There is something very inspiring about the place here.
The home stay we are in is owned by an old lady who we basically call “Amma”. She lives with her aging husband in this 3 storey house. Along with her indonesian maid, she maintains this house and accepts guest from anywhere and charge a very reasonable rate for a basic room with toilet. According to Qx, he says, Amma needs company, which I have to agree…
And along with our party of 6 climbers, there were 2 other parties who stays in the house. And they were no stranger in the climbing scene.
Dr Siang and wife, who is well known in the Singapore trad climbing community as the oldest trad climber at 65 years old. He left this morning to tour the other parts of Taiwan.
Adrian, Gean, and Uncle He were here since a week ago. They have been trad climbing here and braving the cold front trying to send some routes. All 3 are no stranger in the sport climbing scene, even training and conducting Sports Climbing lvl 1 and lvl 2 courses. And they are also avid trad climbers in Long Dong and Takun. They will continue to stay on till the end of the year and fly back to SG on the 2nd Jan.
And our party consist of Qx who is the instructor, Andy who runs Onsight climbing gym, Vincent from SG, Tita from Msia, Joal from Portugal and myself.
All of us pretty much, for a lack of better words, relak jack to the max! Lol..
Its very inspiring because you see all of this people so relax, so “normal” when they are at home. Watching tv, talk crap, eat instant noodles, wear normal clothes. But, when they are at the cracks, placing pieces, making each moves seems so weightless. They suddenly turn into superhuman spiderman, ultraman or whatever you wanna call them. And yet here they are just laughing and joking talking crap and eating instant noodle like every other normal people. Like you and me. The only thing that makes them different is the amount of passion and drive they have for climbing, doesnt matter sports climb, or rock climb, or trad climb. As long as its about climbing a rock face, its their cup of tea.
And that is 1 of the many things i like about climbing. Many may say that rockclimbing is an ego sports. Yes at first that is how it is. People racing to be the first to climb a route, or people challenging trying to climb the next toughest route, or climb the fastest. But these people… they have gone past that… They don’t look at such things to keep them going… They don’t do such things for bragging rights… They dont learn a new skill to tell others that you are wrong they are right… They don’t climb here at Long Dong so that a crowd of audience will clap and applaud them… They climb, because they just love to climb. To them, that is what being alive is about.
And it is the same for me. The love for adventure is… Just for the love for adventure. To humble myself. I am just an ordinary person