Welcome to Travel Tuesday! I’ve been rock climbing before but hadn’t ever tried abseiling (rappelling) so…we decided to go on the Kong Collapse Top Adventure to try something new!
Kong Collapse Top Adventure with Jungle Boss: What To Expect
We actually did this tour right after our Son Doong Cave Expedition, so our Oxalis group there thought we were equal parts insane + awesome.
Jungle Boss is actually a tour company founded by someone who used to work for Oxalis — they operate in different caves though so there’s no direct-direct competition.
Cost
My brother managed to snag an amazing deal on this one for us after staying up all night and taking advantage of a flash sale on a private tour, so we (me, my brother, his girlfriend) were the only ones on this trip! The usual price is ~$1490.65 (35,000,000 VND), which includes:
- Tour guide, 3 safety assistants, and a porter team (will carry up to 3kg of your stuff)
- Entrance fee into Phong Nha National Park (2,088,000 VND)
- Transportation between Dong Hoi + Phong Nha if needed (we were already in Phong Nha)
- All accommodations
- 2 homestay nights (arrival day + final day)
- 3 nights in the cave with tents
- All camping gear, safety equipment, camp lights
- Transportation to/from Phong Nha National Park
- Trekking shoes (sizes 36-45 available)
- All breakfasts/lunches/dinners + snacks on camping days/nights
- Towel/camp shoes
- Organic soap (if not going the wet-wipe route + washing in the river)
- VAT fee
We also got a spray bottle for bugs (mainly leeches), 4 energy bars, 1L bottle of water, and sandals (to use as camp shoes!).
Breakfast the morning that we set out on our trip!
Booking
We booked this a couple months in advance via their website. Their tours aren’t as restricted (15 allowed per group). You may be sharing the same campsite with other groups on some days, but there are designated areas for tents/bathrooms for each group.
Difficulty
Since we’d legit just finished Son Doong Cave Expedition the day before, they weren’t particularly worried that we wouldn’t be able to complete this.
Messi gave us a quick overview of our next 4 days would entail.
Distance: 23 km (14.3 miles) in the jungle + 7km (4.35 miles) in the cave
Abseiling: 100m (~328 feet)
Swimming*: 500m (1640 feet)
Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult
*If you can’t swim, one of the safety guides will swim for you and tow you across.
Weather/Climate
Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park means “kingdom of caves” and is home to over 400 caves, including 4 of the 6 largest caves in the world! 99.6% are covered by limestone mountains + they flood every year.
Dry season is from March to September and March/April are supposed to be the best months of the year for hiking.
We went in mid-May. Average temperatures in May range from a low of 75°F (24°C) to a high of 92°F (33°C). (Please keep in mind though that it’s cooler in the caves! If you run cold, you may want to bring a light jacket or layer up.)
Safety
On our training day, a doctor checked our vitals (blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, respiratory rate) beforehand + we also filled out a medical questionnaire. (The form asks if you have cardiovascular disease, hypertension, asthma, osteoarthritis, acrophobia, nyctophobia, if you can swim, what adventure activities you’ve done in the past.)
Training consisted of learning to do/practicing the following:
- via ferrata (method of climbing where you wear a harness and clip into a rope or cable so that in the event of the fall, the carabiner will break your fall)
- abseiling (first from 10m/32ft, then from higher up)
The training prepares you super well — enough that I felt comfortable doing this! (It’s a 30m/100ft drop below me.)
Overall, I did feel that the safety assistants we had at Oxalis were a lot more on top of things. (Out of the 3 we had here, one was super proactive/helpful and great with anticipating our potential needs, e.g. potentially slippery spots/giving suggestions on footholds, etc. The other two were a lot younger so they may just need a little more experience. (I did feel safe and very well-prepared throughout the entire tour though!)
The third section of abseiling was 50m/164ft!
Kong Collapse is a relatively new tour (it was only recently re-explored in 2019/2020)! For whatever reason, the people who usually go on this tour are local Vietnamese women! We were among the first 50 foreigners to have ever done the Kong Collapse Top Adventure, and the first foreigners Messi had ever taken on a tour. (When he first saw us, he thought we were Vietnamese and just visiting family/exploring while we were at it!)
Mayhaps that will change in the future? It was so much fun! :]
- Stay tuned next week for more on my experience on the actual tour! :]
- Are you afraid of heights?
- Have you ever been abseiling? Would you ever want to go?!
12 comments
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Yeeeees! Farrah this is sooo flipping cool! The photos are simply spectacular – you look like you’ve been abseiling your whole life and like a ballerina on a rope! Did it make you want to try again closer to home?
Josy A recently posted…Bertha Lake – Waterton Lakes
Aww, thank you! I credit our super awesome tour guide who acted as our photographer!! :P I’d love to do this more at home but I think over here, it’d be infinitely more expensive for not as complete of an experience. :[!
Farrah recently posted…Kong Collapse Experience with Jungle Boss
This looks like such a cool adventure! I would love this!
It was a lot of fun for sure! I hope you get to do something like this sometime too! :D
This climb looks so much fun. I am not sure I could do it since I’d consider myself a beginner but I could work my way up to it. Thank you for sharing.
Thankfully not much climbing involved with this trip — it was mostly descending for the long stretches so as long as you’re not supersuper afraid of heights, you’d probably be fine! :]
Farrah recently posted…Kong Collapse Experience with Jungle Boss
Wow! what an adventure! I am very impressed at this Kong collapse top adventure, It not only requires the right skills and training but also a lot of courage and confidence, Hanging upside down with 100-164 ft below you is awesome. I did a tandem jump many years ago and I understand the thrill of doing such adventures. Enjoyed your blog post! :-)
hehe, thank you! :] It was a lot of fun!
I feel like a tandem jump would require so much courage and confidence too! I’ve done 2 cliff jumps and it took me so, so much internal pep talking before I could convince myself to actually make the leap, hahaha.
Farrah recently posted…Kong Collapse Experience with Jungle Boss
What an amazing experience you had! This sounds like quite the adventure.
It was so much fun! :]
Farrah recently posted…Kong Collapse Experience with Jungle Boss
I am impressed by your courage and stamina to hike and climb to this amazing natural wonder. You have shared some very helpful and detailed information on what to expect and how to prepare for this challenging but rewarding experience. I also enjoyed reading your personal stories and anecdotes along the way. You have a great sense of humor and a positive attitude. Your photos are breathtaking and show the beauty and majesty of Kong Collapse.
Supraja Lakshmi N recently posted…Exploring the Most Dangerous Places in the World
Thanks so much! :]