First Travel Blog Post - Ha Long Bay, Vietnam 1/2/2011

We're our second day into a three day tour of Ha Long Bay and so far in this tour we've had six separate tour guides, boat rides on 3 different boats, tours of caves and floating villages, kayaking, and much more.... for only $85 (and that's the deluxe option!).

Today we arrived by Boat Cruise to Ha Long Bay with a company called 'Asia Cruise' - We came ashore at a small wharf at Cat Ba Archipelago Biosphere Reserve (although the sign says it's a "Blo"sphere... but I'm guessing it's a "Bio"sphere). Fingers and nose are freezing, and conversations within our group of 11 revolve around how to best retain body heat. Despite the unanticapated freezing cold, we're loving Vietnam so far!

In Cat Ba we climbed to the top of a mountain which gave us an incredible view of the archipelego. Josh and a number of others in our group braved the climb to the top of the rikkety man-made viewing tower, but I thought better of it. I was happy enough with the view from the bottom of the top, and thought I was brave enough to climb all the rocks to the top with railings that had rusted away to nothing - literally!  I'm glad we chose to treck rather than cycle.

 This is a picture Josh took of me from the very top of the riketty structure - with zoom.

 ... without zoom.... (yay for our 18-200mm Sigma lens!)

Josh at the top of rikkety structure... with his brave face on!

Later, we arrived at Monkey Island Resort after a couple of hours of trekking in the rain. Amaaaazing! We went to feed monkeys (as you do on "Monkey Island") who were so cute, but pretty scary at the same time - they say not to stare at them, but it's hard to break eye contact when they 50cm away and snarling at you! We survived unscathed and a little more monkey-wise none-the-less. After the monkey feeding we had the option to climb to the top yet another mountain - Josh jumped at the opportunity and without hesitation found his own path to the top, and I, more hesitantly, joined the climb. These rocks were almost metallic, sharp and grippy, so despite my less than perfect balance and dwindling fear of heights, I eventually made it to the top with only a bruise on my knee and a rip in my fisherman's pants! The incredible view from the top, and sense of achievement and freedom, was well worth the challenge, and I think I'm earning the right to lose the reputation of having 'princess feet'!

Josh and Cara with monkeys.

Josh right at the top of the Monkey Island mountain!

I have feelings of virtigo just looking at me standing on the edge of that cliff! It was really worth it though. Such a beautiful view!

A closing image.... one of my favourite sunset shots we caught in Ha Long Bay.
Well that's it for the first post.... I hope that this post was coherent - and that my future posts become a little more poetic and informative!