Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam is one of the natural wonders of the world. The thousands of jagged karst formations are awe-inspiring, straight out of a painting. The actual bay is supposedly choked with package tour boats and garbage, so we stayed further afield near Cat Ba island, which is mostly nature preserve.
The bay is home to more than ten thousand "boat people", who live on boats and floating houses built on empty plastic drums and blocks of foam. The houses are mostly fish farms and pearl farms. Some even have dogs and cats!
The bay is best appreciated by boat, so we booked two days of activities with an adventure tour operator. I was on the water more than 24 hours straight, a personal record since I get seasick easily. Luckily the waters near Cat Ba are mostly pretty calm.
We started with rock climbing on the karst cliff faces. Normal top-rope belayed climbing, nothing crazy. They also offer more intense deep water solo climbing: your boat sticks you on a rock face where the water is safely deep enough. No harness or any equipment, just you and the rock, and when you're done you jump into the sea. On our list for next time.
We stayed the night on the boat with just the crew and two other travelers, sleeping on the roof under the stars. Bioluminescent algae live in the waters (they glow when agitated), so once the sun set we went swimming and made glowing algae angels. We also did some night kayaking by the light of the squid fishers, doing our best to avoid fishing lines or aggravating the houseboat dogs.
The whole second day was for kayaking. We went to a hidden cove only accessible by ducking under a low arch. At our last stop of the day, an isolated cove, luck was with us and we saw a Cat Ba langur! Cat Ba langurs are extremely endangered, only an estimated 60 of them live in the wild.
-Peter
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