Are you planning to trek the beatiful mountain in Vietnam?
During the Putaleng trekking trip in February, my team unexpectedly had an unexpected additional member. He was an Israeli named Gil, traveling alone through Southeast Asian countries: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and the final destination was Vietnam before he had to return home in March. He was the second Israeli I met during my adventure trips in Vietnam. The first time was Ishaq, I am not sure if I remember his name correctly, during the trip to explore Tu Lan cave in Quang Binh. I saw that the two young men had an interesting habit in common: writing a daily diary with a notebook and pen!
My team met Gil because we stayed at the same homestay named A Giang, a small, pretty and clean homestay located on the main road at the end of Si Thau Chai village, Ho Thau commune, Lai Chau province; here is a starting point for those who choose to trek to the Putaleng peak from Si Thau Chai route and go down to Ta Leng village. This is the most difficult route among the routes to conquer Putaleng peak. My team chose this route because it has the most beautiful rhododendron forests.
After a delicious, filling dinner of black chicken hotpot with fresh and green vegetables, I happened to know that Gil would also trek Putaleng the next morning. During my trips before, I rarely talk to new people if they are not in the same group with me. The conversation between Gil and I started when the young host asked me to tell Gil to move from a room for six people to a shared dormitory room of the homestay, the room rental price would not change. The reason was that her husband had mistakenly checked the booking schedule of another group of six people. This group would check in early the next morning. Gil seemed reluctant to move the room when I passed on the young host’s message. But in the end, he accepted because he had no other choice. Gil said he would check out after breakfast to go trekking. I was a bit surprised because it was the first time I met a foreigner on my trekking trips in Vietnam. I said that my group was also trekking the mountain tomorrow morning. I asked Gil who was going with him, if there was a porter and how many days he planned to go? Gil said he was going alone, without a porter. His friend shared the tracklog up the mountain with him and he planned to go by himself for 2 days and 1 night, he thought there was a “homestay” on the mountain where he could sleep. He bought water and food at a small grocery store in town to prepare for this trek. I observed that he had a large backpack with a capacity of about 50-60 liters that I often saw foreigners trekking alone or wearing during my Nepal trekking trip last year. I felt worried for him if he went alone.
Putaleng is one of the most difficult mountain trekking routes in Vietnam. This route has many paths through bamboo forests, cardamom forests, beautiful moss forests and along streams that are several kilometers long. Most of the mountain trekking routes in Vietnam go through tropical forests, streams or high cliffs. The mountain trails are mainly exploited by locals and porters. You will not see any locals living on these mountains. From my previous mountain trekking experiences, it is very easy to get lost on the mountain without a porter to guide you. There have been unfortunate accidents with some foreigners who went up the mountain alone, without a porter and without registering with the authorities to monitor information and rescue in time. Some localities no longer grant permits to foreigners to climb mountains within their communes and districts.
I advised Gil not to go up the mountain alone and explained the above reason to him. In addition, according to the weather forecast, it might rain on the mountain in the next few days. There is a sleeping hut on the mountain (which he thought was a “homestay”, where he could rent a place to sleep and buy food through his friend’s experience sharing!) but he needs to book and pay in advance. It is best for him to hire a porter to support him throughout the trip. The porter will do the procedures of registering the climber’s name with the local government, book a sleeping place in the hut, cook… and of course guide him. I suggested that he go with my team, I would inform my porter that there would be one more member and ask if he could have another porter to carry things and how much it would cost. I explained to Gil that I had booked three porters for my team of four to carry things and support us throughout the trip. If he was added, there would have to be another porter to support him. He was a little hesitant, maybe he was wondering what a stranger like me made such a request to him. 🙂 This is a normal reaction when you come to a foreign country for the first time. After a while, he said he would follow my team but still go alone, without a porter. I explained that the huts on the mountain all had owners and if he wanted to sleep in the hut, he still needed to register and pay, only the porters operating in this area could do that. He thought for a while and then told me that he wanted to go with my team on a 3-day, 2-night schedule, asking me to ask the porter how much it would cost him. I called porter A Tru (Sung Tru), a very reputable porter that my team and I had gone with on previous mountain trekking trips. A Tru said he would charge the same price as my team. I relayed A Tru’s information to Gil. He thought for a few seconds and said he would consider it and reply after… taking a shower. I finished talking to him and went back to enjoying hot tea, chatting with my team members. We talked about the next day’s plans and enjoyed the fresh, cool air and pieceful here.
About fifteen minutes later, while I was still talking to my group, I saw that Gil had finished showering and seemed to want to talk to me. He told me that he could carry his own backpack and asked me to check with the porter how much discount he could get. He didn’t have much cash with him. I called A Tru back and he said the price would be 30% off and that would be the final price. Gil agreed to that final price. A Tru and the other porters who went with us were local porters, they were the first to exploit the trekking routes in the Lao Cai and Lai Chau areas. When I go trekking in Vietnam, I often book tours directly from these local porters instead of booking through big travel companies. The tour prices booked through these local porters are always the cheapest and most reasonable. Because travel companies that organize trekking tours in Vietnam, after receiving customers, still have to rent huts and porters from people like A Tru. You can find these porters on trekking groups on facebook such as: Hoi Dam Me Leo Nui, Trekking & Hiking Viet Nam… Or when you want to trek a specific mountain, you can search for information on Facebook or Google, for example “Trekking Ta Xua” is to find the Ta Xua mountain trekking group, use Google translate to talk with local porters. Else, you can book trekking tour through tourist company if you could pay the high cost.
Gil completed the Putaleng trekking with my team after 3 days and 2 nights. Every day before going to bed, he turned on the flashlight to write a diary recording the journey that day. We conquered the rhododendron peak; watched the first rhododendron flowers of the season; watched the sea of clouds at sunset right after a hevy rain (a very rare thing for those who trek Putaleng this season); experienced going down a slippery stream of more than 1-2km in the cold, drizzling rain (Gil slipped and fell several times because he had to carry a heavy backpack and the rocks in the stream were very slippery); checked in on the Putaleng peak in the misty clouds. During the journey, I heard him say ‘you saved my life’ three times. He only felt a little regretful when checking in at the top of the mountain without seeing the surrounding scenery. I told him to come back from November to December, the season to hunt for beautiful seas of clouds on all the mountain peaks in Vietnam. This is the time when the weather is cold, clear and rainless, the most suitable season for mountain trekking.
The first thing Gil did when he went down the mountain was calling someone, he spoke in Israeli. I thought he was calling to inform his family about the situation. When trekking the mountain in Vietnam, we could not contact because the phone had no signal and there was no 4G/5G. I usually inform my family before trekking trips so they do not worry when they cannot contact me. Gil told us that he had just called his friend who introduced him to this route without providing full information. He said he was lucky because he postponed his trekking trip for a day because it was rainning and he met the me and my team that night. He came to Vietnam and heard about the mountains here, but he could not find any good information or guides to refer to online. His sharing and the image of him writing his diary every night inspired me to write about this trip. I often have the habit of searching for information on social networks, Google, Youtube about the place I will go before each trip. Last year, I had a successful and safe trekking trip to Nepal. I have collected and learned a lot from the sharing of those who have had experience trekking in Nepal before. I am very grateful for their sharing. I recorded a part of the story about my trip as a memory for myself and hope to be able to provide some more useful information for foreign friends who travel and want to trek and explore the beautiful mountains in Vietnam.
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