Vietnam - March 7 - March 14

We are planning to go climb in the Ho Long Bay/Cat Ba Island area of Vietnam March 7 to March 14. Anyone ever been and have thoughts to share on the accommodations or climbing?

If anyone wants to join us we'll be in Boulder til January 12, Maimi/Keys/Ft Myers Jan 13-19, and LA area Jan 21 and 22. We'd be happy to meetup and talk about travels.

Cheers!
Ken

Yeah. Ha Long bay is overrated. I thought it was nice, the deep water soloing was great. But unless you have a bunch of cash to throw around, as in rent a boat the whole time your there, it's just a touch away from being great. I was planning on staying there for a month, we stayed for a week and were fine with leaving.

There is some climbing on cat ba island. About a 15 minute scooter ride out of town. When I was there 2 years ago, they were charging 5 dollars a day to climb there. The climbing was good, but there was only like 20 routes. So we climbed it out in a couple days.

Push on to Yangshuo and spend more time there. Yangshuo is amazing.

Yeah I had heard the hype at first too and thought we would be there longer but luckily I was able to get the guidebook from Chessler and realize there isn't that much roped climbing but seems like a real fun place for about 4 days of climbing and 1-2 days of deep water soloing.

How were the accommodation and language barrier? I only speak English.

I think you are refering to Butterfly Valley which looked like it has about 2 days of climbing. Did you do any roped climbing at any other spots on Cat Ba?

Hey Ken,

I was in Vietnam 1.5 years ago with my wife and mother-in-law. Climbing wasn't the main focus of our trip, but we did swing by Ha Long Bay for a few days. Since I wasn't there very long, I can't comment on the total amount of climbing, but the place is extremely beautiful and the deep water soloing was very fun.

The people are very friendly in general, and the accomodations are CHEAP! After traveling around Vietnam for one month, we had more money in our bank accounts when we got home then we would have if we hadn't gone.

Hotels ranged from $5-$8 dollars per night. This wasn't for a luxury place, you got 4 walls, a bed with clean sheets, AC (highly recommended, Vietnam is HOT), and a bathroom (some were private, some shared). The place in Ha Long Bay had a balcony with an awesome view of the bay. There is no need to book ahead of time, just start checking out hotels when you get there. It's normal there to ask to see the room before you commit to staying there. Don't be afraid to walk out and check the next hotel if the one you're looking at seems run down. There are a lot of hotels in Ha Long Bay.

Food was delicious and cheap. Informal restaurants seemed to charge between 50 cents and a buck(16,000 dong when we were there) for a meal. The food served was typically one of several different kinds of soup (pho, bun, and chao were the most common, all were delicious with lots of noodles, fresh veggies, meat, and delicious spices). If you go to one of the "expensive" seafood restaurants in Ha Long Bay, I think I remember paying $5 a plate or something, but it was the freshest seafood you can get. They basically have live fish swimming around in little plastic kiddie pools, and you pick out the one you want them to cook. Fresh fruit is everywhere and, once again, cheap! Lychies were probably the most common, but we saw all kinds of fruit we've never seen before, try it all (even the infamous durian if you have the courage)! The cheapest deal we found on Lychies was 2000d for one kilo, or about 5cents per pound, although we did pay as much as double that in some places. All of the food is so local and fresh. If you eat chicken for dinner, odds are that chicken didn't come from a factory, but that it was running around the yard that morning. There are also several "to go" items you can find. These are generally wrapped in banana leaves and tend to be tastey. The problem (or fun) is that if you don't speak the language there's no way to know what's inside until you eat it, surprise!

Regarding Language, I had the advantage of traveling with my wife and mother-in-law, who speak Vietnamese. By the end of the trip I had picked up enough to be able to successfully bargain with people on my own, but I noticed that they definitely charge white people more than Vietnamese, so maybe it wouldn't have been quite as cheap traveling on my own. That said, even if the prices were double it would still be insanely cheap compared to US prices.

A couple fraises to know (not even close to spelled right, spelled phonetically, I don't know how they are really spelled, and you'll need to practice with a native speaker to get the pronunciation right):

Neow: Let's Drink!
Yo: Cheers!
Jem Fung Jem: Bottoms Up! (Literally 100%)
Bia Hoi: Draft Beer (beware! the "o" in hoi is almost silent, if you pronounce it how it looks you'll actually call their beer "stinky")
Bow Nu: How much does it cost? (literally how much?)
Duc: No
Cowm Duc: No way!

Most of all have fun! Vietnam is a beautiful country!
Cheers,
Cory

Cory wrote:A couple fraises to know (not even close to spelled right, spelled phonetically, I don't know how they are really spelled, and you'll need to practice with a native speaker to get the pronunciation right): Neow: Let's Drink! Yo: Cheers! Jem Fung Jem: Bottoms Up! (Literally 100%) Bia Hoi: Draft Beer (beware! the "o" in hoi is almost silent, if you pronounce it how it looks you'll actually call their beer "stinky") Bow Nu: How much does it cost? (literally how much?) Duc: No Cowm Duc: No way!

I'll give him $20 for each word he's able to pronounce correctly without hearing someone say it.

Ryan Kelly wrote: I'll give him $20 for each word he's able to pronounce correctly without hearing someone say it.

Haha, probably a safe bet even if he does get to hear someone say it first :)

We went there in November 2010 for 3 weeks but stayed in Cat Ba for only 4 days but would go back. We only climbed at the cliff with the war bunker, Moon something cliff?? You have to take a kayak or boat to the tiny beach. The 5 routes were fun up to mid 10s on sharp stone, secluded and relaxing. There are other cliffs around but i never had th ebook, but go to Slo Pony Adventures to get loads of info. It is located above a resturant across from the Cat Ba boat welcoming archway in the center of town. We hired a junk for 3 nights(best part of our trip) and floated around south end of ha Long which we thought was much nicer than the northern end. slept in cabin, ate like kings, kayaked through fishing villages, climbed for like $160 each total!...but i could be a bit wrong on the price.
This resturant below Slo Pony is THE climber hangout so easy to get info, they make great pizza too. a number of people went to the $5 day cliff in the jungle, we got real sick so we had to abandon our DWSolo trip we booked - good luck doing this on your own -but it looks like much more fun than the actual roped climbing, as it is so spread out over massive amount of the Bay, so you will need a boat and some good beta. Hotels along teh main drag in November were about $9 US per night, very simple. I would never go back to Vietnam without bringing a theremarest or similiar as the beds are just like styrofoam with a sheet so very very hard and uncomfy, and also bring your own pillowcase you will thank me!
We were on a honeymoon so climbing was not our main focus, so we just brought our shoes and harness and belay device as we did not want to carry ropes/draws the rest of the trip. Slo Pony rented them to us for like $6 for a day, so totally worth it.
PM me for any othe rinfo if you'd like.
have fun
Nobody speaks english at all, not like Thailand.