I think my eyes opened at 6:30 AM this morning. After the fantastic massage the night before we were both tuckered out from the day. Sleep came easy. After writing the blog of course. Although I had to switch over to writing it in OneNote instead because of where we are. We are floating in the ocean off the coast of Vietnam and the connectivity is spotty at best. The locals have noted that since it became a UNESCO World Heritage site, they cannot build cell towers to support the loads and loads of tourists on boats that are out here. Although being disconnected isn't all that bad. I don't mind not having the distractions.
Since I showered the night before I got up, got dressed (in the clothes I had on during the day yesterday) and gave my face a wash in the sink. 7:00 AM was a Tai Chi class, and I decided that I wanted to take part. I practiced Karate for about 6 years, so I figured it would be similar. It is, a little. I also realized how much I have forgotten/lost since I stopped doing it. It was a fun way to start the day. Now I can say that I've done a little Tai Chi. Laureen followed me up, sat near the bar and sipped a coffee while taking the odd picture and short video of the who thing. I'm hesitant to include that here - but for the sake of the vacation record, I will.
[Tai Chi Video/Photos]
Breakfast started right after the 30 minute Tai Chi session and we enjoyed the buffet breakfast and egg station. An omelette was on the menu for both of us this morning as well as a bunch of fresh fruit and the usual morning pastry items. I tried a half of a cup of coffee and found it to be not too bad.
The first item on the list of things to do was a hike on Cat Ba island. They warned us that it was about 2000 steps up the hill to give you a nice view of the valleys, but not the ocean; we would not be high enough. Laureen decided that she was going to stay on the cruise boat, pull out her cross stitch and find a nice deck chair. In hind sight, that was a good call on her part. I jumped into the tender boat with the others and we made our way to Cat Ba. Once there we had a van and car (because of the size of our group) take us to the starting point for the walk. Joy noted that there is an easy way, and a hard way. A couple of the group went the easy way, but the rest took the hard way.
The start of the more difficult way was through a limestone cave which also has a few types of bats. The cave had a number of places that were quite low, so to get through I had to squat down and squeeze under. If I recall correctly, there was about 3 or 4 areas like that. Other than that it was interesting to see the formations of limestone over the years and even some tree roots that were sticking through the ceiling of the cave. It was well light too, which made it easier to make your way through it.
[CAVE PICTURES]
Once we made it through the cave, we started at the foot of the hill and began to make our way up. This would turn out to be a rather challenging climb. There were lot's of steps, 2000ish according to Joy when she described this walk. It felt like more than that.
[STAIR PICTURES]
They were uneven, so you really had to keep your wits about you or you would stumble or fall. There were many places with railings that were helpful to pull yourself up and I would have to say that there were a number of sections that were at an uphill angle of 45 degrees or more. There were also tree's across the path and in some cases you would go over, and other cases you would have to go under. There were also a number of places where there were no stairs, just foot and handholds in the lava rock to help you make your way up. It was a challenging climb. I'm becoming more aware of my age each time I try some thing like this. There were a number of times that I stopped to catch my breath. Dave and I (Dave and Susan are a retired couple that are part of the 20 people on board the cruise, from Colorado). They are in their 70's but you could never tell. Susan made it look easy, while I'm sweating an panting to catch my breath. I guess it's time to adjust the home workouts if I want to keep doing this stuff into my later years.
After about 40 minutes of what seemed like climbing straight up, we reached the tower that we could climb to get the valley view. There was also a fantastic breeze up there which made up for what felt like rainforest conditions as we made our accent. I was drenched. Snow was melting out of my pores at a rate that I have not seen before. But, what a view it was.
[PICTURES FROM THE TOP]
Next we had to come down! The first part was so steep that you really had to take your time.
[START OF DOWN PICS]
I didn't take any photo's on the way down, as I was busy concentrating on the steps I had to make. We took a slightly different path on the way down, so there were times when we started going up again. I thought that was weird and my legs were feeling it. I'm going to be sore tonight (Since I'm writing this well after, let me confirm that I AM sore tonight - and sore in another location for a different reason - but for that just keep reading). I'm going to need a Tylenol (or 4) before going to sleep tonight. I should have booked my massage for today instead of yesterday. Once we reached the bottom we stopped for a cold drink and just recovered a little from the event. I took a photograph of the map at the start of the climb.
[CLIMB MAP]
After this, we all hopped back into our car and van and made our way back to the wharf. This place is so beautiful
[Wharf PICTURES]
We were tendered back to the boat and I made my way back to our cabin where I found Laureen working on her cross stitch. I guess it started to rain a bit while she was on the top deck, so she came back to the room and just set up there. I confirmed her choice NOT to have done that one as she would have never been able to do those stairs (man - I was barely able to do them - but then again - that's not saying much).
We headed upstairs for lunch and were treated to that same multicourse meal that we have become accustomed to. The food on this cruise was second to nothing I've ever had before. Every plate was not only an amazing aroma and taste, but a work of art.
After lunch we had some time before the sea kayaking excursion. Both Laureen and I wanted to do this one, so we were in the lobby a little early. I think only one couple of the 20 didn't come on this. We boarded a tender and it took us to a floating dock where the sea kayak's were waiting. They sized us up and helped us into the kayak. Laureen and I each had our own kayak, I guess because of our size. There were two routes to travel, one was the longer way, the other was shorter. The group divided up into their preference. Laureen chose the short way, and I chose the long way. Maybe I should have re-thought that given that I have never sea kayaked before. I immediately started to feel the tension in my hips. I'm just not used to sitting like that - at all.
We started out and I was trying to get into a more comfortable position, but could not find one. I even tried sitting up a little higher, which of course, makes you less stable. I wish there was a back rest on this thing, that would have made quite a bit of difference. The other complicating factor here was that we were close to low tide, so the water was quite shallow in places. Very shallow actually. I got stuck about 6 times along the way, and we even had to turn around and go a different route because the one they wanted to take, was even too shallow for the small people (if they were hitting ground - I'd be beached.
We turned around and took another route which brought us to the backside of the original beach that we were going to. Once there, we portaged about 30 meters to where the beach towels, drinks and fruit were waiting for us. That was not a pleasant experience. Whatever those muscles are in my hips, they were begging for mercy. I was going to be sore. Add to that the rather strong leg day we had in the morning, and well, Tylenol was going to be on the late night menu.
While at this secluded beach, I looked down at my foot and noticed some red. I slid my foot back a little and there was quite a bit of red. I must have cut my foot on the rock getting out of the kayak. Dave saw it and said I should probably go rinse it in the salt water. So I walked over and dipped my feet into the ocean and you could see the small cloud of red. Immediately I thought, 'blood in the water'. Maybe that was not such a good idea after all. Lol. The staff saw me and came over to see what was going on. Then there was a bit of a flurry of activity as they grabbed the medical kit they brough with them and then were looking at the bottom of my foot. There were three cuts, only one was really deep enough to be bleeding. They cleaned it up, and bandaged it for me. I guess today I'M that passenger. Sigh.
I had the idea to portage my kayak from the other side of the beach to this side and then take the short way back, but Joy just indicated I could take one of the staff ones on this side and the staff would take mine back. That sounded like a good deal. However, what I did not realize was that there were not really enough kayaks to do that, so I ended up with Sam and only on paddle. Yes, I was 'chauffeured' back to the boat. Had I known that service was available, I would have booked it from the start.
[PICTURES]
We got back to the raft and disembarked from the kayak. Not sure I'll do that again. The rest of our group made it back and we boarded the tender to make our way back to our boat. They stopped just short of the boat and offered people the opportunity to jump off into the water and swim around a little before climbing the ladder they placed off the side, into the boat. 5 or 6 decided to do it. I had enough opportunity to be the problem passenger today, so I decided against it.
We went back to our room, dropped a few things off, and made our way to the top deck where there was a hot tub. It was nice to just sit in there and enjoy the warm. Dave and Susan came in as well and we spent some time chatting with them. Laureen and I were the last ones out of the hot tub and we went down to the room where I had a quick shower to clean off from the rather taxing day we had. The morning was legs, the afternoon was upper body (well mid body). Did I sign up for this exercise routine?
After the shower, Laureen had a look at my foot and could see the three cuts, put some antiseptic stuff on it, and then a new band aid. Should be good. I then sat down and started to write some blog items before it was time for dinner.
We made our way to the dining room a few minutes early and order a drink. There were a number of couples already there having a beverage and just chatting. We struck up a conversation with another couple, that own a marketing company of about 60 people near London, UK. It sounded like the husband, James, at one point lead the organization, but now his wife (oddly- we did not get her name) was now the CEO and he had stepped back. It also sounded like they were getting close to potentially selling the business to an American firm. I'm pretty sure he was wearing an Omega Speedmaster, but I didn't get a good enough look at it.
We went over to our table and sat down for dinner as it was about 5 minutes past when they normally started serving it. Shortly thereafter, one of the staff announced that it was time for dinner. People were busy catching up on their day and just generally socializing. Dinner was amazing (as usual). Tonight the main course was steak and it went very well with the Chilean Merlot that I chose for the evening. When dinner was over we made our way to our cabin and I started writing more of the blog. I didn't last very long before my eyes were starting to get heavy. Bed time came early as tomorrow we need to pack then be tendered back to the marina. Breakfast would be at 9:30 AM in the morning, and they had one activity scheduled - it was a short tour on the tender around the area; or, you could just go for a swim off the back of the boat. I was planning on that, but then decided against it as packing seems to get harder and harder the longer one is away. I'm sure I've said this before, but dirty clothes are larger - guaranteed. It was off to bed early because it was going to take me an extra 20 minutes to just get into bed because of how sore I was.
Tomorrow will be a long day with a couple of flights. Saying goodbye to Vietnam and we will be saying hello to Thailand.
Curt & Laureen in Lan Ha Bay, Vietnam.
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