Our journey to conquer the highest peak of Southeast Asia

Written by Camellia
Sunday, 16 July 2006

For the past 45 days we had been travelling to different destinations in the North, gathering the latest travel information, taking many photos and mapping out the details of the places mentioned in ” Vietnam” the Lonely Planet travels guide, Le Routard … We strongly believe that our photos and information could make a positive contribution to the travelers in their decisions making of where to spend their travel time and money.

Fansipan was our last stop. It was also the most challenging. According to Mr. Nguyen Anh Binh, the general manager, who also accompanied with us and was an inspiration to the group, the trip would help us to bring out our ability to work together as team and to realize our personal qualities of bravery and patience… That was no easy trip.

Although we had been travelling together for 45 days the pending challenge of Fansipan made us all a bit nervous. It was going to be a big challenge..

The first day.
The jeep dropped us at the base of the mountain. Our enthusiasm masked our anxiety as we prepared our backs. And we went for the summit. We passed an ethnic village with the people in their traditional and colorful costumes. After 2 hours of trekking we saw no one else. Two hours later we met our first challenge,. a very steep cliff. We had to use handholds and be very careful of where we stepped. Beneath the cliff was a deep valley which we could not see the bottom due to foggy condition on the trails. But when coming back in clear weather we realized that it was almost 1000m to the bottom. After climbing the cliff we were in need of some food and water. We stopped for lunch at 11:30AM. Finishing our short half hour lunch we began our trek to the campsite. Arriving at 15:30PM we divided the duties of cooking and setting up the tents. It had been an exhausting day and we were all in bed ready for sleep by 20:OOPM.

The second day.
We woke up early prepared a breakfast of hot noodle, and soon were back on the trail upwards. The morning was clear and bright, we could see how high up we were and how deep the valleys were. We felt secure because our guide for the trip had been to the summit 74 times. At 2000M we had a wonderful surprise forest of trees with beautiful red flowers. At 2700M the forest changed to bamboo and at 2900M another change to smaller bamboo.

Here we stopped for lunch. We realized after lunch our water was in short supply but our goal of the summit was in sight and we arrived at the.” Top” at 13:30PM. We were happy, excited and congratulated each other for our achievement. We took many pictures of the spectacular views and surrounding vistas which were well worth the 2 days of trekking. It felt like we were on top of the world. We stayed at the summit for 45 minutes and made it back to our campsite before dark.

The third day.
Although we were all very tired, it was easier going down the mountain. However climbing down the major cliff was more hazardous. The day was spectacular, the sun and our feeling of happiness seemed to cover our exhausting experience. We arrived at the foot of the mountain at 15:30PM. It had been a great trip and exciting adventure.

We are all young staff. We enjoyed our 45 days of travel together. It brought us closer as working partners with a greater understanding of each other’s personal qualities. We hope that sharing this experience with the foreign visitors will add to their appreciation of our cultural diversity and greater awareness of the people and of Vietnam as a tourist destination.

Camellia Hotels team