Loas and the art of rock climbing

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It's Thursday, February 28th. Rich and I have been in Vang Vieng, Loas for about a week now. Loas is very similar to Thailand with regards to culture, food, language, and people but Loas is set back 40 years before any of the tourists came to Thailand. The countryside is much more rural and untouched by the western world. There are backpacker havens like Vang Vieng but as soon as you get off the beaten path , which could be a 5 minute walk outside the city, it changes drastically. The climbing is very similar as well. In Thailand, especially Ton Sai, where things are generally polished (like a polished stone, rock becomes smooth after repeated use and thus becomes slippery and not easy to climb on) in Loas everything is generally sharp and dirty. At first I found this a little frustrating because Ton Sai has such incredibly clean and used routes but after a few days I understood that is part of the charm of Loas. It is sharp and dirty because not many people have been here to smooth out the rocks or get the extra dirt off. It is still untouched and off the beaten path. The man who pioneered this region, a doctor from Germany who works 2 hours away in a community hospital was at one of the crags we were climbing at and he explained to us that this is the first year he has seen climbers come to the area specifically for climbing. As this place gets more and more attention, as it should, there is plenty of opportunity here for more and more routes, it's probably going to get busier and busier and become more like a Ton Sai. Which will be good for the local people so they can get more income from tourism and good for the rock climbers because they get to climb and drink Beer Lao, which everybody should experience at least once in their life. So I encourage you all to start rock climbing and come visit Vang Vieng, Loas.

Tomorrow we leave for Vientiane, Loas and from there we will be heading to Hanoi, Vietnam. We'll be in northern Vietnam until March 12th from there we fly to Bangkok and then to Kathmandu where we will be meeting up with 5 friends and hiking the Anna Purna circuit.

I hope everyone is well and feel free to email me to say hello: [e-mail].

C

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Photos

Walking to the crag
Classic thumbs up shot

Climbing
Gearing up for a 7a (5.11d)

Tubbing
Floating down the river.

Tubbing
The proper way to hold your Beer Loa in a tub.

Footbridge across the river
It's made out of old wood and bamboo.

Walking to the crag
White flags mark the path to the crag.

Walking to the crag
We had to pay 10 cents as an entry fee and three children escorted us to the correct path up the wall.

Climbing crew
Our climbing crew.

Climbing
Walk back at dusk

Climbing
Still walking back.

Mountains
Our view from the river bank.

Climbing Topo Info for 20K Crag
I on-sighted number 12 "Money can't buy me love" 6b+.

20K Crag
Walking through a rice patty to get back to our scooters.

20K Crag
Trip back to town in the dark and bugs flying into our faces.

20K Crag
Moving cattle in the dark is a very popular thing to do around Loas, which is troublesome for scooter drivers because they walk in the middle of the road and don't get out of your way.

20K Crag
Our hog.

20 foot Budda
I rented a moutain bike for an afternoon and rode out to a cave with no flashlight accept a small red light on a watch my mom had given me for Christmas. It was pitch black in the cave and I spotted something in the back and went to investigate and it turned out to be a 20 foot Budda. I had to take the picture to see how big it actually was. After I did I promptly got out of there in fear my litle red light would run out of batteries and I would have to feel my way out.

Blue Lagoon
7 KM outside Vang Vieng is a naturally blue lagoon. These fish feed on the algee on the sides of the rocks and to eat is sometimes they have to turn sideways to do so. When they do they send up a silver flash which is light reflecting off their skin.