Canyoning

We were picked up at the hotel early in the morning by Thoung, and then were driven to pick up two other members of the group, J & J, French twin boys doing an internship in Saigon. We joined the rest of the group in the forest, where we got the gear and were tought how to use it. The group was quite small, 9 people. We saw the other groups, some of which were more than 20 people. After feeling confident with the gear by practicing absailing down a modest incline while anchored to a tree, we started going down into the steep valley. The narrow paths were muddy and we both slipped many times.

Aside from hiking, the first activity was to slide down a small waterfall headfirst on our backs, like a waterslide. That did not require any use of the gear and was just pure fun, though I did bump my ankles and legs on the rocks.

The first real abseiling we did was on a dry cliff, about 16 meters high. We pushed off it to jump a few times, and "walked" slowly down to the bottom where Thoung met us. Soon after we got wet again, being carried downstream in the river. There was supposed to be another dry cliff on the itinerary, but that one was closed for maintenance.

There was a long line for the first "wet" cliff, a waterfall some 25 meters high, with all the big groups waiting around there for their turn to use one of the two abseil lines. While waiting our guides unrolled a picnic mat and cut vegetables, and we had lunch there of make-your-own Bahn Mi (sandwiches) and fruit. Then we abseiled down the waterfall with the guides - Dragon and Thoung - directing our steps so we'd always have a faceful of water to look good in the pictures. Above the bottom our rope runs out - and I slipped a little already - so we must let go and jump backwards into the river below. It was a lot of fun and Thoung took good pictures, but I saw some other groups jumping from higher.

After this was some more muddy hiking but eventually our guide stopped hugging the cliffsides and just waded into the river, so we did the same. At some point he said, "Now you swim, I meet you in Dalat." Everyone got in the river and was carried downstream a ways. We found the guides again at the top of a cliff overlooking a big pool.

The larger cliff was 11 meters high, and right beneath it was a 7 meter high cliff. We were told we could jump off either, but none of us were quite sure how we were supposed to clear the rocks if we jumped off the higher cliff. They took our helmets away, and Dragon said we just needed a few steps running start to clear the 11m cliff. Most people were pretty sure they preferred the lower one, which you only need to hop off. A Malaysian kid was the first to try, stepping back as far as he could to get a long running start off the high cliff, and then I did it. It was easily the scariest thing we did this day in the first moment when I was flailing in midair 3 stories high. My sandals got unstrapped and almost floated off when I hit the water. The French kids followed after me, but I think all the girls chose the safer 7m cliff. Once I hit the lake I immediately ran up to the cliff to do it again. Another group showed up before I could try for a third time.

From there we climbed along another trail until we reached the second wet cliff, called the "washing machine", which descends into a river and waterfall that comes at you from the side. The cliff drops inward after only a short distance down so you are suspended in midair and have to rappell down into the waterfall. We were trying to drop down quickly but I think Dragon was holding our safety rope too taut, so we spent a few good seconds getting washed by the waterfall. When we ran out of rope and dropped down into the river, the force of the waterfall pushed us underwater and we were carried downriver underwater for a few seconds before surfacing in a little pool.

That was the end of the canyoning except to hike back up the entire way, which was physically the most demanding part. They drove us back to our hotel a little after noon and there we happily paid the rest of the cost of the tour. They didn't want us to take our wallets with us to the trek.

We got back early enough to go to the Thien Vien monastery by taxi and look at the many flowers and bonsais in their gardens. The monastery and pagoda itself is pretty minimalist and neatly organized, which is a nice change from the overly decorated shrines we've seen before. The bonsais and gardens are groomed by the monks and they seem to take their job pretty seriously. Those bonsais are beautiful! Most of the flowers have little name tags indicating what they are. We even found a corner with fewer tourists and meditated for a few moments. The monastery is close to a lake, to which we walked to take a look and buy some ice cream from a kiosk.

After spending an hour or so in the monastery grounds we took the cable car back over the pine valleys. The cable car was small, just like in a ski resort except with no place to put skis, and the ride was very nice. We got to see some strawberry farms and other plantations. The views were beautiful.

When we got off the cable car we took a cab back to town, to a restaurant Guy had found on TripAdvisor. The restaurant was closed until 1700 so we sat in a cafe for half an hour and researched some flights to Japan. When the restaurant opened we ordered some Vietnamese hot pot, which is different from Chinese hotpot in that it is more like a soup that you add vegetables to. All the meat and shrimp were already in the pot when we got it. We also had some refreshing salad for an appetizer. Then we walked up and down the hills to our hotel, but on our way back we stopped into a coffee and tea store. We bought some cheap Oolong tea that turned out to be very good.