Today was a memorable day. A day of disappointment, and a day of adventure.
The plan for today was to get up at 7, go get food/ pack lunch, and then head over to the climbing shop to rent a rope and then head off to do some climbing.
We got to the climbing shop after breakfast, and they asked us to take a test to show that we know how to safely utilize rope and equipment. No problem I thought. We had only brought one PAC between us(personal anchor system; Sean had forgotten his), so I struggled a bit during the test to figure out how to safely anchor. I wanted to try an achor without my PAC, because I’d probably let Sean use it. I ended up using two slings to anchor myself which was perfectly fine.
Then Sean did his test. It didn’t go so well.
He got to the top, but struggled to figure out how to anchor in. At one point he connected a sling to his gear loop for an anchor(a big no-no); he looked, according to the instructor, unconfident in his abilities. I was also coaching him through most stuff on how to setup the anchor. Also, when he was lowering me, he had the climber side and the belay strands flipped around. Another big no-no.
Safe to say, the instructor denied renting the rope to us. Pretty damn humiliating if you ask me. We came all this way to climb, and they said we weren’t even fit to use a rope.
This was a lesson in humility. After the machete ridge incident, I realize that I need to be a lot more cautious. I had underestimated how rusty Sean’s was; he KNEW all the stuff we needed to do, he just hadn’t utilized the skills in over a year, so he was really rusty. To try and rush out to the crag and climb when he didn’t have the proper abilities would have been dangerous for him and me. It’s better to play it safe and not do the things I wanted to do if it means keep Sean and I safe.
This was really hard for me to “let go” of all these grand plans for climbing.
Now that’s not to say that we arn’t going to go climbing at all this trip; but we probably won’t do Screw Loose(a climb I’ve really wanted to do).
I talked to Sean about it; he felt bad, I felt bad for making him feel bad. But I think we got over it. I wasn’t mad at Sean. He didn’t do anything wrong. This was more on me for again putting someone into a position for something they might not quite be ready for.
Luckily, the guy who tested us, Travis, did everything in his power to make sure we could get to the level of climbing where he felt confident we knew what we were doing. He personally offered to teach us later that afternoon(around 2pm), and do 1-2 climbs with us to get us ready.
So that’s what we did.
In the meantime, we decided to explore the island a bit. So first we rented some scooters. The scooters were empty fuel-was, so we decided to get some gas.
We rode down to the pier to a place with a “petrol” sign. We pulled in, a guy asked if we need gas we said yes, good so far. He started filling up our scooters with bottles of watered-down looking petrol. Nbh, they did this in Thailand. But here’s where the problem happend: we didn’t ask him how much it would cost beforehand. It ended up costing us $20 to fill up both tanks. More expensive gas then even the US! Safe to say, that was the biggest rip-off of the trip.
Finally, we set off for a local place called the “Cannon fort”.
It was an old fort on the top of a hill. According to Lonely planet,
The tunnels and gun emplacements here were first installed by the Japanese in WWII, but were also utilised by the French and Vietnamese during subsequent conflicts.
Here’s an overview of where the fort was:
There were some great views on top of the fort:
We also took some fun pictures with the “locals”:
A note about these cannons: They can fire up to a range of 40km — that’s about 20 miles! Wowza!
We also saw some pretty cool trenches. And munition depots. There was also this long tunnel with a “track” in the middle of it; we assumed it was for moving the cannon through the tunnels to the different “rooms” inside to load it, repair it, etc.
Here’s us searching for weed in the tunnels:
Here’s Sean being a goof:
Andddd some wildlife:
After that, we went back to Asia outdoors, and met up with Travis to check in about the class later that day.
Then we took another adventure to the “Hospital cave”. This place was used as a hospital during the Vietnam war I believe, and later was used as a secret meeting place for communist leaders :O
Some of the locals. This guy was clearly being treated for shell shock:
Sean contemplating why he was here:
Here’s one of the biggest caves in the hospital
Here’s me meditating:
Past the forbidden zone:
And me crawling like a crab:
After that, we went back to the shop. On the way there, Sean got in a little accident. He was supposed to be behind me following me to the outdoors shop, but I waited a few minutes and he didn’t show up. I then texted him “are you okay” and this was his response
I fell ove4 near the hotel. I’m alright but there was a bit of fuel leaking so a guy told me to turn it off. I’m going to walk the bike over
Apparently he was doing a low-speed uturn and fell over. He bruised his knee a bit, got a scrape on his hand, but otherwise he was fine.
Whew.
Anyways, we met up with Travis, followed him to his home to pick up some gear(apparently he lived in a hotel by the bay), and made our way to the crag. We got like like 4-5 times trying to find the climbing area(because it was pretty well hidden). It ended up being behind a guys house; you had to pay 10,000 to enter it. It was a pretty cool little cave area! Travis taught me a new way to clean an anchor on top-rope and lower down; Sean also did the same climb twice(leading it) to get practice on how to lower. It was a great afternoon.
I then tried to do a 10.a, just as the sun was setting. I wore a head lamp, and tried to rush up the climb. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do it; I had to bail and leave a couple quick draws, which Travis was nice enough to go up really quickly and fetch. Also during this climb I had to take a small fall.
But anyways, not being able to complete the climb was really frustrating, because I believed 10a to be completely in my ability range. I’ll probably go back and try it sometime later this week(if not day 4, another day).
After that, we rode our bikes back to the beach(in the dark I might add!). We decided to go get some pho for the first time this trip(it wasn’t that good tbh), some more street food banh my(fucking delicious), and go for some more drinking.
We walked around the pier at one point, and a man walked up to us and asked if we wanted some “boom boom”. Finally my first time hearing it in person! I was kinda happy people actually talked like that lol
In one of the bars we met up with an Irish man; he claimed to be 36, but it looks like the years had taken a toll on him. He was travelling alone, and we chatted him up; apparently he was a carpenter, had lived in SF for like 10 years, and now was trying to go to Canada(after he was done with Vietnam). He got a giant laughing gas balloon(yes we did them again today), and it looked quite funny:
Anyways, after talking with us for about 30 minutes, he kinda went off and talked to other couple. I guess we weren’t interesting enough for him? Oh well…
We also did some “Seesha” which I learned is just another word for hooku. Sean took this “cool” pic:
Anyways, that’s it for today. Time to climb!