Sunday, July 21

Thailand part I

 See the rest of the photos here!

Day 0 - Getting there

We took the plane to krabi and landed without issues (note to self: the visa on arrival queue is shorter than the other queues mwhahahaha). Bought taxi tickets and then asked the taxi to take us to the pier. This was cute but was WRONG: we needed Ao Nang beach not Ao nang pier (ao nam Mao), because the latter is the place where boats go to Railay, not Tonsai where we needed to be. The two beaches are extremely close to each other on the map, but are separated by a gigantic cliff in real life. No biggie, say we. We will carry all our bags over the gigantic cliff!! Finally reason won and we took a boat, and, three hours after landing we were in our room.


Of course, initially it was supposed to be a getting there day, but in the end I begged and asked and whined and so we went climbing at Tyrolean Wall: Missing Snow, 6b+. It is as beautiful and intricate as I remember it, a classic for the grade. Sandra of course flashed it, I wasn't so lucky haha.

We walked to Pra Nang beach to see the sunset.


Day 1: A date with a Lion
Perhaps it's not the best thing to start your trip with the hardest route you want to do. Also, perhaps it's not so good to not train lead falls...

Hm. Anyway. I got all geared up for the Lion King (6c+) and could not summon the balls to get to the first clip. After trying and trying and trying San took pity on my wussism (a newly defined religion, its followers are called wussites) and set up the route, despite mentioning many times that she would not do it for me... She was awesome, and I was so touched!!


I tried lion king for the first time in my life and I became hooked (hehe) on what is probably a lifetime project. It's beautiful and horrible at the same time, and I loved it.



I rewarded my adherence to my new found faith with a mango sticky rice, and we next proceeded to melting wall where we sent a variety of 6bs.

Day 2: Thaiwand wall
This day will mark our shift to weekend warrior status: we only did 6as (and pluses) with a VERY VERY nice 6b (solution 41) on top rope.



Notable also is Caveman, a very nice 6a+ .


The area is very popular for its amazing views! We were lucky with the weather and Thaiwand wall was in the shade but it didn't rain that much!





Primal scream - ran out of balls so San had to set the route (sounds familiar?) I notice that after setting a number of routes I no longer have imaginary stainless steel gigantic balls but they kind of shrink to imaginary raisins.


 It is also worth noting that these raisins are much louder in yelling their fear than the stainless steel ones are in stating their assurance (note to self: need to take lead falls)


We walked through the cave to Pra Nang beach, searched for chicken drumlets and watched the beautiful beautiful sunset.






(I'm only posting san's sunset photo because she is more photogenic than I am).
Now chicken drumlets DO NOT grow in the sand of thai beaches, but used to be sold there five years ago. Unfortunately, these, together with the marvelous duck noodles cart, are no longer available. As is natural, a large number of changes have occurred on the peninsula, but thank fuck these changes were mostly in Railay, which has become very developed and very very touristy. Weirdly enough, there are even non-climbers in Tonsai, probably attracted by the cheap cheap accommodation.

After sunset we went to eat and then started the long trek home: to get to Tonsai from Railay at low tide is easy and fun, as you see a lot of crabs, sea cucumbers and sea urchins. To get to Tonsai from Railay at high tide in pitch darkness is not so fun.

4 comments:

ionuca said...

The pics are awesome and the trip sounds amazing! You go, girl!

claudia said...

look who's talking! Loved you hiking photos!!

judith said...

The duck noodle cart should be there!!! sometimes have, sometimes dont have.. the one at railey right? There is only ONE i know of... hahaha

claudia said...

We searched for it on many days Jud, it's gone! :(