Wanna get high?

(Sydney International Airport 12:45pm 10.28.08)
Next Morning (9.30.08) we woke up around 11 a.m. and made our way down for breaky. The Vietnamese girls that worked at the Noble House commented on my “very good friend”, telling me how beautiful she was. I downplayed it and told them she was just a “good friend” and “yeah, she looks ok”. They got a kick out of me. After breaky I called Antwon and he brought a motorbike over for us to use. I had got reprimanded by Slo for using Tim’s motorbike the day before without asking for first. I figured it was ok since me and Mr. ha had used it earlier and I had filled the tank with 200,000 VND worth of gas. We decided to go to the Cat Ba National Park and go on a hike to the observation tower. On our trek through the woods we kept hearing and loud banging noise like someone slamming a heavy object against a metal container. After about an hour trek we reached the observation tower and realized what the noise had been. One of the pieces of sheet metal was loose on the roof and slamming back and forth in the strong winds. The tower looked soooooo dodgy (dodgy is a new word I’ve learned which is equivalent to sketchy) but we climbed it anyways. It had to be at least 150 ft high and when we got to the top we noticed that the boards on the floor of the observation deck weren’t even secured down. They were just sitting across the metal support beams and some were missing!!! We took few minutes to take in the 360 views of the island and then made our way back down. It was another busy night at the bar, I guess since there weren’t tours for a few days due to the storm they were having larger groups now. Again the talent at the bar made me wish I didn’t already have a guest in my room, who was strictly just a friend…not a “very good friend” as the Vietnamese would say. Next morning (10.01.08) I was woke up by Kat who told me that Slo had just come to the door asking if I wanted to work for them today. I was confused and in a sleepy stupor made my way downstairs to see what was up. He told me they needed me to work the day after next as a kayak guide and could train today if I was up for it. I was suppose to go climbing with Luke but decided getting out in the water for a paddle would amazing since I hadn’t paddled in nearly a month. I quickly ate breakfast and joined the rest of the people on the tour. Kat decided the night before that she was leaving today so it actually worked out quite well. I went with Jess on the boat to transfer the guest from the day before for the new guest while Tim, Slo and Dinh set the ropes up for the rock climbers. When we got back to Tiger beach I was told I would be going out on the Kayak tour with Dinh to see how the tours are run. We had about 10 people who had signed up for a kayak tour and there were another dozen or so that signed up for the rock climbing tour. I offered the guest a photo package, just as I do on Maui, however instead of $60 per CD the price was drastically reduced to $7 per CD to coincide with the prices of Vietnam. Surprisingly I got one couple to take advantage of the offer. Dinh lead the tour and I followed the last kayak, every once in a while paddling up to take pictures of my guest. We paddled through a maze of islands and stopped on a secluded lil beach so the guest could go for a swim and relax a lil bit. The kayaks were sit inside kayaks that weighed close to 100lbs and had seen better days; some even had holes in them! After about a 30 minute break we paddled back to the boat for lunch where we were joined by the rock climbers. After lunch we took a motorized basket boat to Tiger Beach for the second set of climbs for the climbers while the kayakers were able to hang out and relax on the beach or boat. Tiger beach is a small stretch of beach about 100-150 yards and Tim, one of the climbing guides, had made a makeshift house on the beach. He lives there along with two other Vietnamese workers. I decided to take advantage of the fact that I was working for a rock climbing company and I asked if I could try climbing one of the routes. The climbers had already climbed 3 routes on an island across from tiger beach while we were kayaking. They get to do 5 climbs and each one gets harder as they go along. Only about 80 percent of the group usually attempts the 4th climb and only about 20 percent attempt the 5th climb. Of those that attempt the 5th climb only about 15 percent actually make it up. So naturally for my first climb ever, I went for the 5th climb!! It’s rated a 6B, whatever that means. I eventually made it to the top after falling twice! Around 430pm we loaded back on the boat and headed to Cat Ba island. The guest checked into their hotel and met at the noble house for dinner while I took a shower, grabbed dinner and headed to the bar for another long night at work.