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Vang Vieng Limestone Cliffs, Laos 19-Sep-2010 At 11:17:57 PM Doro

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I am travelling through Laos at the moment. Vang Vieng is about 165 km north of the capital Vientiane, but this is no two hour trip. Potholes are big and plentiful, and in local Lao time everything is delayed quite some time. The road is paved, but the bus driver has to slam on the breaks all the time, be it to maneuver the bus around the potholes or because of cows, pigs or kids on the road. Many kids. In fact I think half the population must be under 5 years old. Expect this to be a full day trip.

The town of Vang Vieng is located in some amazing landscape. Big limestone cliffs surrounded by rice fields and a lush green jungle. It looks a bit like Meteora in Greece if you ignore the jungle. It is the end of the wet season, very humid and although it’s probably only about 30 degrees it feels more like 45. Unfortunately, bogan tourists have taken over this beautiful place, which offers kayaking, tubing and lots of cheap Beerlao. Beautiful beer. I didn’t feel like joining the drinking crowd on one of these trips and hired a climbing guide for the day. His name is Tho and he cost 200,000 kip (about 25 dollars) for the day.

Tho picked me up on his motorbike at 9am. I was fitted with a harness and some old Madrock climbing shoes that have barely enough rubber left to cover my toes. We were joined by Sup from the UK who had been traveling around the world for 10 month and turned out to be great company for the day. Tho only spoke a few words of English. We jumped on a tuc tuc and crossed the river on one of those beautiful hanging bamboo bridges. This was the end of the paved road and the tuc tuc crawled down some dirt track until we stopped outside a farmer’s house. I love these places where people still live in villages. I think it’s 80% of the population in Laos.

The walk in is a half hour track through the jungle. It still rains heavily every night and we are sliding through the mud. I am thinking of Bear Grylls and one of his episodes in the jungle. How you are supposed to build your shelter above the ground so you are not exposed to all the creatures on the ground. We cross – walk through - the same river three times. My only pair of shoes is a pair of crocks, and they turned out to be excellent in these conditions. We climb up some sharp slippery boulders to get to the base of the cliff. At this stage I am soaked in sweat and covered in mud.

Some Europeans have bolted a few climbs in the area, the hardest being a 7c or something. Tho unpacks his pack. He carried all the gear plus water and food for all three of us. I inspect the rope. It seems like a static rope to me. Tho tells me they change ropes every year. Safety first. I told him I climb regularly and know how to belay. He chooses a 5c as a warm up. I can’t find any protection. Tho points at a fixed nylon sling of faded colour about 5 metres up the wall. I decide to leave the leading to him. He says he has only been climbing for a year, but by the end of the day I am impressed with his climbing. He doesn’t bother checking my belaying skills and heads off. Sup climbs up after him and clears the quickdraws, and I climb on the top rope. The climb is about 15 metres high and protected by 4 of these slings. The rap station is rather dodgy. Two old bits of rope, one threaded through a hole in the rock and one directly through the fixed hanger. I am pretty new to trad climbing but it doesn’t need an expert to worry about this set up. I decide to trust Tho for the day and not think too much about the rap stations. We climb another 5, the wall is still in the sun and it is unbearably hot. But the view across the rice fields is amazing. You can hear some drums in the distance. “Monk hungy” Tho explains. So this is when the monks head out to collect food from the village people. They are allowed one meal per day and they often cook for an orphanage or a school nearby as well.

Tho decides it is too hot to climb and starts to prepare our lunch. He grills veggies and chicken on an old grill that they keep up there for tourists. After serving us fried rice and grilled veggies he disappears in the distance to have some food himself. Lao men are very gentle and have the softest voice. I ask him about the climbing but he doesn’t understand much. We change the topic and talk about the things they eat in Laos. Pretty much anything they can catch – snakes, frogs, spiders, monkeys, dogs, chicken. He says the snakes grow up to 5 metres long and can have a diameter of a man’s leg. I think of Bear Grylls again.

At this stage the sun has disappeared behind the mountain and we set off to do a few more climbs. We climb another four routes, the hardest being a 6b+. The protection is a mixture of slings and shiny new bolts. The first piece is usually about 4 metres up and Tho doesn’t seem to know about spotting, so I leave the leading to him. He looks like he has done these climbs a few times. Sup and I are having a great time and try not to think too much about the rap stations. The rock is beautiful clean limestone, with lots of pockets and slightly overhanging. The climbs are all single pitches and about 25 metres high. I am soaked in sweat.

We pack up at 5 pm and walk back through the mud and the river. Tho tells us to come back if we have time.

This is one amazing country. It has only been open to tourists for about 10 years but is already very touristy in places. There is huge potential for climbing if you can cope with the heat and humidity. It will be interesting to see if there is more development to come in the next few years. The local climbing community could certainly do with some help and donations.

I’ll upload some pictures when I get back to Melbourne in a couple of weeks.

Cheers
Dorothea