Sunday, August 31, 2008

thailand, monday, 2nd rest day

doing 2 days on, 1 day off, today is second rest day

last rest we went to phra-nang beach, i tried some slacklining. i suck. also did some acrobatics with Ryan, who does gymnastics and tumbling. was fun. lots of giant penis sculptures in princess cave. she likes to take a new man every year, so they hope she'll be placated with the toys... either that, or its thai soft-core.

water is a little cooler than the air. but not much.

climbing is fabulous. severely overhanging, acrobatic moves around giant overhanging stalactites. they shake when you stand on them :-( lots of head jams possible for full body rests. good times. lets not talk about the gear.

6c seems to be about my onsight limit (50/50). I don't know if the translations to the YDS are bad, or the nature of climbing here is hard to onsight. anyhow, have redpointed a 7a on TR, and hauled my ass up a 7b+... rock is sharp. our pictures all suck.

people are really nice. today we started with a cooking class from a really great teacher, Aum. We did pad thai, curry, tom yam soup, chicken satay, and banana in coconut milk. We also learned that this is mangosteen season! We need to get to the market in krabi town! maybe next rest day. also got shown a bunch of fruit trees and vegie plants. cool. Oh, and it wasn't on the schedule, but Aum showed julie how to carve a carrot into a flower! its a bit of a tradition, the finer resorts have these beautiful carved watemelons at the gate. it looks a bit like lace. Aum can only do flower carrots, though, and now so can Julie. Get her to show you when she gets back.

i can't keep a shirt clean, its sweaty within seconds of putting it on, so I don't bother. also, julie has threatened to throw my clothes away before we come back.

stay strong, be brave, wait for the signs.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thailand seems to use the French system so 6c is about 5.11a YDS. 7a goes at 5.11c and 7b is 12a so you're doing quite well!