My friend Sowmya and I were planning our places to fit into our 10 days trip of Vietnam and cambodia.Trek to Hang en cave idea was suggested by her and i readily agreed to it with out much thought.In the 7 days Vietnam trip, 2 days go for this trek.After confirmation of the dates with Oxalis Adventures for the trek, we have planned other things and dates for remaining places in south Vietnam.
Hang en cave is one of the 3rd largest cave in the world and it is a must see place when you head for Vietnam. This 2 day 1 night trek shows you all sort of terrain ranging from downhill, uphill,river crossing, walking along the plains in the midst of chirping birds and drizzling(Depends on the weather).
A pick up van arrived on Day 1 to our stay at 8 am on dot to the Oxalis Adventure office.After waited for a few minutes, a slide show having details of trekking place, route for day 1 and day 2,Ban doong village and the instructions to follow was presented to us.Our group had 13 people from all over the world including Norway,US,Malaysia,Thailand and Korea.We got two guides, 4 porters and 2 helper guys.
"Grab your trekking shoes, choose one size larger..."
"Submit your passports in office and put the most needed items like cameras inside your dry bags to carry"
After all these instructions we all transported to a different vehicle to reach the base site from where our trek began.
Day 1 trekking started and people were walking real fast with initial set of energy.Small breaks were taken in the middle for some instructions about leeches.Leeches already got into one guy and i had a feeling that leeches were on my foot too.I took quite some time to change my socks and wear the boots again.Guide said since cyclone is looming over this place we should rush up to reach the cave before it starts pouring heavily.We crossed many small streams on the way.Forest was looking more amazing and lot of plants to see.Though we scared of poison ivy i walked fast to keep up the pace with other trekkers.We reached the village which has very few tribal people.Refreshments were kept separately for vegetarians and non vegetarians.I gulped down whatever i could to get back energy.
After the refreshment lunch we rushed walking as it started glooming and it would be tough to enter trek if it gets dark early.There came the big river crossing.Flow was high as it started raining and two helper guys jumped in to access the current of the river.Guide instructed us to wait till rope was tied at one end of the river to help us crossing.Slowly people started crossing the river and reached other end.I crossed half way. Middle of the river was little deeper to my height and i was not able to keep my feet down so it pushed me up.I was literally hanging horizontally by holding the ropes.Helper guys jumped in and made me to cross somehow.Now reality sank in and the same scenario for my friend as well.Totally 9-10 river crossings went like this.Except my friend and I,other people crossed the rivers easily.I have always wondered on seeing the videos of rescuing people in the flood,why people are dragged in the flow while still holding the rope.I don't doubt the power of water anymore after having experienced this now.
By the time we reached Cave entrance it was already dark, we slowly entered into cave with the help of head gears and a little bridge was there to walk by holding the cave.Bats started making noises and we entered the cave finally.
Our tents were ready and it was set up neatly with sleeping bags.Instructions like how to use environment friendly toilet and how to roam around the cave in the nights were told.We changed to our dry clothes before having dinner.I found blood spots at my arm and a dead leech.I already scared to the hell whether i would be alive tomorrow as i have to cross the same number of rivers with much flow if it rains heavily.I scolded myself for agreeing to this trek as it seems like suicide mission.
Dinner was awesome.Food and stay was arranged by oxalis and included in the package itself.I relaxed a bit after having food and went to sleep immediately.It was the first time i slept in a tent inside a cave.There was a small pool beside our tents.I did not know that the sound of air would be scary until that night.There were so many thoughts running in my mind like am i fool to die here by paying this money, how will my family get my death news etc.I slept eventually.
Day 2 started with exploring the cave.We climbed the top of the cave to see the fossils, stalactite and stalagmite formations. Little bit of climbings and crawling was required.We reached the spot which was shown in a Pan movie.After all our photo shoots we came down in other way.Small stream of water was flowing down in the cave exit. It needs us to cross the pool again to reach the cave entrance.In the day light the entrance looked so small but when you reach near by, it looked big enough to let you walk in.
We had breakfast and begun our day 2.Now we all organised and formed a chain like weak person in the middle of two strong person while crossing the river.This was made sure to save time.Day 2 was comparatively better for me though uphill was tough, muddy with lot of falling downs, running fast to keep up with the group.Few were struggling to climb up though crossing river was easy for them.I ditched the idea of taking intermittent rest and climbed fast to reach the base site.Other than guides, porters were really helpful.They were the ones who came with people who lagged behind the group and stopped wherever we were taking breaths, encouraged us with whatever english words they know.
Finally i could hear the pick up van taking the first set of people from the base site.I rushed further to climb and reach the base site.I relaxed and waited for some time till my friend comes up.After a while two other people and my friend came up.After cleaning our mud filled shoes we got into our van to reach the office.After bidding goodbyes and feedback we were dropped at our hotel.There ends our once in a life time trek with oxalis.If it was not for my friend Sowmya,i would not have preferred to do this trek even in India let alone Vietnam.
No comments:
Post a Comment