From the mean streets of Bangkok…(where no one is mean)

I am now in Bangkok, and the place is bangin!

I anticipated staying in Bangkok about 3 days total. I have been here 9 days now. However I am hitting the road to Cambodia in the morning. I still have some more photos to upload, so stay tuned-more Bangkok is on its way!

Heres the Bangkok re-cap.

Upon arrival I quickly purchased that antibiotic medicine that I needed. I took it and I am finally back to my old self after about a month of tummy pains.

Bangkok is the metro center of Thailand, it is where everything passes through before going to the far off reaches of the Kingdom. There is soooo much to see and do here! I’m pretty sure if I came to Bangkok right from the US, I may have hated it here, but after coming from southern Thailand where we didn’t even have electricity and survived on generators, toilets were simply holes in the ground that we poured water into after using them, we slept in bamboo shacks where all kinds of creatures came to live with you, and not to mention being dirty all the time no matter how often you showered-you may understand why I really like Bangkok at this point!! The city itself is likeable for about a week, I mean it IS just a giant polluted city the same as anywhere, but what is within the city, is what is amazing! The culture, the monks, the wats/temples, the Buddha’s, and Grand Palace, the transportation system, the architecture, the markets, the parks-that is what is amazing about this place. It has been fully enriching being here.

The following are photos from Bangkok…Enjoy.

Karate-choppin China Town!

This is Wat Arun Ratcha Wararam also known as The Temple of the Dawn.

This is Wat Tri Mit which is famous for the giant Buddha located there.

I traveled around the Choa Phraya River by water taxi; it was much faster than taking a street taxi due to traffic congestion on many of the narrow roads and the loads of foot and motorbike traffic.

Snake farm where venomous snakes are milked and it is used to make anti-venom for hospitals to use on bite victims. Also in this science complex is the Collaborating Center for Research on Rabies Pathogenesis and Prevention. I spent an afternoon talking to the director about current research and it was fascinating.

Lumphini Park is a huge man made park similar to Central Park. At one area of the park they have an outdoor weight room. For 20 Baht (about $0.75) you can weight train there.

These are some local Thai men that were more than willing to let me take their photo.

The famous Khao San Road-tourist hub of Bangkok. Seriously...if you want to go to Bangkok and hardly ever see Thai people and only see annoying tourists...this is the place for you. Unfortunately, it’s super easy to arrange travel to other areas from here because there are so many travel agents and therefore access to transportation at descent prices. There are a lot of guest houses in this area, and mostly everyone speaks English, it’s also close to the city’s major sight-seeing attractions. So this is the area I stayed.

The ChatchuchakWeekend Market in Bangkok is the epicenter for trade throughout the Kingdom of Thailand. Almost all goods that will be later scattered throughout the country come through this market first. Handy-crafts from hill tribe villages, silks, clothing, decorative furniture, food, animals, odds and ends, trinkets, everything…you name it, its there.

When I went to the market, I was the only non-Asian person there. I didn’t see another westerner at all, and no one spoke much English. That aspect of things I really enjoyed.

However, as for my experience with the actual market…I didn’t have the best time.
In fact, I cried for hours... I walked around and some how got mixed up and lost in there...it’s the largest open air market in the world. I ended up getting so turned around and wound up in the live animal market. Out of all the places to wind up...it figures.

The majority of animals being sold were squirrels and rabbits. All babies and all drugged in order to keep them calm. The people placed strings around the squirrel’s necks to keep them leashed, and the f-ing Thai people buying them as novelty items were walking around with them on their fore-arms while the poor babies are bound by their necks. When they fall in their confused drugged-up state, the people would just grab the string and the squirrel would dangle there until they calmed down (by being strangled!). My entire experience was completely disheartening. I cried and cried and tried to get out of there as fast as I could, but it seemed that every corner I turned there were more squirrels. The babies would cry making that baby squirrel sound when calling to its mama then get quiet when the drugs kick in. I hated it so much. I kept trying to get away but the foot traffic was so slow because people were packed shoulder to shoulder and you couldn't walk quickly....only very very slowly. So slowly, that I cried even more. I hated it....and couldn’t wait to leave.

A canal within the city. Some canals have taxi services between popular points. In this photo a boy is doing laundry in the canal.

This Wat Phra Kaeo which houses the famous Emerald Buddha. It is the most highly cherished Buddha figure.

This is near the entrance of Wat Phra Kaeo and the Grand Palace.

The Grand Palace...

This is WatPho home to the massive reclining Buddha.

Also at Wat Pho.

Around wats, monks are responsible for renovations, up-keep and repairs. This is a photo of a monk carrying material where they are repairing a closed section of the wat.

Wat Pho also has is the national school for the art of Thai Massage. Oh man...it's so great!

Remnants of Ton Sai

Living with Chai, Nee (his sister) and Mook (his nephew), I really gained an appreciation for their lifestyle. Talk about living in paradise! The food was amazing; I don’t know how I ever even thought Thai food was good at restaurants that simply cater to the ‘farang’ (foreigner) tastes. The food in restaurants is garbage compared to Nee’s cooking, she’s just so phenomenal!!!! I wish I had time before leaving to learn all her kitchen secrets…oh man, what a treasure trove that would be.

This is a photo from an afternoon market in Krabi town where Chai and I went to buy produce, and where I was finally able to buy strawberries! For some insane reason, strawberries in southern Thailand are very expensive, and hard to come by, in the north its rather easy. But I was living in the south, so my strawberry cravings continued. Chai thought it was so funny that I wanted them so bad that he bought me 4 packages one time as a surprise so I could have them in the morning with my granola, fruit, and yogurt. So sweet!

Chai and I were already good friends before I moved in with them, but being there, we became even better friends. During the days the three of them would get up super early-we’re talking like 4:30am (!!!), and I would sleep in until about 8am, at that time I would get up and get ready to climb. While waiting to meet up with friends to climb with, I would help out at the café because that is their busy time. Then usually around 9 or 10am I would leave to go climbing, and return after dark. Upon returning Chai, Nee, Mook and I would eat the dinner which Nee and Mook made, and sometimes other Thai’s would come for dinner too-an old man, or an 8 year old boy who lived down the path (he loved to sneak my cookies when I wasn’t looking). I learned that Ton Sai is more than a place for travelers to come where the climbing is unbelievable, but it is a community that exists among the locals even when there are no tourists-sometimes we forget that part, and it’s nice to be reminded.

I would accompany Chai to Krabi town for supplies, and sometimes just for us to get away. He enjoyed the company when I came along while he ran errands, and I enjoyed getting away and driving around the countryside, and we always had a blast. This photo is of the Ao Nang International Off Road 2009 event. Pretty entertaining.

This photo is of Chai walking along a pier in the small fishing village.

Chai’s brother and wife live on an island and run a bar there, they ordered some shirts to be made with their logo, and so one day while Chai and I were in town getting supplies for Pyramid, we picked up the shirts for him.

We drove out to a small fishing village and paid a boatman that was going to the island to deliver the shirts to the bar.

The pier is not very far from the island and yet there are no westerners or tourists. The boat area/beaches for tourism is quite a ways away around the cove, and so this pier we used was unspoiled. It’s a small community is built among mangroves, at the end of a long and winding, poorly maintained dirt road in the middle of no-where.

It was breathtaking.

The following are some random photos of critters I have encountered in Ton Sai.

This is the Black Giant Squirrel!!! It is one of the largest squirrels in the world, and I was so SO excited to see it in the wild. Most people go 'birding' aka bird watching to try to 'tick' birds off their list from around the world. Well...I go 'squirrel-ing'. This was one I have always wanted to see.

On a funny side note, while being here in Ton Sai with so many climbers from all over the world, I have learned how to say 'squirrel' in 15 languages now!!!!

This is a non-venomous tree snake that happened to end up on the beach one afternoon while I was climbing. On-lookers gathered around and watched it uncertain of what kind of snake it was and curious if it was poisonous or not. The dog even was barking at it and a little hesitant to go near it. There are quite a few other snakes that look very VERY similar to this tree snake, and with out being experienced in your snakes-it would be easy to mistake venomous ones for this one. The snake that most resembles this one is a Pit Viper, same coloration and from a few feet away looks almost exactly the same. A bit from a Pit Viper can quickly lead to death, so most people wouldn’t risk getting close enough to a snake to determine which one it is. Both this tree snake and the Pit Viper live in this area, and both like similar habitats. Since this snake was on the beach, everyone was not sure which snake species it was…perhaps its not the tree snake? It is best to air on the side of caution and just considers all snakes in Thailand to be deadly, so as not to get in a bad situation.
This snake however, I was certain was not a Pit Viper, I knew it was a tree snake because while my ribs were healing, I spent a lot of time at Pyramid reading up on books about animals and reptiles of Thailand. Granted-I WAS mostly interested in the squirrel section of the book, but none the less, I learned my snakes as well.
So I waked up to it, picked it up and carried it to a tree along the cliffs edge where I let it go. Word traveled fast around Ton Sai and for the next few days I was told I was nuts, but I tried to explain that I know my snakes, and people still couldn’t believe it. The thing about this tree snake is, although not venomous, they still have teeth in the back of their jaw, and when bitten the wound can become infected rather quickly from the exposure to an array of bacteria from the snakes mouth-it does eat a lot of things I wouldn’t normally rub into open wounds you know. So you can imagine why people think its best to treat all snakes as harmful-because they are.

A butterfly (or moth?) on a tree near Pyramid Bar.

Jellyfish washed up on shore on Railay beach.

A beautiful yet very strange insect that was on a friends dinner plate one evening. We didn't know what it was and we weren't sure if it had wings, but we took photos because it was so pretty.

It was about the size of an ant, and very delicate looking. It looked like it had a snow flake attached to its butt. The way it moved around was a dance like prance, and very slowly. Stunning really.

My tummy since being sick a few weeks back had slowly started to hurt again. I think while sick and vomiting so much before, I must have gotten rid of a lot of the bad bacteria that was the issue, and with time it slowly came back. I knew of some Thai antibiotics you can buy at the store that work magic according to other climbers, but they were out in Ton Sai. So I took some antibiotics from the doctor but it didn’t seem to help much. I really needed the Thai ones because I knew they were a broad spectrum antibiotic, and they would fix this. I was planning on leaving Ton Sai and heading to Bangkok around the 12th anyway, and I wasn’t feeling so well I didn’t even want to climb because I was tired all the time, and my tummy hurt when wearing my harness. While most people would cruze though as many climbs as they had time for when nearing the end of a climbing area, I barely climbed…I think I did 8 pitches in 4 days. Woo. Not good…and my stomach wasn’t getting better with time, so I decided it was best to just move and I booked my flight to Bangkok for the 12th of Feb, and enjoyed my the last of my time in Ton Sai with the friends I had made. I was hard to leave, but it was time.

Thus I continue on my joureny through SE Asia.

Climbing…and then some…

Seems Thailand has decided that January would be a challenging month for me! I got what is called the ‘Ton Sai-Tummy’ the other day. Basically it’s food poisoning, but not really poisoning, more like poor hygiene quality at restaurants or cross contamination of foods. You know the drill. Everyone gets it here eventually. Some people have worse luck than others and get it continually. As for me, I have been sooo lucky! This is the first occurrence for me. I ate fish for dinner, then I vomited all night long waking up about every hour to hurl again. I slep A LOT! And by a lot, I mean I slept for 33 out of 36 hours. I don’t even know what happened to that next day as I was hallucinating and had a high fever for most of it. I remember holding my blanket thinking I was hugging Lucky-my squirrel back home, and talking to him. Yeeeeaaah…it was pretty bad. The third day I was doing better, and of course was a bit stir crazy, so I went out to climb, but only did one warm up climb, then went home to bed and slept another 14 hours. After that I was stellar, and climbed a bunch the next day.

I’m planning on being in Ton Sai until mid February, and then I will begin to head north. I went to pay my bungalow until then, but they decided to RAISE my price even though high season is about over here. The lady said I haven’t been eating in their restaurant enough so she is deciding to charge me MORE!!!! I told her I had been sick, and injured and have been resting a lot. She said if I pay that much for awhile, she can give me a better price in March. I told her I wouldn’t be here. I’ve decided she is nuts, and so I will be moving out of that bungalow today.

My option you may wonder???

WEEEELLLL….

I have become friends with a Thai guy that runs a Café/bar that serves such good breakfast and coffee. I go there a lot to relax and read my books. He owns the place and runs it with his nephew and sister. It’s called Pyramid Bar (see the photo of the map in an early blog entry).
Chai is 26, Mook his nephew is 18, and we all banter back and forth all the time, it’s like having brothers. Since many of my friends left recently, I have spent a lot more time there enjoying all of their company.

I was talking to Chai the other day about my situation, and he made a joke that I could rent floor space in their bungalow. We joked about it…but it actually made sense. Today they bought me a mattress pad in town, mosquito net, sheets, and towels. I will be paying 1/3 of what I paid at Andaman. Also, because it is a restaurant/café, I can help out on my rest days, and store food there so I can save money on eating out all the time. Animals will get into everything at my old place, and I am not staying long enough to invest in storage containers for my food at my bungalow, but at Pyramid, they have all that stuff, and I can use the kitchen to cook. They are great people, and I feel lucky I have made friends with them. Today while in town, we went to the grocery store to stock up on supplies for the week….a lot of work. It is really interesting to see how these places function in order to cater to tourism. It is pretty crazy! I’m excited to see how the next couple weeks go living with them.

That is all that is new here in my world. The next couple weeks will just contain a lot more climbing, hanging out at my new casa, and some work in the coffee shop I am sure. Go figure.

The Good Times are Killing Me....

Upon Embarking on this journey, I knew I would be traveling alone. I mentally prepared for this before I even got on an airplane. I was excited to briefly meet people and learn from them and everyone move on further down their own paths when the time comes. I’ve become quite good at this.

While home, my lifestyle is a bit chaotic at times. Often I work around 60 hours a week, and if not working, I am away traveling and climbing quite a lot. Because of these things, I often keep people at bay, and I have become a pro at having acquaintances in my life, nothing too serious because what’s the point if I am to just leave again?

Well….my plans back-fired a bit.

Over the past 3 days, my world in Ton Sai has crumbled around me, and I am now forced to go back to that original state of mind I planned for. To be alone.

(The next 4 photos were taken by Terje, http://www.terjeaamodt.com/)

This is a photo of one of the Norwegians and me being a goof in the back ground...nothing new. :)

The Norwegian Mafia has left all but 3 people in Ton Sai (to watch over things for a bit-I’m quite sure).

This is a shot of Rannveig and I on our way to dinner with the rest of the Mafia.

These two photos are of the Norwegian Mafia and I having dinner in town for Lis's birthday (head of the Mafia-the totally fit Cuban woman in white).

Two days ago, 2 separate Swedish Mafia’s left, and Steve (the Canadian) and I went to Ao Nang with one group to say good-byes. I proceeded to eat 3 separate deserts before going back to Ton Sai to sulk.

This is a photo of the 'Up-and-Coming' younger Swedish Mafia that I mentioned in a previous entry, they're the crew that that swarmed the Ton Sai climbing scene shortly after the Norwegian Mafia took territory here hahahaa.

The next day was the worst blow. I literally felt that my heart was breaking when Rannveig, Maja and Terje left to go back to Norway yesterday.

This is what it looks like when our hearts are breaking...through the gift of friendship to the agony of the departure.

Rannveig has easily become one of my best friends, I don't know what else to say than that when I now think of her being gone I start to cry. I feel blessed to become so close with her, and I hate the panicky feeling I get when I think about not knowing when I will see her again.

Another hard one for me was Rannveig's future sister-in-law, Maja. She has this wonderful ability to talk though any situation and have brilliant insight as to how to take positive action. She has been my clam during the storms, and the sunshine coming through the clouds. Her fiancé and Rannveig’s brother, Terje has a way of bringing the light-hearted side of things out, and has amazing motivation in life that is truly inspiring to me. They will be missed.

This is a photo of Maja, Rannveig and I on a bus heading back from a day of shopping in Krabi Town. (http://www.terjeaamodt.com/)

Today, Steve left also. He and I have become quite good friends, and he has been here since I first arrived in Ton Sai in December. I became friends with him before I even met the Norwegian Mafia, and therefore when I did, Steve quickly became part of that group also. It was very difficult to have him go home today, but luckily he doesn't live as far away from me as Norway!

I also had become close to Sangwon, who is part of the Korean climbing team (talk about Mafia!!!-there's about 30 of the Koreans here every year-all insanely strong), and he left today as well.

I went down to the beach today with plans to climb, and was so unmotivated that I only did one easy warm-up climb, then took the boat to Ao Nang to say the last good-byes, and I have spent the day here sulking and eating too much sushi.

Its funny how you plan to keep people at bay, then in the midst of having so much fun, you grow quite fond of people and become very close. The positive side of all this, is that we all teach each other something new, and it is a blessing to even have the opportunity to become friends at all when we live worlds apart. I just hope that now since I have found such amazing friends, that we contiune to find ways to cross paths again.

Now that everyone is leaving, and my ribs are just barely getting better, I can climb more adamantly. I have paid my bungalow though the end of the month, then perhaps I will be moving on from Ton Sai as well.

Injured...ugh!

Well as some of you know…this blog has been a bit quiet lately, and so have emails. What oh what has Heather been up to since New Years??
I’ve been laid up injured!! AHHHH!!!!
So my ‘project’ that in all actuality, is not really a project because I know I can do it when I am warmed up, but I keep getting to excited for it and just try it.
Point being, is that on January 3rd, I got back from my visa run, and the first climb that I decided to try was this climb. No warm up, no yoga, no nothing. Just saddled up and started climbing. I don’t know what the hell happened but I will try to explain anyway.
I fell at a lower hold, and a friend that had climbed it before hand told me to try a good upper hold if I wanted to when there. Falling at the lower part is nothing new, the other 2 time I tried the climb I fell there also, and this day I wasn’t even warmed up and hadn’t climbed since the 23rd of December. Not TRYING to make excuses here, just setting the scene. I decided to try out the hold because I had already fallen on the climb and I wasn’t going to get it clean this go anyway. So I decided to investigate it and see if it would help me at all. When I got to that part of the climb, the hold was a bit out of my reach and I had to lean really far to the right to grab it. When I did, somehow my harness managed to slip behind my protruding ribcage as I was leaning so far and they were sticking out. Then my feet cut off of the rock and I held on with my right hand and locked off on the hold. However, when I did this, my core flexed, and pushed my muscle forward….pushing the harness forward….and my ribs with it. Basically the ribs stacked on top of each other and were out of place for more than a day. I was able to finish the climb with moderate pain, and then clean the gear off of it also. It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe, it hurt to lay down, it hurt to eat. Pretty much everything caused pain. I then felt a bit dizzy and went back to my bungalow to lie down. I slept until 1pm the next day, 27 hours total.

When I awoke, I sat up and sneezed, so painful!!! Then there was a cracking noise and then I sneezed again and it didn’t hurt as bad, I also could finally breathe easier. The ribs were back in place! I didn’t take any pain medicine because of my previous ulcer from all the medication from when I was hit by the car a few years ago. I can’t risk the ulcer coming back. So I slept a lot over the next week and tried to heal. Then the next week, I was able to at least walk down to the beach and buy a book at the shop there, and lie on a mat and read all day by the waters edge. What better place to be injured than on a beach in Thailand!?! Much of week 2 went in this fashion, not better enough to venture to Railey or Ao Nang because it hurt to do too much of one thing, but well enough to socialize and read a lot. Then this past week was even better, I swam a little bit, went with some of my climbing friends on a snorkeling trip to a nearby island, went shopping and to dinner in Ao Nang, and doing things again was so great for me!

This week I tried to climb again. Its been a slow process, and still quite painful for me, but I’m happy to just be moving around using my rusty muscles. I climbed 1 climb my first day back, then 2 the next day, and 1 today. I am just Top-roping them as I don’t want to re-injure myself again, but do want to be active. At this point, I don’t care if I finish a climb, or if I do it 5 times in one day, nor do I care right now what the climb is or how hard it is. I just need to be climbing something while I heal.
I don’t think the ribs are broken, I suspect the muscle is just badly damaged. And possibly the connective tissue also.




Taking the boat over to Ko Phi Phi to snorkel on a rest day.

Steve, Said and I on the island Ko Phi Phi about to get our snorkel on.

New Years 2009 from Kuala Lampur, Malaysia!!!!

Thailand changed the free tourist visa law from being 30 days when entering the country by land to a meager 15 days. Not cool...not cool at all. This has created some civil unrest within the climbing community because people come here to spend their winters getting strong, and we cant be bothered to travel to Malaysia every 15 days in order to renew. I'm talking about people who will be here 2 months....that’s 4 trips! The other option is to leave the country and then to fly back in to Thailand where you can then be issued a 30 day free visa. But that’s expensive and also only 30 days.

The visa application process takes 2 days to complete in order to apply for a 2 month visa. You turn in the application in the morning one day and then get it back in the afternoon of the next day. I arrived in Thailand on November 29th, therefore my free 30 day visa was up on December 29 because I arrived by air.

This law change has been really REALLY bad news for the climbers because the world of easy border-runs to re-new your visa has now officially ended. I was not sure how long I would be in Thailand overall, so I decided to get the 2 month visa which would give me more time to climb in Ton Sai, as well as head to northern Thailand to climb for a bit too.
I had a couple options, go to the border town and spend a couple days there, or go to Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, New Years was just a few days away, and the border town had some bizarre holiday for a political figure and would be closed on of those days, and not to mention that the weekend was coming up and the offices would be closed then too. So by my calculation, if I went to the border, with the weekend, that holiday, travel and new years, it would be a 5-6 day process. My choices were then to go to the border and spend New Years there, or go to KL and have much more fun. I chose the border.
JUST KIDDING!!! Kuala Lumpur is where it’s at!

As I began my journey south, it became strikingly apparent it was not going to be as simple as I had hoped.
Talk about a hassle because of the proximity to New Years. Basically it was impossible to fly into or out of KL around this time period. Taking a train was the same story….booked out for 4 days after New Years. Busses also. Imagine trying to get transportation last minute into the largest city in a country around a world wide holiday. Not happening.
Every bus, and train, I tried was booked up for at least 4 days, and the only flights I found were about $300. Ridiculous considering it’s normally about a $60 flight. So I didn’t have much of an option except keep trying to go further and further south to make it out of Thailand before my visa was up, for if I didn’t, there would be ghastly fines incurred for going over my visa.

I took a bus from one bus station to the next because there was no hope of getting direct buses into KL.


It took me 3 days in total to arrive there. Just in time to put my application in to the Embassy before the holiday and the weekend, both of which they would be closed for. It’s a 2 day process to apply, and I did get the visa and my passport back before New Years, but still couldn’t get out of the city to get back to Ton Sai, so I stayed for a couple more days then took the sleeper train back to Thailand.
KL is a beautiful city, but a lot of pollution and not much to be done about it. The New Years celebration was intense to say the least. SO many people, and everyone….and I mean EVERYONE that was there was completely obsessed with that silly string stuff in the cans. They were selling bags of the cans for next to nothing. Kids, teenagers, adults, elderly….EVERYONE was spraying that stuff everywhere, 2 cans at a time even! I could barely breathe, as well as most other people, I felt dizzy the entire time, and at this point I hadn’t had anything to drink! Eventually I sat at a table and enjoyed the festivities of the evening with some other travelers that I met at the hostel I was staying at in Chinatown.







This is a photo of me sitting at a bus station. I waited 2 hours for a bus that would take me to the next town an hour and a half away. 3 days, 4 towns and a border crossing later I made it to KL by 6am, in order to just have those 2 days to get by visa processed before they would be closed for the holiday. I had just enough time to check into a hostel and put my bag away before heading to the Thai Embassy by 9am.






This is a photo of the town Hat Yai not far from the border between Thailand and Malaysia. They had a massive New Years market going on. Alot of roads were closed, and a majority of the people there shopping were from Singapore beacuse it is so much cheaper in Thailand to shop.
















This is a photo of me about to leave Thailand.

I walked alllllll the way to Malaysia. Hahahaha.

This is China Town, in KL. My hostel was located just a stones throw from where this photo was taken. Quite lively at all times of day and night! It was alot of fun!

This photo is of the Petronas Towers. They are the 2nd and 3rd tallest buildings in the world. Google them if you'd like. They were pretty rad.

This is the ‘Golden Buddha’, it is the Tallest standing Buddha in the world. The stairs lead to the Batu Cave where worship can be done and tributes paid.

The Batu caves is the name of a climbing area not far from this site. In this photo I am sitting at the climbing area checking out the lines before we climbed.

New Years in KL was a bit chaotic to say the least….to say the most…it was fun.
I have discovered….that Malaysians are particularly OBSESSED with ‘silly string’ in a can! Its completely nuts. New Years in that city was like continual voluntary asphyxiation!

I spent a total of 7 days traveling; 2 days to get to KL, 2 to come back, 1 free day where I shopped a little, and ate some Italian food since I was not home to have the traditional Italian food on Christmas, and an epic attempt at climbing there.

It was nice to take a hiatus from climbing scene in Ton Sai for a little while. You so easily become engulfed in the climbs, the climbing, and the climbers. It was a good reality check to once again realize there is a whole world outside the small penninsula where I spend so much time.

Christmas Update!!! A Bit late!

Christmas for me in Ton Sai was full of relaxation and fun for 3 days. Here is why. The Scandinavian Christmas takes place on December 24th, while Christmas for the rest of the world is December 25th. Further, due to the time difference, Christmas at home in Idaho ends on the morning of the 26th here in Ton Sai. I celebrate all of my holidays this way in Asia….my birthday was also a 2 day event!

Anyway, the Mafia and I (and some Swedish-whom might I add have come back strong with a Mafia of their own, but Sweds and Norwegians can understand each other because the languages are so similar, so they tend to just overtake the Ton Sai territory as a team…it wasn’t always this way…
I have become friends with a group of young strong Sweds, guys and girls. By young, I mean they are early 20’s. I became friends with 2 Swedish guys over coffee and breakfast at a place called the Pyramid bar one morning. They asked who I have been spending my time with since I am traveling alone, and I went on to explain ‘The Norwegian Mafia’ to them. Now the thing I learned about Scandinavian people is that when they don’t know someone they tend to observe and assess the situation and the person. They tend to all be very quiet and calculated until they get to know you. They thought it was a humorous story, but one of them looked at me with such certainty it made me laugh and said ‘There is a Swedish Mafia also…you will see, it’s coming.’ He explained that some of their friends would be arriving within the next few days.

A few days later Rannveig, Steve, and a few others were walking along the beach of Railey when I noticed a large group of very attractive people walking our way. Now imagine a scene out of a teen movie where the popular kids come walking up in slow motion, guys with beautiful bodies, and the girls dressed perfectly, and hair blowing in the breeze…that’s exactly what it was like. It was the young Swedish Mafia. They came back strong. There are 9 of them. They walked up to us, we chatted for a bit, laughed over some jokes, got introductions and continued on our way.

That week it was raining a little, and I was done climbing and lying on the beach under the overhung rock watching the Swedish Mafia climb a route called ‘Mafia Connection’. Over dinner that night with the Norwegian Mafia, I mentioned to Lis (the Cuban woman who is head of the mafia) that I watched them climb it that morning, because it is a rather difficult climb, and I was impressed. She then told me that the Norwegian Mafia climbed it that evening. Hahahaha! So funny!

Over time, there has been more and more Sweds showing up, and they are stong. They have united with the Norwegians and its one big happy group. They are dominating the climbing scene for sure. And I am the adopted American.

Anyway, back to Christmas….We had 2 of them one for the Scandinavians and one for everyone else. It was raining on and off during those couple of days, so there was alot og eating and lounding around. We all had such a great time!

Round 2 Update

As some of the people my group of 8 people left me, I branched out and made friends with a a few people from Norway. They in turn introduced me to a few more, and a few more. Next thing I know I am surrounded by Norweigens! It became a joke that they are a Mafia. The Norwegian Mafia is what I began calling them, now everyone calls them that. They are a really great group of people, and I am fortunate to have found friendship with them. Many of them have been coming here for more than 10 years, and some of them have established alot of the climbs, as well as maintained them for everyone to use. They are a wonderful group of people.

There is a couple that is the 'head of the mafia' although the woman is a fiery cuban and the man from Norway, they both live in Norway now.

Then there is TJ that used to run a climbing school on a near by island. He is a very strong climber, and knows as much about the area (if not more) than locals. There is a really amazing photographer that has been long time friends with the rest of the mafia, his name is Terje Aamodt, his fiance is Maja. His website is http://www.terjeaamodt.com/ Check out the BLOG section, it has photos from Ton Sai and all of us...it will take your breath away.

Terje's younger sister came to Ton Sai a few days after I met them, and we have become very close. Her name is Rannveig, she is as beautiful as a model, with a heart of gold, and climbs F-ing strong! She has cared about me alot, and watches out for me always. She gave me my only christmas present this holiday season while barely knowing me yet. I am certian she has quickly become she one of my favorite people on the planet.

This is the dog that sometimes graces me with his presence to sleep at my bungaloo, and often walks me home in the dark. And lets not forget-hangs out on the beach all day while we all climb. :)

This is the view from a climb I did at a place called 'The Keep'. Apparently it is named that because it was a well kept secret due to the quality of the climbing there. It truly is an amazing crag.

This is me laying down during the afternoon lull where the temps are too hot to climb. The best time of day to climb is in the morning, then later as cliffs become in the shade, the climbing is possible. So we move around from cliff to cliff depending on where the sun is. This area with the tables in the back ground is from the 'Tonsai Roof' climbs. Its only good in the morning, or if you are lucky, on over cast days.

This climb is called "Missing Snow", so so SO much fun. It was tricky to assess the sequence of moves, but once you got it, it is a super stellar climb.

Morning yoga sesh on the beach to stretch out before climbing in the afternoon. Ton Sai beach has alot of rocks and shells on it, but Railey beach is the beautiful one with white sand. Its funny, accomidation on Ton Sai is thousands of Baht cheaper than on Railay, so all of us climbers go over there on rest days and use the beach there. They have less jelly fish, and the enviroment feels like a fancy resort. Besides, every one on Ton Sai is extremely fit, and the average person on Railay is over weight and on holiday. Walking around over there you feel like a bad ass....everyone checks you out. Men, women, everyone. Good for the ego. Then at the end of the day all of us climbers crawl our way back throught the mosquieto infested jungle to the thatch huts of Ton Sai where we belong. Figures it would be epic to get back there....thats how we stay so fit!!!

This picture is from Railay beach taken by Terje Aamodt. His photo of me doing yoga is totally better hahahaha!