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Vietnam climbing: same same but different 14-Jan-2011 At 12:00:58 PM f_ladou

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I dream of limestone. Particularly of limestone cliffs girt by sea. Of the kind you can't find in Oz except perhaps in WA in a little well-hidden spot by the name of Bob's Hollow. Of course, you could do the obvious: jump on a plane and take the boat to Tonsai. The Thais are fun people, big smiles everywhere, the food is great, the ocean's warm. You can even buy big fat joints with your beers from the rasta guy/DJ/barman right there on the beach. No, I didn't inhale. No, you can't do that at Bob's Hollow.

There's another possibility though. Especially if you want to climb in January: Vietnam.

This year, Dominik's art business led him to take part in an international art fare in Singapore mid-Jan. Alex was quick to suggest a climbing trip to piggy back on the occasion. With girlfriends in tow, off we went and I thought you'd appreciate a trip report of the few days we spent climbing in Ha Long Bay. I threw in a little background info for those interested to make a similar trip and to help you budget it.

Hanoi

Maya and I arrived a couple of days before the usual suspects Dominik and Alex. Vietnam requires visa for all visitors. You can obtain them before you leave (as did our teutonic couple) or you can wish you had, like we did. Of course, I blame my travel agent for everything. Seriously, if you use the embassy online service like we did in order to obtain your visa upon arrival, make sure you have US$25 in cold hard American currency on you. We didn't but were saved by an obliging Australian couple. Thanks again Bruce.

Hanoi, the grand old dame of Indochina, is a mesmerizing place. We stayed in the old town near the Lake of the Restored Sword (Ho Hoan Kiem). The taxi ride from the airport costs about 300,000 VND or about $15 (remove four zeros and divide by two) - the airport is quite a fair way out. Because we are all insanely rich, we elected to stay at a decent hotel, Maison d'Hanoi, for about $100/night. This is by far our greatest luxury as the cost of living in Hanoi is insanely cheap. Today for example, the four of us ate for 220,000 VND. Do the maths and that's about $11 or $2.80/person - fried rice, cucumber salad and drinks included.

The streets of Hanoi are filled with liquid traffic. The width of the lanes widen or shrink depending on the flow; there's hardly any traffic lights but yet the flow moves and swirls constantly. You learn to cross the road trusting that the swarms of motorbikes will swerve around you, accompanied by never-ending warning beeps. Somehow this chaos works - scooters, pushbikes, cars, pedestrians all move along without pause. Fascinating. Probably not as fascinating as this engineering feat, though:

Local version of the National Broadband Network.

We took a couple of days to visit Hanoi. We saw the embalmed remains of Ho Chi Minh in his own personal mausoleum. Quite an eery experience according to Maya who keeps referring to our visit to the Nausoleum. The poor guy, Uncle Ho for the locals, wanted to be cremated but there is a price for being a national hero. We also visited the Museum of Ethnography. Very interesting, never mind the horrifically loud, distorted and pentatonic water puppet show. Lastly, and my personal favorite was our visit to the Fine Art Museum. Dominik, being a gallerist himself, could have spent many hours examining the modern art section. Here's a couple of pics for you

Riveting bronze of a "partisane" (female soldier) marrying war and art in a life-size sculpture

Tiny detail (2 cm x 3 cm) of a complex fresco illustrating daily life under the communist regime.

Tuesday, January 4th

Our cab picked us up at the agreed time, 6:15. Dominik's request to have breakfast lunchboxes prepared for the two hour ride was brilliant. There are times when having a German friend comes in really handy. Alex looked as pale and rubbery as Uncle Ho himself, though. Brooke, who had just arrived the evening before after much delay in Ho Chin Minh City airport probably wished that her man showed more color. All was not well for our Austrian friend and by the time we got the ferryboat in Hai Phong, we had to lay him down on a bed of luggage. To say he dozed on an empty stomach is a brutally exact description.

Alex's corpse lying on an improvised bed minutes before boarding the ferry to Cat Ba Island. He probably does not remember...

The fast boat took us to Cat Ba Island in 45 minutes (150,000 VND). By the time we got there, Dominik started to feel queasy too. So, Maya and I left this sorry crowd at the hotel (Princes Hotel, $25/night for a double room) to hunt for a meal (worst pizza ever, good beef stir fry) and to find the local guys at Slo Pony. We bought the guidebook (400,000 VND) and copied manually into it the 20 or so newly developed routes. We're all set now.

Wednesday, January 5th

All set but nowhere to go. Neither Dominik nor Alex is in any condition to climb. Actually, I don't feel top notch myself. So, change of plan. Maya, Dominik and I rent out scooters ($3/day) for a little trip around Cat Ba Island.

Riding on the coastal road, fresh air in our faces, did us some good. We reached a fishing "village" (Thôn Bác) about 20km out of Cat Ba Town where after much pointing and gesticulation, we were able to obtain a cup of tea. Mind you, it was two sachets of ice tea served with hot water. Better than nothing. Fun place though.

Dominik enjoying his tea. The place is actually also the local petrol station where gasoline can be bought in old coke bottles.

The way back took us to the Hospital Cave - a series of natural caves organized as bunkers during the Vietnam War. According to our guide, Ho Chi Minh resided there alongside 300 soldiers while the Yanks were bombing the hell out of the neighborhood. Interesting place if only because it contained a cinema (?!?) hall located in one impressive limestone cave.

We finished the day at the "Green Mango" restaurant eating White Man food, as Maya says. I think everyone is too well aware of how sensitive their stomachs are. Even so, Dominik had to excuse himself near the end of the meal. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Thursday, January 6th

Finally some rock face time! Butterfly Valley is only a short scooter ride outside Cat Ba Town. After some route-finding salsa, we finally found the impressive limestone wall set in beautiful surroundings.

Butterfly Valley Wall in it's bucolic setting.

The wall (also known as Lien Minh) derives its name from the mesmerizing butterflies fluttering about. It's divided into six sections spanning about 150-200 meters over an average height of 50 meters with single pitch climbs of up to 30 meters. Over two days, we got onto routes in four of those: Upper Mantle, Cool Banana, Center of the Universe, and Pond Wall. I counted 41 climbs ranging from 4a (14) to 8a+ (31) - in other words, fun for the whole family.

The rock is of excellent quality and, without having done any engineering fatigue tests, the protection solid. It was bolted the French way with fixed hangers and the climbs are rarely run out - at least compared to the Blueys. It was Dominik's first time on limestone and he liked it ("me likes"). It took him a while, due to his limited linguistic abilities, to distinguish between tofu and tufa but he got there eventually.

Myself trying out my luck on "Fingerless Phoman" (7a).

I'd like to have some fun story to tell but it was simply an enjoyable day out with friends. Good