ROCK CLIMBING
After arriving yesterday everyone was in great form the rest of the day. The accommodation is made up of huts, each with 4 bunk beds, the perfect size for myself, Phil, the 4 swedes, Irish fella and Dylan (the South African). it’s not hard to wake up after a heavy night as you are usually laughing. Phil was straight out the door and none of us could figure out why until he came back with a beer for each of us, so there is actually no rest from it.
PHIL WAS GIVING US ALL THE GREATEST LAUGH! AT ONE POINT I THOUGHT REECE WOULD NEED TO BE RESUSCITATED
We call these guys holiday w*nkers because they are only over for 2 weeks and can afford to go hard at it while we need to make sure we don’t kill our budget or ourselves.
ROCK CLIMBING
As part of the infamous Halong Bay Booze cruise we had 2 activities to choose, wake boarding and Rock climbing, neither of which we have done before. With absolutely no consideration given to our heavy night last night we were collected at 9am and dropped off at another deserted island for some rock climbing with our lives left firmly in our own hands. As if we didn’t feel precarious enough! The island is where the Castaway trip used to have their accommodation. All the islands are owned by the government and they have decided to let the current castaway island to someone else now so they have to move back here which is a gutter as the current island couldn’t be better!
ANOTHER PRIVATE ISLAND
As far as the setting goes it was pretty perfect, it wouldn’t take a man with a solid 8 hours sleep to appreciate that. If you weren’t climbing then you could just lay on the beach and admire the stunning views across the bay. After our induction we got kitted up into a harness, hat and shoes, none of which were made to fit westerners or anyone over 5ft 10. There are 2 routes to choose, each of us taking the easy choice, assessing our options and then possibly going for the more difficult one after. Much to everyones dismay it turned out to be a team sport, one person climbing while someone controls the safety rope. You couldn’t trust yourself let alone trust someone else to hold the catch rope but thats how it is.
IT’S NO EL CAPITAN
It was actually hard work and as you get higher you become more aware of the risk so naturally you feel yourself gripping harder and harder. At times the cliff was like climbing glass so there were no places for rest bite but I’m not sure any of us wanted to extend the risk of depending on your friend below so each of us kept going. Rock climbing isn’t ideal when you’re drunk but credit to Phil he made us all laugh, I don’t think that fella could climb into bed without some help! Everytime he shit himself he just let go and started rolling against the rock. Me and Reece were in pieces laughing and had him on record the whole time. There was 2 to do but he wasn’t game for the other as it was a little harder, bless him.
HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE
Like many of these places where the guide has been doing this everyday for years he was able to almost skip up the wall with no aid. Its certainly no mean feat, I’ve seen many climbing walls all of which were made for climbing but these cliff are not.
NEXT UP
The infamous boat cruise and what we have all been waiting for! Click to read.
SAFE TRAVELS, DS x 27/229
This post is part of the Vietnam Series, click to explore
