Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

On Monday I took the day off work and went to Halong Bay again with Annette. We kayaked out - despite the lack of directions that we got from the people with the kayaks. Fortunately Annette knew the way. That night we slept in a tent on Tiger beach (where local climbing company slo pony have their routes). Dinner was some banh my sandwiches (it has taken me 6 months to realize that when pronounced in an American accent that sounds like "bang me" - thanks Tim). We sat around a campfire and somehow it felt like Christmas Eve, so we did a little singing...

The next day (our "Christmas") we did 3 climbs and some more kayaking, then found ourselves a present! Annette and I decided to buy a bike from Andrew, who'd just biked from the Thai-Burma border. We rechristened his steed Bikel (formerly Iguana) and she's road ready for some great cycling trips in Southeast Asia. A merry Christmas indeed!

Halong Bay

I went to visit the crazy geology of Halong Bay last weekend. It's a UNESCO world heritage site - and home to over 1,600 limestone islands in the Gulf of Tonkin (which is famous for a different reason). You can get there from Hanoi in a few hours - we started out at 5 AM with a xe om (motorbike) to the bus station, where we caught a bus to Haiphong and a speedboat from there to Cat Ba island. At that point, it was about 10 AM, and we met up with the fella we''d hired to take us around for the weekend. Around eleven we got aboard and started motoring, stopping first to pick up our kayaks at one of the floating villages and eat a lunch of fish and rice en route. Finally, around 2, we had arrived at the set of islands we'd been looking for to do a little deep water solo climbing.

The idea of deep water soloing is that if you're climbing on a cliff that's over deep water, you don't need safety equipment. I have to admit, I wish I'd had some safety equipment for my fingers. The limestone was SHARP! I had to dig a bit of it out of my hands just a few days ago.

From "Halong Bay & Rock Climbing"

Check out more of my pictures in the Halong Bay album on picasaweb.google.com/kathryn.lankester