After months of asking around, I managed to find someone who has tons of caving experience - journalist Lam Phong - a friend of a friend of a friend of mine (In other words, our connection is as far as the shooting range of a cannon T_T). He goes by several different pennames, so it wasn't easy to track him down. But as I was told that he usually went to a wine cellar - slash - antique exhibition place called City Star, I was there the next day! Lam Phong turned out to be a very friendly & helpful person (Thanks God!). He showed me tons of pictures & tips. But there were 3 things that Lam Phong was concerned about (all of which I will eventually get to in the series about SD): Physical ability, Financial issue, & the Team that goes with me. Speaking from experience, Lam Phong said these types of adventurous trips can really bring out the evil in each of us (think The Amazing Race). There were so many times he had to resist punching somebody in the face - "either those obnoxious douchebags or some whinning b!ches"
- Why don't you recruit your own team? They [Oxalis] just need 8 for a private tour! ~ suggested Phong.
- errr... uhm... hmmm... ya know... It's not exactly the easiest thing to find 7 others who either have $3000 of cash laying around doing nothing or a week off anytime to escape from work. ~ I hesitated ~ Besides, most of my girl friends like to spend their vacation on the beach.
- Well, then you just have to go with your luck. Chances are: among the 7 others that you'll be grouped with, there will be at leat 1 person that you'll hate.
And now that I have come back from my trip, I want to go find Lam Phong to (first) thank him and (second) tell him that: I'm the luckiest solo traveler = I LIKE EVERYBODY IN MY TEAM!!!
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Photo taken on our last day, when we got out of the cave. ALIVE!
Let's first start off by saying that: I've met Howard Limbert & Hồ Khanh! OH MAH GAWD! I'VE MET HOWARD LIMBERT & HỒ KHANH!!!!!!!!!! If you've done your homework about SD, you know these two names. I almost fainted when Toàn told me I would be going on expedition with them. Dr. Howard Limbert (blue shirt, sitting next to me), as introduced above, led the team that explored SD for the first time in 2009. He first came to Vietnam 24 years ago because he knew, all the way from back then, that there existed such underground wonder in this region. Hồ Khanh (grey shirt, standing, 4th from left), on the other hand, was the one who discovered the cave entrance in 1990 during one time he sought shelter from a storm. Khanh couldn't go in though because it's too deep (80 meters ~ about 25-story high). These two, despite how legendary they are, are actually very humbled in person. Khanh is even quite shy.
If you dig a little deeper in your research, you would also hear about UK excavator Ian "Watto" Watson or see pictures that feature Toàn Bamboo on National Geographic.
Watto (picture below) to me is like Santa Clause to a 5 year old - except that he's the mean version of Santa Clause haha lol... nah, jk. Deep inside that rough & tough apperance is a soft heart. I liked him since the first day we met. He attempted to learn everybody's names beforehand. That's exactly what I do with my students too! So although during the trek, he teased me a lot and called me Crumpler (this is actually Mike's fault >"<), I adore that grumpling man. The day we said goodbye, he gave me a big hug, lifting me up 4 feet from the ground.
I MISS YOU, WATTOOOOOOO!!!! ^_^
And then we have Toàn Bamboo (brown tank top, most right), our tour guide. 2 things I'm impressed about him: great singing voice + mesmerizing long eyelashes. OMG! I'm jelly of his beautiful lashes - well, at least, compared to the average Asian - his is so long that I feel like if I stand underneath them in the rain, I won't get wet!
In the picture, you can also see anh Kỳ (light green shirt, right to Mr Khanh) & anh Minh (yellow shirt, right to anh Kỳ). Anh Kỳ is a gentleman, he held my hand every time we crossed a difficult path (Now that I think back about it, I held a bit too many hands during that trek -___-) And anh Minh, he just became a father one day before he went on the expedition. Without these two and 20 other local porters, this expedition wouldn't have happened. For a full series of all of their portraits, check out this INCREDIBLE WEBSITE (click here).
Who took these photos? You may ask. Here comes the best part: In our team of 8 tourists, there is a professional photographer. HOW AWESOME IS THAT! Jason (grey shirt, 2nd from left) is an a-ma-zing talent. Check out his other albums, especially the other one he took in Vietnam (click here). Or another one that I absolutely love is the "Orange & Grey" in Chile (click here).
Next to Jason is Mike - the guy with the cutest "half-smile." And that's obviously why he got chosen to be our "Model of the Day" all the time!!! nah, jk, he got chosen simply because he wore bright neon green a lot (with the type of caving photos we took, a cute smile doesn't do much - picture below). In all seriousness though, Mike is a very kind person - he lent me his T-shirt on the last day when I ran out of clean clothes to wear (without him, I would have had to walk around town naked like a three-year-old minority kid T_T). He's also super duper funny. Cracked me up all the time with the way he impersonated other people.
Jason taking photo of Mike. And Howard... I don't know what Howard was doing there :|
Speaking of cuteness, Norman - Olivia definitely won "The Most Adorable Couple I've Ever Met" award. Just look at the first picture & guess which ones they are... That's right! The kissing couple. Cuteness overload!!! Both are doctors from Singapore. Norman is my age & Olivia is the youngest of the group, 24. The way they talk to each other just melts your heart.
Olivia with a butterfly on her gloves
Another couple in our team is Magnus & Mary, the M&M couple (standing behind Norman & Olivia). As their nickname suggest, they're extremely sweet people. Magnus is half Korean, half Australian, and Mary is - like me - a teacher! You can't imagine how happy we were when we found out we're both teachers. Howard said there were quite a number of doctors and tech people among the 200 that have done SD, but he couldn't recall any educators. So of course, Mary & I claim to title of "The First Teachers that Conquered SD" right away. haha... Besides that, what I love most about Mary & Magnus is how well they got along with the local porters. We had so much fun playing cards together the last few nights. This reminds me of my treks in Nepal, where the Western clients all had dinner on the table, while the porters sat quietly around the room, waiting to be called & serve their clients. I found that scene very very sad. Here in Son Doong, everybody in our team was friendly to the locals. There was no language barrier, no cultural barrier, no barrier between the ones who pay & the ones who get paid :)
This is how much fun we had...
Compared to a typical night on the Annapurna:
Western clients on the dinning table, local porters sitting around waiting to be called.
I know the barrier didn't exist on purpose. But it was just there. Depressing!
Last but definitely not least, Wayne! Wayne oh Wayne! (blue shirt, standing between Jason & Hồ Khanh) He's not only our team clown but also an incredibly thoughtful & caring man. He gave me a free-dried ice cream for my [pre] birthday celebration - the type that astronauts bring with them to space :D How sweet is that! Wayne has 2 daughters - 2 beautiful girls. He showed us their pictures with pride. I always admire dads who carry their kids' photos around :)
My birthday astronaut ice-cream
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So that's all about the team I went with into the cave. Regarding Oxalis, the back office people are all fantastic. Start with CEO Nguyễn Châu Á. Many Vietnamese people thought that Oxalis is a foreign-owned company (because of its high standard of professionalism), but it was in fact founded by a "son of Quảng Bình" - anh Nguyễn Châu Á, who has devoted his life to promote tourism of his homeland. Heard many good things about him & was even more impressed when I met him at the airport.
And then we have Luke & Jamie (below), who went way above & beyond their duties to help me out, answering all of my silly questions & more importantly putting up with my last minute planning. What I most appreciate about them is the fact that although they're foreigners (Luke is Australian & Jamie American), they truly love & care for this country - even more than some of my fellow Vietnamese friends. Besides, Luke is a great singer (he rocks "Em của ngày hôm qua" - how cool is that :D) and I just love Jamie's bubbly personality. You can't help feeling happy around her. One cool fact about Jamie is that she was one of the first tourists to Son Doong. And she fell in love with it, with Quảng Bình, & with Vietnam; she decided to come back & then work for Oxalis.
The last night, we were invited to an Oxalis karaoke party - Nhân's birthday, where we got to meet Thoại, Thảo, Yến, and many more young & energetic Oxalis-ers. Words can't describe how much fun we had, it's better to show you our video:
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I know this is not exactly a helpful tip & trick type of post, but rather a big show-out to the amazing team that I was very fortunate to work with. I can wholeheartedly reccommend Oxalis but I can't guarantee you'll have great group dynamics. Like anh Lam Phong said, you'll just have to go with your luck. But hey, regardless of who you'll get grouped with, you'll always have beautiful lakes, rivers, waterfalls, forests, animals, even rocks to friend with. Sơn Đoòng is breath-taking - you have my words on that. In the next post, I'll write in more detail about the 7-day itinerary as well as discuss the physical demand of the expedition (Lam Phong's 2nd concern), plus some tips & tricks.
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