12-31-10: Happy New Year!

Our plan for welcoming in the new year is to do fun outdoorsy things
today and tomorrow and forget that we are in a small, nothing town,
unlikely to find a dance party or our home friends, my preferred
method of celebrating.

This morning we took a divide and conquer approach to running errands
before our boat left at 9:00a. Robert took a shower and I went to the
market for fruit. I came back with oranges and a quarter of a
jackfruit. Jackfruit! I was so excited when she told me the price; we
were quoted an outrageous sum for Jackfruit in Hanoi, so exorbitant
that we didn't buy any. The goal was just oranges, but I couldn't pass
up the opportunity to finally try to jackfruit. I met Robert for pho
and snuck a little jackfruit while we waited. I was disappointed to
discover that it was horrifically sticky and difficult to separate
from the rind and inedible stringy bits. The taste was interesting
though and I would eat more on the boat. We were so efficient in
getting ready for our day that we had extra time to grab a cup of
fresh coffee before we had to meet at Slo Pony.

First Impressions

Crammed into a small mini-van to be transported to Ben Bao Pier, five
minutes away. Our boat looked similar to the picture of a boat we were
shown! Usually the picture looks nice and the boat is junky (not
Chinese junk junky, just junky), but our boat was nice, even if it
wasn't a Chinese junk. Some fancier tour boats are Chinese junks, but
we didn't see any actually using it's sails - perhaps the sails are
just decorations. Our boat, on the other hand, had two decks: the
bottom deck was an enclosed cabin with bench seating and tables, the
top deck was completely empty and a good place for watching the
scenery pass.

As the boat pulled away from the dock, we were struck by the
promptness of our departure. We were supposed to leave at 9:00a and we
left at 9:05 - a far cry from Lao or Thai departure times!! The next
thing that was cool was the massive floating villages. Only pictures
can do them justice, but there were so many! Shacks, houses, docks,
oyster farms, fishing boats, cement boats, dogs!, and all manner of
other bits of life - all floating, tied together in vast communities.
Around every bend there were more boats and floating houses and oyster
farms. The dogs that made it to the floating villages looked very well
taken care of and defensive too - they all barked if a boat got too
close to their territory. We learned from a guide on board that during
typhoons, they all move further into the karst fields, away from open
ocean as much as possible. The maze of karst dissipates the wind and
storm surges allowing their floaty shanty towns to survive extreme
weather. Some are more shanty than others. We cruised for a while then
we dropped off a group of people to go climb independently on Moody
Beach. We stayed on the boat, which made it's way to a floating kayak
rental/storage place. We got a slew of kayaks and the boat continued
to where we would anchor and be allowed to go explore via kayak.

Kayaking and Lunch and more Kayaking

All the kayaks are two person and fiberglass, all the paddles lacked
splash guards and most had been warped in some form or fashion. We
still enjoyed ourselves immensely. We set out to circumnavigate a
giant karst that was much bigger than we expected, just around the
next bend... We found baskets full of sand sunk in shallow water,
marked with floating coke bottles. Later we learned that they were
growing oysters there and in baskets suspended below floating dock
things. We were able to take the camera with us because they lent us a
dry bag, thanks!

Next we hung on the boat for a while, picked up the climbers and
eventually anchored by Tiger Beach for lunch. Our original seats had
been usurped by other guests, so we joined an older couple from
Argentina. They understood English only if we spoke slowly and simply.
We tried out a few simple phrases in Spanish, but they knew better
than try to respond in Spanish. The man asked us accusingly, "why do
you speak Spanish?" He already knew we were from Texas, and laughed at
himself as I explained Texas's proximity to Mexico. Lunch was
interesting, family style for each four-top table. We got a big bowl
of rice, spring rolls, soy sauce, fried chicken, fried tofu (after the
wife specified she was a vegetarian), watermelon, a potato dish,
sautéed cabbage, boiled eggs, egg omelet slices. It was more than we
could eat, but not overwhelmingly tasty.

After lunch we hung out on the bean bags on the top of the boat. A
larger group of climbers was ferried to their climbing destinations
via basket boats. Basket boats are giant, bathtub-shaped baskets made
from woven bamboo and waterproofed with a tar coating. They are
ubiquitous here, sometimes they have oars, sometimes small motors, and
most have some sort of shade giver strung over two hooped poles. This
one had a wooden deck, very fancy for a basket boat. After they left,
our boat departed for a slightly different section of the bay, but our
sharp eyes recognized the same karst from earlier - no worries though,
it was all gorgeous. We chatted up a couple who climbed in the am and
then took out a kayak again for more exploring. This time we beached
it and climbed around on the sharp rocks covered in mollusks and
snails. Finally it was time to head out. Picked up the climbers and
enjoyed watching the last few climbs. For those in the know, there is
plenty of bouldering here, some places to deep water solo if the tides
are right and three places with bolts. The rock will not tolerate
setting your own equipment in most places, restricting climbing to the
bolted routes. It seems like Slo Pony has done a good job setting
routes, even ranking them on the climbing difficulty scale. (ben, what
is it called? Is there more than one?)

Endangered Golden-Headed Langurs!!!

Soon we were motoring home, wind-chilled and beer-buzzed. One of the
sharp-eyed guides pointed out a rare treat. He showed us three
golden-headed langurs climbing on a rock face we passed. Only 65 of
these langurs are estimated to live on Cat Ba Island and this is their
only remaining habitat - super endangered and they came out just for
us! My pictures of them are not so great, where is that zoom lens when
you need it?! But we will try to post a stolen pic from google or just
google image golden-headed langur.

Shower, Dinner....zzzz

Once home, it took us a long time and lots of negotiations to decide
on showering before dinner and who was going to ask about flipping the
hot water breaker. Electricity here is scarce, so we have noticed that
they turn off the breakers to our hot water heater sometimes, or maybe
we trip the circuit if it is on for too long. We aren't sure. We just
know it is annoyingly inconsistent. We finally asked about it, sending
the son into a frenzy of stair climbing and switch flipping before we
discovered the real trick. We were told to turn the breaker on in our
room before showering and the red light on the water heater would turn
on and make hot water. What we didn't know is that if you leave the
heater on all day on accident, the water heater heats the tank and
won't turn the red light on to heat more water because it doesn't need
to! After a lot of confusion, the son just turned on the faucet and it
was hot, no red light needed! Ahh. Maybe the hot water heater isn't as
finicky as we thought, it just needs an instruction manual. Perhaps
the finicky Internet is the same way?!

Once we were clean and de-salted, we found some dinner - a strange
amalgam of dishes. Who planned this meal? We had beer until they ran
out of cold brew, offering ice, which we declined. Robert picked out
fresh clams from a tank, which they steamed for us. Then veggie spring
rolls, fried. Battered and fried squid. Fried noodles and veggies and
the smallest bowl of egg drop soup, which was passed off to us as
vegetable soup. Too much food, but tasty. While we were eating, a
stream of young school children ran by. After dinner, we followed them
to the town square where there was a big stage and a series of
performances. Some were better than others, the modest belly-dancers
who occasionally jumped sideways like flopping fish were my favorite.
We left when the local next to me befriended me too much. He wanted to
stand shoulder to hand with me despite the crowd being sparse, creepo.
We left, but not before I clapped and whooped vigorously after a
performance - the rest of the crowd barely audibly clapped, if they
bothered to show any sign of approval. All heads turned to me,
thinking me uncouth, but you cant have six year old dancing sunflowers
leave the stage in front of a silent crowd - it's bad for their
development!

We slunk away from my new best friend and the silent crowd to find
coffee and a sweet bit. We went to the only bakery we had seen. It
must only stay in business because it is the only one. We got a slice
of "cold cheese," we assumed they meant cake, as in cold cheese cake,
but what we got resembled cool whip/dessert topping on a crumb crust,
but less tasty. I didn't even sip my instant nescafe after robert
warned against it. We promptly paid, fled and got good coffee from
next door. I can't imagine anyone going to that bakery twice.

After such a long day, we didn't have it in us to try to go to the new
years eve party through slo pony. We went home and crashed. An
excellent day nonetheless.