A Shoe and Hand Guide up Cat Ba Mountain

“Shoe, shoe” and we all stopped to stare at our shoes.

“Shoe, shoe!” said our guide and she stepped slowly over a twisted tree root, knotted in such a way that if we hadn’t stopped to check, we would’ve been seven dominos face-planting in the jungle.

“Shoe” and “hand” were going to be pretty much the only directions from our Cat Ba Mountain guide as we made our way UP to a rickety watch tower. “Shoe” to denote where we should step, and “hand” to denote what we should grab on to.

Cat Ba National Park is nestled among beautiful Halong Bay, a natural wonder of the world. Beautiful limestone islets jut out from the bay, making for the one of the most scenic and awe-inspiring wonders we have ever seen. In the summer time, I’ll bet Halong Bay is gorgeous. In the Spring, the fog rolls in to create a creepily interesting bay. Each emerald green mountain is framed perfectly in the fog and personally, I really like it that way.

Halong Bay in Vietnam. Junk in Halong Bay

However, the fog was so bad, that during our first day, boats weren’t even allowed to leave the port. Needless to say, the next day we crammed in a lot of activities. One of those activities was climbing Cat Ba Mountain.

So, there we stood with walking sticks, not entirely sure where we were going, but with the physical inability to pass up an adventure. But it’s hard to pass up on adventure when a walking stick has been thrusted into your hand. Our guide up the mountain repeated: “shoe shoe shoe” and “hand hand hand,” which was apparently enough to get by up a freshly muddy, practically non-existent vertical path.

It worked.

walking sticks

As the path became progressively more difficult, we all began to sweat.

Profusely.

Slowly we made our way up the mountain, past “flesh-eating” trees (or so we could decipher), through slippery mud-covered steps, gripping onto branches for support and taking the advice of our beloved guide to place our “shoe” in certain nooks and our “hand” on rocks and sturdy trees.

The trek did test our strengths: The mud was slippery. The air became increasingly hot and thin as we pushed forward. The girls – all two of us – wrapped up our hair in false hopes that we could curb the sweat. The boys – well two of them anyway – lost their shoes on the hike (split right in half they did).

The tower

It was at a granite mass of rock that we realized we had reached the end of the path. We climbed up a few flights of stairs of the lone tower. It was our chance to stand above the jungle that had proved a worthy adversary during our trek. The feeling of standing above it all was liberating. The air was sweet and fresh as dew. There was nothing to hold us back, not even the tower that swayed a little under the weight of seven people, all taking in the beauty of Halong Bay and Cat Ba.

The view from the tower. yay

 

 

Is the trek worth the visit? Where have you been that has inspired you to get up and move?

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