O the places you'll go

So just to clarify here is the run down of getting from Khao San in Bangkok to Cat Ba. A taxi to the train, a sky train to the airport, a plane, a gangster taxi to the city center, a tuk tuk to the bus station, a bus to another bus, to a ferry, to a bus that finally landed us here 10hrs later. Not too shabby and we didnt get robbed or taken for any more of a ride than we needed to. Its a complete 180 from khao san to here. in bangkok you at dinner to the sound of 200 beats per minute techno and street vendors. But here in north vietnam it is the off season and around town is calm and peaceful with a consistant haze over the bay. Its a hard adjustment to the temps that are in the mid 50's and slowly getting warmer. We were scared when we got here because of the cold and the rain but there is some hope with a near clearing weather report coming our way. We went to the Slo Pony climbing shop and talked with the americans that work there and got some promising info on the climbing. it sounds like theres less than a dozen climbers in cat ba right now so we will have the crags to ourselves. Its going to be a slower pace way and if the weather holds and we adjust to the cold im sure we will have a promising stay here and want to stay longer. At some point im sure we will head south on some sort of train after climbing here. i dont think we will be doing any DWS (deep water soloing) here because the temps but any tan that we got will soon be gone. Good thing being light skinned is a sign of high ranking in asia. Some people even go as far as lotions and dyes to color their skin white. We are getting good and haggling with people too. I bought a zippo for 3 bucks! And everything is really cheap here, even more so than in thailand. Its the only time in my life that ill be a millionaire. 20,000 Dong is $1 USD so trying to figure a bill out is confusing to say the least. Math is not my strong suit. One of our last nights in Khao san was a blast and we shut down the street partying with good people from Austrailia and England til the wee hours of the morning. I believe at one point in the night (my fav so far) all three of us danced to the mocoraina and other classic one hit wonders in the street. The next day we relaxed by going to chinatown about 30min away from Khao San rd. We were in a part of town where there were no tourists and stumbled across a small tucked back buddhist temple. we walked in from the load street to be greeted by a monk and sudden silence from street noise even though we were only 50ft off the road. We knelt down in front of about a dozen golden buddha statues as the monk lit a candle. He handed each of us an incense stick that we lit with the flame and then placed to burn as we sat. The monk grunted as he stood up and walked over with his achy body to get all of us water to drink since we were all sweating. He struck the dong bell as it rang through us as well as the temple. He bowed, smiled, asked us to please give some money which we emptied our pocket change into the bowl, bowed and left slowly feeling the cold tile on our bare feet. It was a moving experience and didnt feel touristy at all since it was a temple off the map. We told the monk we were from america and he smiled at us. Thailand will be missed as we reminised on it in the airport. But we are only halfway through our trip and have a new culture and country to experience. Ive also realized how much opportunity we have in the states and how much variety we have to experience right at home. I encourage all of you to not only travel outside of the country but find new things right around the corner. Take a new road, try a new restaurant go to a different religious temple or church. You choose your life's education. Peace and Love