing time. The wall we went to had a huge variety of climbs so we all got to do as much as we could. It is really quite safe as the water is deep and the walls are overhung so there is nothing to hit. Though landing wrong from 45 feet could leave you in some pain. It was quite the experience and definitely opened up a new world to climbing.
Thats all for now. We were waiting out a huge thunderstorm in Hanoi. Tonight we grab an overnight train to the mountainous Northwest part of Vietnam in a village called Sapa. More will follow then and hopefully some pictures when we get a better computer.
J & L
3 comments:
Am doing my best to calm my nerves as I read about amazing adventures on high cliffs and rusty boats. Write often! xo, Mom/Jen
I'm with Jenny -- sweaty palms as I read about your hair-raising adventures! How about visiting temples and museums and market places rather than cliffs and leaky boats? Do it for ME.
Have fun...be careful!
xoxo~Aunt Kathy
which way to the gym?
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