Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

After hearing about it for years, the time came to check out Vietnam! We were fortunate to be able to get a taste of the climbing in Ha Long Bay which was a highlight of our trip.

The way we decided to go about experiencing Vietnam was: first we spent two days at Nam Cat resort (a small island about 20 minutes away by boat), and then we did a 3-day boat tour with Cat Ba Ventures (one of the major tour companies). This basically meant only 1 night in Cat Ba at the very end, which completely avoided the crowds, but we probably missed out on some of the main island attractions (and climbing at Linh Minh valley). Trade offs.. :)

Nam Cat was an amazing secluded location - we were pretty speechless when we first pulled up. From there, only a short 10 minute kayak paddle away there was also a small beach with a few short climbs (Moody Beach) - note, the place is small, you can do every route there in < 2 hours... we enjoyed our time there climbing, kayaking around and relaxing, but after 2 nights we were looking forward to getting on the boat and venturing further out into the bay. (As an aside, Tiger Beach is also nearby, but we got kicked off when trying to climb there, as it's privately owned and you must purchase a permit in advance.) Nam Cat was a good place to get over jetlag and enter "vacation mode" without internet/phone distractions (in fact the only electricity is provided by a small generator).

So after two nights on the island, we got picked up by our "junk" boat (that is what they are really called!). When we saw a huge boat approach the dock, we thought it must be a tour boat arriving for a day at the resort. Turns out, it was for us! The boat was insanely massive... way too much for 2 people, but we were not complaining! The food was delicious and plentiful, and our guide, Victor, knew all the climbing locations to take us. One word of warning about Vietnam climbing: unlike Thailand, the local custom is to use regular expansion bolts - the salt air environment corrodes them within a few years, making them unsafe. High caution is needed there... (there is a local book and information available at Asia Outdoors in town). The climbing was quite good as far as limestone sport climbing goes... though there isn't a ton of it (the total # of routes in the Bay is in the hundreds at most, and they are very spread out). The deep water soloing is where Vietnam really shines - we did try it out, but it was a bit too scary and logistically complicated (once our shoes got wet it was really hard to climb; and using the kayaks to access the rock was tricky). If you were really planning to maximize the DWS potential, renting a basket boat and bringing 10 pairs of shoes would make sense!

Of course even ignoring the climbing, Ha Long Bay is completely amazing - thousands of limestone islands spread throughout (3 hours by boat to get to the outer ones), with noone around except for small fishing villages... what a place! We were really amazed at how many of the local fishermen live.. essentially floating houses on styrofoam (do not ask about hygiene).


			Moody Beach where we spent the afternoon


	One side of Moody Beach


	Nam Cat resort


		View from our bungalow


	Barefoot Vietnamese, 6b+


	The steep roof!	Melissa leading the route on the left of the beach


	Beautiful view from the top of the climbs


	Day 1 of our cruise - started off a bit foggy	Huge boat..


	Our boat as seen from the first beach we climbed on		The only route on this beach (6b)


			Victor loved to tilt the camera :)


		The beach contains a little temple


			Victor climbing


	Beautiful solitude in Ha Long Bay...


	This pillar has a bolted route on it (but the bolts are rusted out)	We paddled into this quiet bay hoping to find some monkeys..


		Stick clip successful	Batmanned up the rope


	And now climbing!


	Another route, 6c?


			Trying not to swing into the ocean..


		The stout start


	We got some visitors for a bit	Toproping another climb off the same anchor


		Victor belaying me. Note the long stick clip aka fishing rod necessary!


		More floating houses..


			Polish Tower, has some loose 5.9 route on gear supposedly


		Foggy morning


			We went into this cave..


			Lounging on the boat


		The Face


		Looking up at the routes. 7b and 7b+


	Racking up	Starting up The Face, 7b


		This fishing boat pulled up next to us to watch


	Victor kept telling us to high-five.. we obliged


			Puppy on the boat, cute overload!


			Floating away from the face


	Fishing village	Starting up first deep water solo


		Melissa at the top


	There is DWS here too..	Paddling through a crazy cave


			And another temple!


			The temple has inhabitants!


		Reminded me of someone I knew..


	Ha Long Bay sunset


		Victor about to help us pull our boat onto the rock to climb a couple of routes above


	Looking back at Tiger Beach (where we were kicked out at first)	Lan Ha Bay	Looking down at our boats


		Toproping some 7c?


	Victor climbing


		Afternoon climb we did


	Lunch time	Tiger Beach climbing


	Toproping a diagonal 7b		7a? on the left


		This is a giant 20ft stalactite hanging down - cool!


	Cool pitch out of the cave


	Morning in Cat Ba, the day that we left