Cat Ba and Halong Bay

I had a wonderful birthday and Christmas on Cat Ba Island. I had many outdoor adventures! The flashiest one was Deep Water Solo Climbing, and also went kayaking through natural arches, swam, jumped off the tour boat into the water over and over, did a strenuous 5 hour trek, explored caves,

and hiked the coastline. I ended up spending a week on Cat Ba. It was well worth it.

Cat Ba, Vietnam

I've spent the last 4 days in Cat Ba, Vietnam having a wonderful time, and the best birthday. I went deep water solo rock climbing, kayaked in the lagoon and through natural bridges and archways, I jumped off the 2 story wooded tour boat into the water. I went trekking through the hot and humid jungle, spent the night out on the bay with hillarious fellow travellers who sang Happy Birthday to me, and even found some cake! I'm sore, scraped up, bruised, tired and have a headcold, but am having more fun than I've had in ages! Vietnam is excellent! I want to do some more climbing and swimming, I'll probably stay here for Christmas! The loud, Asian-techno-hiphop-remixed Christmas music is so funny! :)

Hello from Hanoi! Good morning Vietnam!

This part of the trip feels like flying by the seat of my pants. Moving right along, from a lovely rice terrace/Baguio market/Beach Paradise 2 weeks in the Philippines, then a quick stop in Hong Kong and lots of eating and beer with Phil, Ami and Lily Ann (yay fun British pals!), I'm already in Hanoi, surrounded by scooters, silk shops, Pho and the special chaos that is Hanoi. Check out these pictures :)

Palawan was pretty and fun!

Palawan was terrific. I had a lot of fun there, snorkeling on bangka boats that take you island hopping. I swam through a hole in a cliff, snorkeled in turquoise water and saw several families of clown fish, barracuda, angel fish, rainbow fluorescent fish of all sizes. I met hillarious travel friends from England, and lounged on the loveliest beach I've seen so far. I've already forgotten that I got really sick, we weathered Typhoon Pablo, El Nido has no hot water and the electricity is off from 6am to 2pm everyday.