Cat Ba continues to amaze us both. The locals are beyond nice and the island is absolutely beautiful. Although the Lunar New Year has come and gone, much of the island still shows signs of celebrations. (For the Vietnamese, the new year last more than just a day.) Many decorations are still up and the occasional firework still sounds off and lights up the night sky. There are still many store fronts that are closed and locked up due to everyone being with friends and families.
Although all this is going on around us, Robyn and I have had our focus else where. We have been exploring the natural beauty of the island and climbing as much as we can. Over the past few days we have climbed in two different locations and have driven all over the island via our motor bike. We have seen beaches, found caves, walk through abandoned areas, and even visited a temple at the end of a sketchy looking board walk.
On our third day out to the valley, we ran into some old friends of ours from our travels in Laos. A group of friendly young Canadians. We all enjoyed chatting and catching up as we climbed the day away. We climbed several brilliant routes that day ranging from 6a to 6c. Each route posed its on challenges; all very dynamic and fun.
The next day, Robyn and I went to another location know as the cave, a five minute drive from our hotel. The cave was much different as it was a smaller crag located in the town limits. To gain access to this climbing area, you must drive through a neighborhood and park just outside of a particular house noted in the guide book. Since the wall is practically in the backyard, you have to walk up and get permission to walk through the house. At first, Robyn and I were unsure of how this process would work out but in the end all was well and we had a good day at the wall.
Once at the house we parked our bike and before much longer a nice local lady asked if we were there to climb at which we shook our heads yes. After this, she told us to follow her and that we could use her home to gain access to the wall. We walked up her pathway leading to her house where the rest of her family was sitting and smiling as we walked through there “living room” and “kitchen” and out through the backyard. A short walk through some woods and up a hill brought us to the cave. We enjoyed three climbs (ranging from 5b-6b) there before being to exhausted to continue anymore. They were all unique in the fact you were climbing tufas and stalactites.
That afternoon we enjoyed a relaxing visit to the three local beaches near the town. They were all closely located to one another being only a short 3-5 minute motor bike ride from our hotel. Two of the beaches were connected via a paved path that meandered along the rocky coast line. Each one was filled with people enjoying the crashing waves, warm weather, and beautiful views of limestone karst structures shooting up from the ocean. It was our first glance of how beautiful Halong Bay truly was.
At the last beach we visited, I took off to climb some rocks and scramble up to a high point to see if I could get any better views of the bay. As I made my way higher and higher the view of course got better and better. As I searched for a way up the final few rocks to the very top, I heard a whistle and as I turned around to see who or what it was I saw a small figure on the beach below where I had begun my accent waving his arms frantically. I soon realized he did not want me up there and was signaling me to come down, so in order not to cause any more issues I started my decent. Upon reaching the beach, I was greeted by a very unhappy local.
I tried to apologize for any scare I had created but he simply responded by pointing to a sign
that was in Vietnamese and saying “fine, fine, you pay”. I figured the sign that I had simply ignored early because of not being able to understand it in fact meant “NO CLIMBING” ….woops. Lacking a wallet, I just smiled and walked away in a hurry back towards Robyn who was watching it all just down the beach a bit. We gathered our things and decided it would be best to just leave and enjoy the rest of the day including sunset from our hotel room balcony.
Today was nice, we had a really lazy morning and a late breakfast/early lunch. Afterwards, we hopped on the motor bike and drove around the island with no real plans or expectations. If we liked something we stopped and if not we continued on down the road. We manage to find some pretty cool spots around the island. Our first stop was the fishing pier where we stopped and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the harbor. After this, we headed along the coast where we found a cool panoramic view atop a spiral staircase. We then found an abandoned building along the coast filled with stray dogs, rust, broken windows, and out of date fishing and building supplies. Being chased off by barking dogs, we decided to stay on the motor bike for a while and just cruise to the other end of the island. The drive was breath taking with views of the ocean and mountains all around. On the other side of the island we found a cool port town with many tourist flooding in off boats and unto the docks. Here also is where we happened to find the temple at the end of the board walk. This was super cool because the walk meandered along this rock wall and out over mud flats with mangrove trees and fiddler crabs crawling around. Being later in the afternoon by this time, we decided to zoom back across the island to grab food and relax back in the hotel room. A 30-40 minute ride brought us back to Cat Ba town where we grubbed and now are relaxing.
Tomorrow should mean more climbing for us, weather pending that is. We keeping our fingers crossed for we both have goals to meet and plenty of routes to check off before leaving here!
