■ To Laos! To Green Climbers Home!
It was only a little bit of accident that I decided to go to Green Climbers home. I did not know much about Laos nor my climbing partner but that was a small stuff, I am curious about GCH. That was all.
I was curious about GCH and GCH was the exactly the place I imagined.
First, it was
"all you can climb", the second, it was
very international, the third, they had a lot of nature and were very ecological.
The only thing beyond my imagination was, there were
cows and goats even in the belay area!
It was
sooooooo peaceful, actually too peaceful so I felt like taking a nap, rather than climbing a rock.
Those cows and goats are never afraid of people nor they change their peaceful attitude so I suppose the human and animals are living together in peace with no problem at all... which reminded me of the land of
Eden.
If there is a heaven on the earth, this is it!
Of course for any climber, all
you can climb, all day, every day, is a heaven: ( "all day, every day" is the title of this blog I put because the climbing partner I have now wants to climb all day, and everyday!)
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| cows eating the grass |
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| morning glow |
■ Let's imitate a dirtbag, or a climbing bum!
So now we are in heaven!
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| my bed |
GCH is a great place to be if you are a climber, but let me suggest you to come here
alone or with a few of your friends, maybe not more than 2, or 3 people.
Have no plan, and let your fate take you where it wants to be!
Now, you are a sort of
climbing bum or you can be a dirtbag!
(of course you are well taken cared here in GCH, well sheltered, and well fed, with clean bed and clean toilet.)
Let me say, a climbing bum will
never be a pack animal.
He loves
"freedom and adventures" and that will not mean security of being with herd and avoiding standing alone.
Plus I guess the facility does not assume a large group of people because the bungalow they have have only one semi-double bed which kind of assume that two people staying in one bed, even though they can have an extra bed.
They put a pair of people into a different dorm house too. (which I liked the way it is because I kind of appreciated being alone and have some privacy.)
They had some tents for one person or for two people. No larger tent.
Finding a climbing partner is super easy. You just go to a crag you like and then say hello, climbers are usually nice people and know you need a belayer to climb so they would be happy to offer you their belay.
Or you can look for your partner at dinner time in the
KneeBar.
Of course you should be able to manage to meet people but that's a sort of basic social skill and unless you are too shy to speak to, they are all good people and the community itself understands we all need match making, so unless you deny by yourself, someone will be happy to help you.
Just say, "Hello, where are you from?"
The language barrier here is so thin! Language wise, this was the easiest place I had been. I struggle much more usually.
■ Day starts
At 6 o'clock in a morning, I am half awake... I know everyone's the same...sometimes I hear a smartphone making a morning call...it's same sound as mine.
I was the only female staying that room so I woke up a bit earlier than everyone so men have a easy time to change clothes...
There will be Lao people to come for a cleanup of the bathroom and the velanda.
I usually did my Yoga around that time.
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| Hoe Noodle |
At 7, the breakfast is served. Omelette with homemade bread, pancake with fresh fruits with honey, noodle like Hoe, or some rice soup like porridge.
After the good breakfast, we go to craggs, which takes only a short walk, usually... (it depends on where you go.)
Let's see which one we are going to climb today...
The topo book is super easy to understand. A problem name is written on the rock unlike in Japan, so you never get lost and a mistake like you are climbing a 7c thinking it's a 5c problem never happens. This could happen in Japan (and often),.. but not here.
It is fun to find a problem too, it is the same thing as all climbers do... so don't worry, there will be a person there all the time, giving you the kind of advice you'd need to find the route you are looking for.
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| name in the routes |
Plus by looking for, you'll make friends.
The grades are written in
French grade so it is different from Japan, we use American grade.
On the arrival day, I bought the topo book, and marked all the 5 something and found out that I can spend my entire 10 days easily by climbing what I can already easily lead climb.
Now, climbing. Let's do a warm up problem.
I did not know the
limestone was this much fun!
In Japan, limestone sucks. Because hold are overused and it is slippery and scary. I could not lead 5.7, here.
In GCH, it is super fun to climb any 5a to 5c to me, and it is fun to try 6a, and one difficult move to 6b, an entire struggle anything over that.
I usually climb from 5.10a lead to 5.11a toprope here in Japan(6a to7a).
This was a sort of average grade in GCH.
I lead climbed the
vegan schnitzel 5a (5.6 to 5.7 in decimal) on the first day I arrived. By next to me, someone said it is his first ever lead climbed in his entire life so this must be a good start for anyone.
I had a partner who has 40 years of climbing experience so he wanted to climb more harder routes, that was OK since I can always toprope the same problem.
And there, it is nicer to have someone toprope after lead climbing since, the wall is over hanged and kind of hard to clean up by descent as we do in Japan. The second climber is as important as the lead climber. (I kind of started to think a very low respect to a second climber might be cultural to Japan.)
There were some people who climb for the first time in their lifetime there, so you should not be shy to climb at all. Nor look down on toprope climbing as in Japan.
During the midday, the temperature is too
hot and you don't want to get a sun tan and too exhausted from the heat so many people go back to the GCH and have a good lunch. Then move to a different area in the afternoon, where there is a shade in the afternoon.
I climbed average 3-4 in the morning, in the afternoon, 2-3 so that makes
5-7 climb a day.
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| how do we climb this one? |
And
every 2 or 3 days of climbing I took a rest day, so while I was staying there for 10 days, I had 3 rest days.
After climbing in the afternoon, I will end my day a bit earlier than other people, let's say I am already up sometime between 15 pm to16 pm, and finished a shower taking before it's get too crowded (but a ladies shower room never gets too crowded.)
And I go to the nerd bench to check my emails and see how my husband is doing, write some messages in FB and other stuff.
At
18 pm, it is already a dinner time. Not everyone seems to want a big dinner like we do in Japan, but most people order
today's special, which comes in
meat or vegetarian, usually tofu.
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| GCH main dining area |
I usually eat vegetarian meal in Japan but I wanted something I can not have in Japan and want a dish to be
authentic Lao so I mostly selected meat.
I have to mention
Lao beer.
Everyone drinks Lao beer, and once I ordered red wine but I was told I was the first person who drank red wine here. So go for beer. Cheers!
Everyone here is super friendly and not everyone is native speakers of English usually, so there is no need to be shy and withdrawn.
I found it is super easy to get relax and speak to people,
no perfect English is assumed so you don't need to be afraid of being not perfect.
Everyone is here for having fun so they would be nice to you since being nice is their own merits too.
The
nights of GCH are early, around 9 pm they all go back to dorm and get ready for the sleep.. By 9 and a half, the place is pretty quiet.
I was in bed around 8:30 pm in the beginning since I was tired from the travel and unusual things to me. As I get use to the place I sometimes went bed late since I wanted to socialize more.
The climbers! I love you guys! I liked all the people I met there! It was a such
nice community they've get.
A day ends like this with a happy feeling... I was so content. My stomach is full, beer 's good, good exercise, good routes, fun people to be with.
Birds are singing, cows are mowing, goats are merry, the sun is shining, the moon is soft, stars are shining.. the weather is not harsh...
Everything is so peaceful.
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