The walls the walls and the French

Climbing climbing climbing yep, up early and headed out for Breakfast, 9am I was to meet at the climbing shop and then we would be off for the morning, I was ready for breakfast 1 hour before and had ordered as soon as I arrived, time ticket by, now I know Asians have a totally different clock to everyone else and it works a lot slower than a normal clock, but I had been waiting for over half an hour and still no food. Time was ticking away. Finally I had had enough and asked where was breakfast was, the girl who had taken my order looked at me as though she had never seen me before the a spark lit up her face and she goes, “Muesli fruit yogurt” well done were the hell is it, she turns and walks off, and does not bother to come back, its now close to 9am, finally at 5 minutes to 9 she brings my breakfast and looks at me as though I should not have had a problem, So at Ya ya resort waiting one hour for food is normal. Great. Get there before you are hungry and order then by the time you get your food, you might feel like eating it, chances are you will feel like something else by then.
Back to the climbing
There was four of us heading out climbing, 2 French guys a kiwi girl and myself with our guild Nong, the tide was in so we had to head to the inland cliffs to climb, not I was the only one in the group who had climbed before so had to head up the wall first. The first climb was about 20meters the rock is pretty good to climb on and offers hand holds, easy rock to climb on, which I have to say was quite nice to start out on. Tania the Kiwi girl was next and she had a great time going up the wall but did make a lot of noise, fear is such a wonderful thing, it fact I did not think she would go up again, but when she finally got back down she had a big smile on her face. Must have had fun.
Then one of the French guys climbed, it was his first climb as well and he made it up not to bad for a first timer, when he came down though he was nothing but complaining, our guide Nong was belaying him and he was just complain complain complain, the rope was not tight enough, Nong was not watching enough, he had not told him were to go what to do, on and on it went, I ended up jumping in and helping Nong out and explaining to the French guy why he was not looking all the time and finally I got him to understand but it did take a while.
We only managed to do three climbs in the morning and I was not really that impressed with how many we did, Nong was really cool, the French guy was still complaining and asking how much to do the rest of the day, our guide keep saying 800baht to them then when we were walking back he said to me if I wanted to do the rest of the day I could do it for 500baht, which sounded pretty good to me so I booked in for the afternoon.
After a very yummy chicken soup for lunch we headed off again but this time we were climbing in the harbor area, we had to wait for the tide to go out a bit before we could climb. We had lost the French and gained a German couple. I belayed while our Nong went up and set up the first climb, it was about 25 meters and gave great views out over the bay, I had Tania belaying me so as I do when I am being belayed by someone new I jumped off the rock to make sure they are ok with how everything works, the rope had a little more stretch then I thought, I was maybe two to three meters off the ground and made it right back down, luckily with the rope stretch softened my landing, but I must have had a bit of a shocked look on my face because Nong asked me if I was alright, yep no problems, I managed to do the climb with no problems but the top 5 meters were pretty tricky but I struggled through.
The rest climbed it at different rates of speed and some with a lot of encouragement from Nong, we had set up another climb and I whipped up that pretty quick, it was a easy climb with lots of ledges to sit on and rest not that I really needed to so just bounded up the rock. We set another climb up which started up a stalactite and carried on up that for 15 meters of so then finished with a bit flatish rock at the end. It was a really good climb the hardest part was the start but the rest was really nice with good moves and nice hand holds. The last climb of the day I was going to lead up, had to remember how to lead climb and what to do at the top, managed the climb fairly easily but half way I got a bit of cramp in my hands it was about time to call it quits for the day, I managed to get up the rest of the climb, when I made it to the top I got set up and changed the rope over I had unclicked the quick draw holding me to the wall and then because my fingers were tired I dropped it. Luckily it missed everyone and dropped to the floor.
So that was all for me that day, my hands were tired but the rest of me was in good health. We headed back and Tania headed off on the boat as she was staying in Ao Nang, me and the Germans stopped for a drink and chatted for an hour, then I headed off for a shower and so did they, we were going to meet up for dinner. By the time I got back for dinner I was starving so made my order, I was lucky there was a crowd of people after me. I sat down the then the Germans arrived and ordered their dinner, mine came within about 45 minutes so not too bad it was over an hour and a half before the Germans dinner came, by that time I had ordered a Banana Pancake and eaten that, lets just say they were not impressed.
What was funny was when we were working out the bill and who paid what I was taking it apart and all of a sudden there were three of them around me looking at me as though I had just killed there first born child, it was unbelievable. Makes some of the restaurants in Auckland look good really. It is one thing the Asians really have not got down yet on a whole is customer service. One day maybe one day.

A day to do nothing and a bus ride

Had a day to waste in Ko san road, what do you do in Ko san road, shopping, well for me it was window shopping, just seeing how much they will sell things for, I had booked myself on a overnight bus to Krabi then would find a boat to Raileh beach and some long awaited beach time. Spent most of the day wandering the shops with Elizabeth and the she left about 1pm so I read my book and got on the internet for the afternoon. There was not much else to do. The bus was said to leave around 6pm so I had time.
Finally 6pm came around, I had grabbed some dinner and had some snacks for the bus ride, 13 hours so much fun. Got picked up at my hotel, by saying picked up someone came and got me and we walked to the bus together, it was pretty empty so hopefully I would have two seats to myself, and luckily that’s the way it was. When after maybe 30minutes we finally started to head off, we were doing so in the wrong direction, heading north not south, I had the moment of my god I am on the wrong bus and am heading up to Chang mai, O well it will be an adventure anyway.
We progressively worked our way through town and finally after about an hour we were heading south, so not for the hills but the ocean, excellent. Darkness had descended and the bus had picked up speed, then all of a sudden the brakes were hard on and we were slowing up pretty quick, It was really weird we headed passed a crash but no one was helping the person who was injured they were just standing around watching, doing nothing, this person was in the middle of a 3 lane road and no one went out to help, it seemed a bit fucked up to me, I don’t know what the rules are here, but that is just messed up.
Our bus swung passed and then we were away and back up to speed in no time. The night slowly wore on and our bus rumbled south, sleep came and went as if I was in a dream, sometimes I would look at the time and In would have been asleep for an hour other times just a few minutes, the night seemed to blur, the finally pulled up at a food stall and everyone was woken up not by the driver but one of the food venders shouting us awake so he could make money on his overpriced food and drink, thanks mate for that I went and brought some food off his competition. That’ll show him.
After a half hour break it was back on the bus and off again, I ended up reading my book and finishing that off, by the time I had finished it was getting close to 3am, I was just starting to feel tired again, time again started to blur between awake and asleep, drifting in and out each time hoping that this would be the last time I would wake and we would be there to Krabi, the long awaited krabi. It was not to be at 6am after some broken sleep, we stopped to meet up with the ferry bring passengers from Ko Samui and the Islands of the East coast, then it would be back in the bus for a few more hours.
The only thing that was good about the stop was it gave me time to stretch and get my legs moving again. The bus drive curled up in a little compartment to snatch a couple of hours sleep, I think he had the better deal than us, at least he could lie down. Finally after a two hour wait we were back in the bus and off again, we stopped a hundred or so meters down the road to pick up more passengers, I had paid for the direct bus and here we were stopping all the time. You really get what you pay for in Asia, NOT.
Finally after 16 hours I arrived at Krabi and well there an’t much there so I booked a boat over to Rail eh beach, most of the others on the boat were off to Ko Phi Phi, maybe next time if there is one. The boat trip to Raileh was nice, the weather was good and the water was calm, I could hear it calling my name as the boat plowed through the waves, or that could have been one of my other personalities, but any way something was telling me that I needed to go for a swim.
I arrived and found accommodation and headed straight for the beach and a swim, WARM water, some people say they don’t like it because it feels like you’re in a luck warm bath, but I love it, I can spend hours out there and not get cold. After 3 hours I finally dragged myself out and headed back for a shower and some food, I had decided to go Rock climbing for half a day the next day see what it was like, this is supposed to be the rock climbing Mecca of Thailand and I was in the heart of it. It would be interesting as I have not climbed for some time.

Relaxing movies and a flight

I would have a day relaxing before my flight to Bangkok and beach time, the bike was packed and ready to go the taxi was arranged, all was sweet. Had a lazy breakfast and then headed out to the movies, G.I Joe was on the cards, it was good but not great but it gave me something to do for a while and it was cool at the movie theater. The day was pretty hot and when I arrived back from the movies I was to find a load of people In my room fixing the aircon, luckily they were not there for that long and I soon had my room to myself and could relax and watch a bit of tv. That was pretty much my day, movies, Tv and some reading.
Flights
I was up and ready to go at 6:30am, we loaded the bike into the back of the car and then headed off to the airport, for a start I was wondering where we were going as we were on back streets and going this way and that, just had to trust the driver knew where we were going, he did not speak English so there was no conversation, just a drive through the waking city of Hanoi. Our to speed would be 70km an hour which with the roads and traffic I was pretty happy about. After 15 minutes of driving through the old city we were out on the main road, which was busy with cars and bikes going every which way, it is really hard to understand the road rules, like in most of Asia give was to anything bigger then you.
After another 15 minutes or so we finally hit what you could call a highway and the road out to the airport, I was watching the traffic and the time , time seemed to be moving faster than the traffic and I was wondering if I would get there on time. With 5km to go the driver pulled off for some gas, I wanted to get to the airport early as I knew there would be things to sort out with my bike, I had a feeling it was not going to be easy. That’s one thing about riding a bike around the country it never is easy when you have to transport them, good while you’re riding but difficult when you’re not.
We arrived 2 hours before the flight was to leave and there was a nice cue at the check in, the line seemed to move at snails pace, in fact I think a snail would have been faster. Luckily to pass the time I found conversation with a Scottish guy who has lived in Thailand for the last 20 years and was in Vietnam on Business, have to say he did not really have much good to say about northern Vietnam, the south he seemed to like. It helped pass the time.
Will I had arrived 2 hours before the flight and it took over an hour to move 20 meters to the head of the cue. I was allowed 15kg with my bag and 15kg for the bike, my bag weighed 8.9km and the bike weighed 22kg but for some reason they would not let me transfer some of the weight of the bike on to my bag and let me pay the difference so I had to pay 7kg of excess luggage, $55US so will get hit with this twice more, the things you have to put up with.
I asked if I could pay by Visa but there machine was not working so had to head off to a ATM to get some money, by the time all this had happened I had 20 minutes to get through emigration and get to the gate, emigration was a problem because I had lost my declaration card, so had to fill out another one which in the end they did not take any way so it was a complete and utter waste of my time, great thanks very much, that finally done I had 10minutes to go before the flight was scheduled to leave. Should I have worried about being late, not really, we ended up loading about 10 minute late anyway.
While I waited for the plane to start loading I sat down beside some guy who had remembered me from riding out of Halong bay, so we had a conversation about my trip and I scored a big bar of chocolate off him and his wife because they did not really like it, which was sweet because I had not had any breakfast so was pretty hungry.
The plane ride was just a plane ride, we were not really in the air that long at all before we were back down to land, the flight from NZ at Aus is way longer. Thai immigration was efficient as always and it was no time at all that I was through and waiting for my bag and bike to come through, the bag was pretty quick but the bike took a bit longer, when it finally did arrive the box looked like it had already had a hard life, hopefully the bike inside will be alright. I left the bike at left luggage which they x-rayed it before I could leave it then headed off to catch the bus to Ko San road, I’m back.
Returning to Ko San is like returning home, you know where everything is that you need and well it does not really change much at all. I chatted with a Scottish girl on the bus and so we ended up hanging out together for the rest of the day chatting as you do about places you have been and things like that. I gave her a few pointers for Vietnam which she was heading to in a month or so. She was another one from the UK who had made it to Aus but not over the ditch, Why do they do that..

Packing the trailer packing the bike

After my sleep in I was feeling much better, had to pack the trailer and bike up ready for home, the trailer and a few things would go by sea mail and I would hopefully get that back in 3 or so months time the bike would come with me on the plane back home. After some breakfast and Jimmy trying to explain that this was the tour I had booked which when he first explained it was completely different to what he was saying now I was kinda over it and could not be arsed with him anymore. If you are thinking about coming to Halong bay, make your own way to Cat ba island and book a night on the boat from there.
I headed off in search of a box for the trailer first and after sometime found one they might be suitable, on returning to the hotel I found it was not suitable at all, so I packed up the trailer and tied everything to it that was going home by sea and headed to the post office hoping they would be able to wrap it up for me, and yes they could alright that’s one less hassle, the weight of it came to 11.8km which I have to say at least 2kg of that was cardboard box that the lady had wrapped it in, it should be safe.
Once that was done I headed off looking for a box for the bike, found a couple of places but what they wanted for a box was crazy, so I just had to carry on and hope to find something, after getting myself lost in the streets of old town I finally found someone who was willing to sell me a Flat screen TV box which I hoped would fit the bike. In the end being lost was not so bad as I ended up only being a couple of streets away from my hotel. Spent the rest of the afternoon packing the bike away for the trip home.

Final boat ride and final 50km to 5003km got the 5000..

It was a early-ish wake up and breakfast and then a wait for the bus to arrive to pick us up and take us back to the boat for the trip home, when the bus finally arrived about an hour late, we were packed in like sardines and then off as if we were racing in the Formula 1, speeding through the small villages on skinny roads through the mountainous valleys of Cat Ba island. In no time at all we arrived and were taken down to the boat it was good to see it still had a list to one side. The boat headed out into the bay and we cruised through the majestic islands of Halong, it was a very beautiful ride back, when we finally burst out onto the open area of the bay we joined the armada of boats heading back to Halong City.
Our boat pulled up and we all unloaded and headed to the restaurant for our lunch, I shot off to grab my bike which was still at the hotel where I left it. Once I had my bike and it was back together I headed over for lunch, I was still not feeling great my cold was manifesting itself nicely I was only hoping I could do the ride and today and make it to Hai Phong and then head back to Hanoi the next day. I jumped on the bike and headed away and out of Halong city, the road seemed to disappear beneath me and I had soon cover 20km in less the one hour which with the way I was feeling should not be happening, then I realized the head wind that I had had to fight through on the way to Halong was now a tail wind speeding me along.
I made it to the turn off before any of the tourist buses from Halong had passed me, the road I turned onto was very quiet and was the perfect road of rolling hills. I soon came to the village of Rai Phong were I would catch a boat across the river. The lady at the counter took ages to serve me, I ended up gabbering to her about my day and only then did she sort out my ticket, must have board her. I pulled over and grabbed a coke from one stall and the lady from the stall behind got shirty because the trailer was just in front of her stall, and I mean of the 2 meter front of her stall my trailer took up maybe half a meter so to shut her up I reversed back passed her stall and made it so people trying to get to here stall would now have to walk right around me. With feeling sick and the not so good boat trip I was feeling let down by northern Vietnam, It could have been I now had resided to the fact that I would be heading home soon as well.
The ferry finally came and we all drove on and slowly made our way across the river to the other side, this is the heavy industry of Vietnam, massive ships up on dry dock and others having things replaced or taken apart. Cement factories lined the river bank and a new power station was in the process of being built. The road on the other side was filled with cars, bikes and trucks, I carried on through and after 16km finally made it to the bridge to Hai Phong, thank god. With my predicted milage this should be the 5000km mark, sweet, I had made it, got to that little point, for me this is what the last few weeks had been about hitting the 5000km and I had made it, done, finished I can leave and know that well I had made it, made it made it made it yippy yea baby, right time to find a bus, because I was feeling like crap I just wanted to be somewhere familiar.
I tried waving down a couple of buses but no luck there so had to ride into town to the bus stop, found a buses going to Hanoi and the driver was keen to take me but the conductor was not, he was a right arse would not help me at all, finally someone else took me around to another bus and we loaded the bike into that one. So there was the 3 km the ride to the bus station, I sure I have done a lot more kms then 5000, but it is 5003 map km done in 5 months over 6 countries, I will reflect on this later.
I talked to an American guy on the way back to Hanoi and he said it is not worth staying in Hai Phong at all so it seems my decision to head back to Hanoi was a good one. Managed to find a room for the night and after some dinner passed out for the night and did not get up until after 9am which for me these days is a really good sleep in.

Grumpy and a sight to behold

Grumpy was in even a worse mood as he had gotten drunk last night on the boat next door, great how much fun would he make the day now, we were off to Cat ba island and a hike up a hill with a beautiful view. Had not had that great a sleep the night before our cabin was musty and damp which did not help and I had a rattle by my head, I did manage to stop this with the fake plant that was in the room.
Breakfast was served as the boat left it’s mooring and headed away, the day was overcased and was threatening to rain, so a bush walk would be a great way to spend the afternoon, we left Ralf on another boat as he was only on a two day trip not the three. When we arrived at Cat ba the wharf was in disarray it had started raining and was not looking so good, now my enthusiasm was really picking up, not. After a bit of a wait around we loaded up on the bus and headed inland for a bit. By the time we arrived at the trekking spot it had stopped raining so we all jumped out and headed into the hills, for a start it was just a cement walking track up a hill then the real bush walking started. Mud was the order of the day and soon entertainment was all around with people falling over everywhere, have to say here I did not really think it was that bad but a lot of people were walking in flip flops, dumb arses.
One girl was having trouble so I offered to put her coat in my bag so she could use both hands, it was only later that she told me it had all her money and everything in, bugger could have had some spending money for Thailand. The walk up eventuated in a bit of a climb which lots of people struggled with, I bounded up like a mountain goat, jumping from one rock to the other it was a bit of fun. When we finally broke through the trees it was to be greeted by cloud covered hills, spikes of rock tearing up out of the ground, it was a majestic view that was well worth the climb and the hundred thousand or so mosquitoes that hounded our progress throughout the climb.
There was a tower at the top which I scaled, 5 people max and when I got to the top there were about 10 and a few going up and down, the stairs up wound be enough to put a shiver up most peoples spines, not that there hard to climb it all the rust that is around every joint and the wooden boards up on the viewing platform at the top was just as bad. I took some photo’s and headed back down to the safety of terraferma. The walk down was about as exciting as a root canal, I was stuck in the slowest group ever with no way of getting past without pushing people off the track. At the bottom we washed all the mud off in a fresh water spring and waiting for the French again we headed back to the bus for the next part of our trip.
The Hotel, well it was not your 3 star hotel that I had paid for but it was passable, I managed to get some washing done after I had had some lunch. Then headed off towards the beach and the sea. Cat ba has 3 beaches that you can go to all within walking distance from the town center, I had heard beach two was the one to go to so headed there. I had meet a couple of pommie lads at lunch and they wandered down not to long after I had arrived and was out in the water. We chatted most of the afternoon while enjoying the water, I headed out when my fingers started to look old and then headed back to the hotel for a shower and some food. Ate with the pommie guys then headed out with them to a club around the corner for a few drinks. Meet up with the girl who’s jacket I had carried up the hill and a few of her friends. It was a pretty good place we got loads of free shots and at about 11pm I decided it was time for me to go as I still had a ride to do the next day.
The walk home was nice enough until I wondered past the local Knock shop (prostitutes) were I was leapt on by one of the local girls, she was fairly insistent and would not let me walk away and kept trying to drag me back to the Knock shop, I said no and tried to break free, tried really hard, then when she would still not let me go I picked her up and carried her off down the road to which she finally decide to let me carry on my way. When I arrived back at the hotel one of our guides(not Grumpy) was drinking out the front with some of the guys from the hotel, I was invited to stop and have a drink with them, rice wine yummy. I only had a couple of very small sips and chatted with them for a while then finally about 1am went to bed.

Yippy Halong Bay here I come finally

Had breakfast, chilled out had some time to kill before I headed to the restaurant again and hopefully the boat this time, 12pm came and started to go, and I started getting a bit antsy, had the tour guides number so sent him a text to say I am at the restaurant and wait all I got back was OK, no I’ll be there in 15 minutes or anything like that just Ok, so I waited and waited and then sent another text it was now 12:20 and I was a little agitated waiting around, I sent a text to ask to if they would be here soon and all I got back was Yes, but how #@$%$#$ long will you be you stupid $%^^$% .
So I just sat there, waiting finally got the call that he was wondering where I was, I’m sitting in the restaurant you arse, so finally meet up with him and headed to the boat. We had another guide who was in charge and he was a right gumpy shit, my god what a arse. At least I was going to get on the boat, we went through the formalities and finally made it to the boat and sat down for lunch which was not half bad at all, so things were looking up.
After lunch we headed out onto the bay and finally after waiting two days I would get my chance to see Halong bay and all the islands that make it so fantastic. Our boat moved off with an armada of other boats. The islands stood before me, it was grand, on a grand scale, A true wonder of the world. The islands sprout from the water shooting up towards the heavens it is a sight to behold, even with the 600 or so other boats out there it was still stunning. As we worked our way across the harbor towards these sentinels of the sea the air cooled and you could feel that rain was coming. I was on top of the and watched as the wall of water made it’s way across the bay towards us finally hitting with a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder. I escaped down stairs and watched as the islands disappeared behind the wall of water.
Luckily it only rained for an hour and then cleared as we arrived at our first stop some kayaking around these majestic giants. Grumpy my new name for our guide herded us towards the boats, ours were the worst there, could tell we were getting the short end of the stick, some of them looked like there could be a possibility that they might sink, we all had to read the agreement that said we would pay 12 times the amount that there worth if they sink, it would not be our fault but we would have to pay.
I was teamed up with a French guy who at paddling was as useless as tits on a bull, how can someone be that uncoordinated, yep worse then you curly, it fact he would make you look like a ball room dancer. Paddle paddle stop paddle stop paddle by the end I wanted to smack him over the head with the paddle and do it myself. We made it back to the boat without sinking or losing the paddles and then had to wait for 3 other guys to come back who had gone somewhere completely different to the rest of us, I think they wanted to get away from grumpy who by now because we had to wait for them was in a right mood.
After the little exploration on the Kayaks we moved the boat to it’s mooring for the night and were able to go for a swim in the milky green waters of Halong bay, the water was nice and it was good to go for a swim. Dinner was served later and was as good as lunch, the French were all talking frenchy so me a Rulf the german guy headed to the roof, next door karaoke had started and we had great fears this would go on all night. I was not really in the mood to join them as most of our crew did. It was a peaceful night besides the karaoke and it was quite pretty with all the boats on the bay with their lights on.