That's it my birthday is over. I had my piece of cake, a Queen's cake, sort of "gateau a etages" with cashew nuts. Not bad! Sam had a lemon cake. It was a cake shop by the river Chao Praya. Sam noticed my startegy... I always say my birthday is not over until I have cake... To tell the truth, we were always too full to have desert so that's why my birthday was extended for 3 days this year.
We arrived in Bangkok on the 16th, left beautiful Tonsai at 9 or 9:30, my friend Kokai gave me a nice shirt. She gives great massages at the coffee shop at the Sea of Love in Tonsai. She also works at the coffee shop and her husband, Ozzy, does Batik in a little annex to the coffee shop/bar. That's where we ate every day, food was very good and everybody was friendly so we kept going! Anyways, we left Tonsai after a last breakfast and it was an easy trip to Bangkok. Because it is low season, we did not have to buy our plane ticket in advance or book a hotel, etc. We just showed up and we did not have to wait, it was super smooth. We used the express bus from the airport, and it dropped us in crazy, busy and noisy Kao San Road. We tried to walk away a bit to find a quieter road for a quieter hotel but it happens that at night, our road becomes quite noisy as well with loud music and tourists partying. We had our earplugs and managed to sleep! Before going to sleep, we walk around, ate some food on the streets and discovered a "roti" restaurant offering a kind of food that we did not have yet in Thailand. Sort of little pancakes with great curries.
On the 17th, we woke up early to visit temples and Grand Palace. We had a veritable latte, at Ricky's coffee shop, it was as good as the ones we get at Re-Entry on Main street. Read the Bangkok Post, and actually enjoyed it very much. We first visited a wat near the Grand Palace, the one with the emerald buddha. From the Grand Palace, I loved the mural depicting the Ramakien story. I also liked the precious objects exhibition, betel nut sets for the king and queen, all decorated very finely, strange rings with nine different stones, crowns, etc. We then walked to the reclining Buddha. Gigantic statue, I liked the sounds of coins falling in a series of metal bowls, a sort of offering one can make by putting one coin per bowl. Then we met Tamsin on the way to Wat Arun. Actually it was not the first climber we had met on our way, we saw a few familiar faces we had met in Tonsai. Tourists all have the same gidebooks so we end up at the same places... It was great to meet Tamsin, we decided to continue our visit in Bankok together. Wat Arun was great, you can climb up and see far away. We finished our walk by visiting a small market and got some mangostines, my favorite fruit. We had dinner at a stall. Then back to our hotel briefly and up to Muy Tai! I was not sure to like it but I did! The fighters were fabulous athletes, it was not aggressive, the competitors where respectful towards each others and concentrated. They even perform a small dance before the fight. We saw about 4 fights. The stadium was not full but enough to have lots of ambiance. We were lucky enough to meet a Thai guy who told us the rules of the games and explained the hand gestures the crowd was making, a betting sign language! We took a tuk-tuk on the way there and back, we should have taken a meter taxi, it would have been cheaper. You have to negotiate a fixed price with the tuk-tuk drivers and we were not so good at it. Oh well, it ended-up being less than 3.50 $ there and back... We are cheap!
Today, we met with Tamsin at a coffee shop near her place, then changed a few american dollars into bahts and off to Ricky's coffee house again. I had a great papaya lassi... hummmmm. We walked to the pier and took a boat on the Chap Phraya in the direction of China Town. We then walked about in it, checking out all kind of cheap merchandise, stuff that for the most part you don't want but end up keeping around anyway... And sorry, we don't even have pictures because that's where the batteries died... We were good, we did not buy stuff. We had lunch in a great dim sum place. We then took a taxi to Jim Thompson's house where we spent the afternoon. We had a great guide. At the end of the official tour, she answered our many questions about the paintings and the story of buddha. Jim Thompson was an architect, and after being in the army stationed in Thailand he revived weaving and silk printing in Thailand. His house is a mix of traditional and non-traditional architecture, with lots of beautiful pieces of collection, like a walking buddha, amazing tables and scuptures, etc... We then watched a movie about silk weaving. Then, we took another boat, in a smaller canal, more polluted. We walked in small streets to the area where we live in, ate at the roti shop again, watched a group of people doing some aerobic boot camp in a tiny park by the river and figured that the watching might have helped to create a bit of an appetite for a cake...
We leave tomorrow at 8:10 in the morning, that means we have to wake up at 4:15. I should really get up now and start packing.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Routes to do, Thailand
The guide books are pretty weak on recommendations for routes, here are the routes you should do, IMHO, when you go.
3-star routes are ones I'd make sure I do again if I had the chance, 2-star are ones I'm really happy I did, 1-star and 0-star aren't in this list.
For the record, I like long continuous routes with interesting features and fun moves, but some routes make the list because of positioning (right off the beach, for example).
- Banana Hammock, 6a+, The Nest **
- Dozer Days, 6c, The Nest ***: good roof, hard face moves, cool stemming to stalactites
- Groove Tuby, 6a, Fire Wall **: easy climb up a chimney, but great positioning
- Missing Snow, 6b+, Tyrolean **: neat melting wax rock
- Smoking Room, 6c, Melting Wall ***: roof, stalactites, stemming, powerful at times, overhanging, its got it all
- Cross-Eyed, 7b, Melting Wall ***: crazy huecos, big dynos, powerful slightly overhanging face, and fine positioning
- I no speak England, 6b+, Tonsai **
- Land of smiles, 7a/7b, Happy Island ***: crazy complex crux over this weird blob on an otherwise blank wall, and continuous hard and delicate climbing above
- Don't worry, be happy, 6a+, Happy Island ***: Julie really liked this, I didn't do it. Get a boost to the first bolt!
- King Cat, 6c, Cat Wall ***: so overhanging, its hard to believe its climbable, but it is!
- the 6a's on Cobra Wall **
- Circus Oz, 6a*, Thaiwand ***: long and fun
- The King and I, 7a, Thaiwand: long, fun, intimidating, lots of endurance and then powerful
- Fit to be Thaid, 6a+, Thaiwand ***
- Beauty and the Beast, 6a+, Tonsai **: deep breath, and let yourself fall out to the stalactite, fun!
- Heart of Darkness, 6c+/7a, Cat Wall ***: 5 pitches of fun climbing, continuous at the grade, and a beautiful mid-height belay ledge to look out over the bay from, and goes right to the top of the wall (unlike most multipitch down there)
- Humanlity, 6b+, Tonsai **: overrated, its got a nasty start, some boring pitches, and a stellar move at midheight, despite this its right over the beach so wins based on positioning
- Love for Travelling, 7a+/6c, Tonsai ***: funky moves, deep pockets, stemming, chimneying, roofs and cracks, great!
- Monkey Love, 6b, Thaiwand **
- Mala Mujer, 6b, Thaiwand ***: long and fun
- Fire Starter, 6c+, Fire Wall **
- Burnt Offerings, 7a+, Fire Wall ***: great photos, good moves over an improbable cave mouth
- Beauty and the Beast, 6b, Monkey World ***: first pitches are ok, but the last is a full 30 metres of continuously fun and interesting stemming, chimneying, face, tufas, etc., great Thai limestone!
- Lion King, 6c+, Dum's Kitchen ***: f'ing hard for the grade, but fun, and gets an extra star for coming straight off the beach
- Caroline's Last Day, 6a, The Nest **: fun chimney, and Wee's guidebook is wrong, it's been rebolted with titanium glue-ins
- Big Wave, 6b, Monkey Wall ***: first pitch is ok, but next 3 pitches are uniformly fabulous, differ from each in character, and it goes to just 10 feet short of the top! Great route, great view.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Ramblings about climbing, Thailand
OK, longer post about the climbing here. We have some pictures, but its really hard to give any indication of how phenomenally overhanging some of the routes are. They are climbable by dint of having (usually) very positive, sharp holds, lot of heel hooks, knee bars, etc. Still, powerful, and hard for me to onsight. I keep doing hard clips with my hands below the bolts, when I'd be better off climbing a few more moves until the next good holds, then being too tired to continue.
I don't think so clearly, though, when my feet are scrabbling down at my last clip, and my arms are pumping out and the skin is peeling off my hands. Oh, and they aren't always bolts, the walls are so featured, a lot of climbs are completely protected by loops of climbing rope tied through holes in the rock. Actually, not so bad, at least you can see what you got, as opposed to wondering what vintage of bolt you're clipping in to... I clipped a glue in a hardware galvanized eyebolt today, that was only half into the wall, and that had the eye tied to another rusty bolt 5 inches higher up the wall. Two times shit pro = ....? (don't fall)
The other thing that makes such overhanging routes climbable is stalactites... A route might overhang as much as it goes up, but you start chimneying your (bare, t-shirts get soaked with sweat so fast only they Thais wear them) back up a scratchy stalactite, eventually swinging both legs around it, squeezing it like a coconut tree, and resting. Sometimes you don't even notice, you're so focussed on the wall, and they you look desperately around, and see a shadow behind you, and realize you can just plant a foot behind you and you're resting! Crazy fun. Oh, and they break off sometimes. And they vibrate when you use them, and sometimes they are only 8 inches thick and 6 feet long... but still, its like being tossed a lifesaver, who are you to question?
Lots of multi-pitch, too. Julie and Ryan went up the classic Humanality today. Its 6 pitches directly up from the Freedom Bar (if you count the first pitch, an unprotected solo of an overhanging mangrove tree, really). Over 120 metres down in two long double rope rappels, landing right beside the bar. Literally, you can call an order to the barman even before you hit pavement.
Ryan and I swung leads up Heart of Darkness, a huge route overhanging Tonsai Bay. It rained for the last half, but we never noticed, its too overhanging. Mostly 6c, but starting and ending with harder pitches (Ryan led those, lucky for me, the last one in particular was 35 metres of sharp and balancing climbing, ending at the jungle. But I got to lead the coolest pitch! Starting from this beautiful and cosy egg-shaped belay shelf (we hung out there a bit, watched the rain, and took pictures), I climbed straight up and through a cave in an overhanging stalictite system, ending up on a little platform high in the stalctites! That pitch is called "threading the needle".
Anyhow, enough about the climbing. Its OK. :-)
I don't think so clearly, though, when my feet are scrabbling down at my last clip, and my arms are pumping out and the skin is peeling off my hands. Oh, and they aren't always bolts, the walls are so featured, a lot of climbs are completely protected by loops of climbing rope tied through holes in the rock. Actually, not so bad, at least you can see what you got, as opposed to wondering what vintage of bolt you're clipping in to... I clipped a glue in a hardware galvanized eyebolt today, that was only half into the wall, and that had the eye tied to another rusty bolt 5 inches higher up the wall. Two times shit pro = ....? (don't fall)
The other thing that makes such overhanging routes climbable is stalactites... A route might overhang as much as it goes up, but you start chimneying your (bare, t-shirts get soaked with sweat so fast only they Thais wear them) back up a scratchy stalactite, eventually swinging both legs around it, squeezing it like a coconut tree, and resting. Sometimes you don't even notice, you're so focussed on the wall, and they you look desperately around, and see a shadow behind you, and realize you can just plant a foot behind you and you're resting! Crazy fun. Oh, and they break off sometimes. And they vibrate when you use them, and sometimes they are only 8 inches thick and 6 feet long... but still, its like being tossed a lifesaver, who are you to question?
Lots of multi-pitch, too. Julie and Ryan went up the classic Humanality today. Its 6 pitches directly up from the Freedom Bar (if you count the first pitch, an unprotected solo of an overhanging mangrove tree, really). Over 120 metres down in two long double rope rappels, landing right beside the bar. Literally, you can call an order to the barman even before you hit pavement.
Ryan and I swung leads up Heart of Darkness, a huge route overhanging Tonsai Bay. It rained for the last half, but we never noticed, its too overhanging. Mostly 6c, but starting and ending with harder pitches (Ryan led those, lucky for me, the last one in particular was 35 metres of sharp and balancing climbing, ending at the jungle. But I got to lead the coolest pitch! Starting from this beautiful and cosy egg-shaped belay shelf (we hung out there a bit, watched the rain, and took pictures), I climbed straight up and through a cave in an overhanging stalictite system, ending up on a little platform high in the stalctites! That pitch is called "threading the needle".
Anyhow, enough about the climbing. Its OK. :-)
Sea of Love Real Coffee, Tonsai, Thailand
Most mornings and evenings we eat at the Sea of Love Real Coffee house. Its only a few dozen metres down the dirt road from where our cabana is, so its pretty convenient. They serve the same food as every other restaurant around here, and you only stand a 50/50 chance of getting what you order, but at least they laugh about it with you, and actually tried in the first place.
Ozzie and his wife KoKai take care of the place, as well as Ozzie's Batik school next door. And Faa is the cheerful girl, maybe just a teen-ager, who comes over from the restaurant to take over food orders. They are trying to teach us a bit of Thai, mostly words for fruit.
Speaking of fruit, we got some that looked like LongGan at the Krabi market, but they have multiple lobes and seeds inside, and are a bit more sour than LongGan. Apparently they are called LongKong.
Anyhow, I think Ramadan just started, we were sitting around reading, and drinking Mango Lassi when Ozzie and KoKai asked us over to eat dinner with them. Its their main meal because they fast from sun up to sun down. It was great, some fish curries (a bit spicy for Julie), and a kind of rice that was tossed with fried coconut and spices and maybe some kind of fish flavour? Hard to tell.
I'm at the bar right now, drinking a Chiang (Elephant) beer, and listening to our music, they let Julie put her iShuffle into the sound system, and Julie is being given a tour of Ozzie's batik making now, I think. Anyhow, they are laughing about something.
There aren't any schools over hear, so the kids apparently have to go over to the nearest town (a 15 minute boat ride away) to stay with relatives when they are older. It's hard, nobody speaks more than really rudimentary English, so communication is mostly smiles, and spare words, and numbers. When I asked Ozzie, he told me about the schools, but a few days ago his brother showed up with all his nephews, and sister and law, and then left with his four month old baby to take him to his mother. Maybe its too hard to keep their baby here, and still work? Its a resort for us, but its not clear what its like for the people who work here.
I feel like I live in a glass bubble here, I've never been anywhere that so few people spoke English, even Japan and rural Mexico have a few people around who may not be fluent but who you can ask questions of.
Ozzie and his wife KoKai take care of the place, as well as Ozzie's Batik school next door. And Faa is the cheerful girl, maybe just a teen-ager, who comes over from the restaurant to take over food orders. They are trying to teach us a bit of Thai, mostly words for fruit.
Speaking of fruit, we got some that looked like LongGan at the Krabi market, but they have multiple lobes and seeds inside, and are a bit more sour than LongGan. Apparently they are called LongKong.
Anyhow, I think Ramadan just started, we were sitting around reading, and drinking Mango Lassi when Ozzie and KoKai asked us over to eat dinner with them. Its their main meal because they fast from sun up to sun down. It was great, some fish curries (a bit spicy for Julie), and a kind of rice that was tossed with fried coconut and spices and maybe some kind of fish flavour? Hard to tell.
I'm at the bar right now, drinking a Chiang (Elephant) beer, and listening to our music, they let Julie put her iShuffle into the sound system, and Julie is being given a tour of Ozzie's batik making now, I think. Anyhow, they are laughing about something.
There aren't any schools over hear, so the kids apparently have to go over to the nearest town (a 15 minute boat ride away) to stay with relatives when they are older. It's hard, nobody speaks more than really rudimentary English, so communication is mostly smiles, and spare words, and numbers. When I asked Ozzie, he told me about the schools, but a few days ago his brother showed up with all his nephews, and sister and law, and then left with his four month old baby to take him to his mother. Maybe its too hard to keep their baby here, and still work? Its a resort for us, but its not clear what its like for the people who work here.
I feel like I live in a glass bubble here, I've never been anywhere that so few people spoke English, even Japan and rural Mexico have a few people around who may not be fluent but who you can ask questions of.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Looking across the bay from Tonsai/s Cat wall
Tonsai is the beach on the bottom left, the green bump is what you have to traverse across in the dark with headlamps. Its a climber's trail. I.e., 4th class scrambling to get onto it. The beach in the distance is Railay West, and the big thumb sticking up is Thaiwand wall. Good single pitch and hard, hard multi-pitch. The white wall on the lower left is the one that towers over Tonsai bar, and has Humanality (6b, 4/5 pitches) which we haven't done yet, but will before we go.
Various things found in trees..
Bird or paradise flower growing in the ditch beside the dirt road up through Tonsai.Papaya (too green, its not the season) growing in the tree outside our apartment.
And monkeys in the trees over Ya Ya's restaurant... everybody was cowering to the side while they ripped the trees apart!
Cooking class, with Ryan and Aum
At the end Julie asked about the fruit carving they do here. One of the restaurants always has a giant watermelon with a kindof lace filligree carved into it. Aum said she could only do carrots... so she showed Julie how. Not a regularly scheduled part of the class, but she was really nice, and I think we were doing the cooking (and eating) ahead of schedule.
When it gets dark, it gets dark fast
Like the lights have been turned out. Except for the pretty lights. This is walking home from Happy Island, off Phra-Nang beach.The colours don't come through well, it was much more orange. Come see.
Another 6b over the bar...
I'm just pushing all these pictures up on the free wireless I just found... who knows when my good luck will end?
Julie at the Tonsai bar, watching me climb
And hanging out with Tamsin, waiting there turn. That's Thaiwand wall in the background.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
thailand, tuesday
Well, today was a climbing day, so nothing much to report. Sam faced the lion king, and was beaten. over and over. but it was fun for the spectators to watch me whipping from the anchors, so some were happy.
Then did King Cat. Also not my proudest moment, I need to fully absorb the ways of Thai limestone: when the clipping is bad, keep climbing to the jug. Anyhow,it had two no hands rest and overhangs about 20 feet, about 80 feet in the air... "good exposure"
Julie led a few 6as today at cobra wall. No cobra, but I was scared anyway when I couldn't see the hidden rope she'd clipped...
Some good pictures, but no way to post, so off for more thai food.
Oh, and we finally got some rain again. Its thunder and lightening right now! (ignore m y spelling, puhlease).
Et une message for la francophonie:
Bonjour les amis! On a fait des bonnes grimpes aujour'hui. Sam a eu moins de succes sur ses voies difficiles. Moi j'ai grimpe des choses plus faciles mais tres belles.
Then did King Cat. Also not my proudest moment, I need to fully absorb the ways of Thai limestone: when the clipping is bad, keep climbing to the jug. Anyhow,it had two no hands rest and overhangs about 20 feet, about 80 feet in the air... "good exposure"
Julie led a few 6as today at cobra wall. No cobra, but I was scared anyway when I couldn't see the hidden rope she'd clipped...
Some good pictures, but no way to post, so off for more thai food.
Oh, and we finally got some rain again. Its thunder and lightening right now! (ignore m y spelling, puhlease).
Et une message for la francophonie:
Bonjour les amis! On a fait des bonnes grimpes aujour'hui. Sam a eu moins de succes sur ses voies difficiles. Moi j'ai grimpe des choses plus faciles mais tres belles.
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