I had vague ideas about following the crowd and booking myself onto a multi-day trip aboard a boat to see some of the major attractions in the bay. With Shannon as my travel companion, I should have known better. While most tourists will simply gaze in wonder at the beautiful cliffs, he's quickly scoping out whether we can climb them.
So he hooked us up with Slopony, a new outdoor adventure outfit that is pioneering the sport of rock climbing in this most stunning of locations. Run by two Americans, Slopony is based in the tiny town of Cat Ba, a tranquil little town on one of the bay's largest islands. Here's the view from our fourth floor balcony.
Shannon's rock climbing obsession turned out to be the perfect way to experience Halong Bay. The rock climbing itself was great - it's a new sport here so unlike Railay, the routes are not overly crowded and the locations are gorgeously primitive. We spent one day climbing the cliffs in a pretty valley, surrounded by baying goats, meandering buffalo and rice farmers who must have thought we were slightly demented.
The company itself was great. They're professional and experienced, but best of all, Slopony has a laidback energy that is quite refreshing after the aggressive sales pitches of the local touts.
Here's a couple shots of me climbing. Here, Shannon happened to be coming down from a completed climb just as I was trying a route right next to him. Usually, there is a lot of "on-the-ground" coaching as the experienced climbers try and tell you where to put your feet and hands since from their vantage point, they have a better view of the route. This time though, Shannon was able to literally point out the holds to me, and at one point, he even grabbed my hand and placed it right on the ledge.
And here, I'm trying to get myself over a particularly hard "crux" - the most difficult part of the climb. I wasn't able to complete the climb on my first try, but did so when I returned the next day.
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