Another High Season

As per usual the last month or so has been a whirlwind of activity here in northern Thailand. The annual Yi Ping event marked my two year anniversary with Katie, time must be speeding up because it feels like yesterday we met. Again we braved the hordes of tourists and went to Mae Jo for the big lantern release. This year we had a truck full of people , including Katie's cousin and spouse, as well as some of her friends from college. These sort of events are a bit draining since everyone you know in Chiang Mai ends up there, so lots of small talk, etc. etc. What makes the event so magical is the 5 minutes in which everyone lets off their lanterns at once, save the Chinese tourists that couldn't comprehend the whole process and started letting them off immediately.......oh China. It was another great event, but don't think we will be going up there again, maybe next year we will  just hang out at a high point around the event so we don't have to deal with the hordes of people.

Katie and the family

another token lantern shot

we threw Max in there for spice

I also started working with International Student Volunteers again this season. Another new project for me was the Mae Kok Foundation up near Chiang Rai. Hands down some of the best food I have ever had in Thailand, courtesy of Mom (Anuluck Chaisurin). The project was started as a place for displaced hill tribe children, notably from families with opium addicts. The hill tribe people in this region traditionally grew opium for sale throughout the world, as such many of them have become addicts and cannot care for their families properly. The kids were great and represented some 10 hill tribe or other minority groups. A few months back a large flood inundated the area and broke the existing flood walls, so our job was to create a new wall with sandbags filled with concrete and sand. In total we put in around 1800 bags. Besides the flood wall we also taught English at a local vocational college for a few days......major growth zone for not only the participants but also myself. 

oh sand bags

big buddha

honorary degree from Chiang Rai Vocational College

Now its time to get ready for the PEPY Ride IX!! Can't believe I get paid to do this stuff.

Chiang Dao / Tham Lod

Took a few mini trips outside of Chiang Mai since I have been back in Thailand, the first of which was a trip up to Chiang Dao with Katie. The town is named after the giant Doi Chiang Dao (doi means mountain), which is an impressive and awe-inspiring sight as you drive north into the hills. You can actually hire guides to take you to the top, from what I have heard its a bit touristy and a guide is mandatory. Still I would like to hike it sometime before I leave. Anyway, we stayed at the Nest near Wat Tham Chiang Dao, and it was amazing. Some of the best food and service I have experienced in Thailand. Our main objective of the trip was to find a climbing area developed by P' Sorn and a few of his proteges. After a pleasant ride into the country side we found the spot. With virtually no climbers ever venturing up there the routes were a bit dirty but super fun, if you discount how terrible the anchors were (word to any future bolter, never put rope through expansion bolt hangers and call that an anchor). It was a nice little vacation from the city and I hope to go back as soon as I can!

it took a few tries to get

inside the cave

Doi Chiang Dao

The second of the mini excursions happened sort of by chance and luck. I was able to contact an archaeologist, Khun Rasmi Shoocongdej, from Slipakorn University in Bangkok. After letting her know that I wanted to learn more about Thai archaeology and help out if I could, she promptly invited me to Tham Lod in Mae Hong Son province to her most current dig. The research team consisted of 4 ladies (Toon, Un, Ai, and Namkhing) that had studied under Khun Rasmi and were eager to learn as much from me as I did from them, primarily they wanted to practice their English for the upcoming archaeology convention in Siem Riep. Do to the nature of the site and its sensitivity I could not share any photos except the entrance chamber, and will only be able to describe the sight loosely.

Like many of the sights in this area the cave was used as a cemetery for generations, most likely by many different culture groups. The most recent and exciting of these groups is associated with teak coffins, which the cave had an absurd amount of, some of which were so large it is hard imagining how they got them into those tight chambers (evidence of cave modification was everywhere). I was able to help each member of the research team for one day digging units. This was my first time working with human remains and it was a bit intense at first, luckily lots of Thai jokes and smiles took the edge off. This work was some of the most physically demanding I have done in a long time, being confined to a small area, having to do intricate work, and to top it off all in a low oxygen chamber was exhausting........and these ladies have been doing it day in and day out for the last 6 months and most likely another 8........impressive.

Before we entered the cave each day we were asked to pray to the spirits, this was a courtesy to the local Shan people. I feel like this practice would be disregarded in a heartbeat in the states, it was refreshing to be around.

Beyond the cave the research team was wonderful, helping me learn some new Thai words and being light hearted. Something I realized while working with these ladies was how genuinely happy and easy going Thai people are, its a great environment to be in and part of, you can never stay sad for too long here. It was a great experience, but I need to let my body recover before asking for a second round.

entrance

Toon and the new cat Chewy (slowly)

Yangshuo

Recently took a little trip over to China with my friend Ajan Maxwell. The goal of the trip was to head down to Yangshuo and climb as many multi-pitches as we possibly could. Arriving in early October there was an obscene amount of Chinese tourists in town for the national holidays......never seen so many people in one place before in my life. Also, Chinese people have no concept of using two wheeled transportation, no one can drive / ride in any sort of straight line or go faster than the speed of snails.

Taking the bus into Yangshuo via Guilin my pulse was high as big mounds of limestone started appearing in the distance. You know when your a little kid and its Christmas morning and all the presents are ready to be opened? Every fiber of your body is vibrating with anticipation, excitement, and nervousness........and this was no different. Stone as far as the eye can see and only a small fraction has been developed for climbing, really easy to get drunk on the scenery. Yangshuo itself is kind of like a little bohemian center in the middle of the mountains, catering to such attractions as Pocket Kingdom (an all midget show), insane light shows, loud clubs, specialty stores, coffee shops, and of course tons of adventure outfitters.

Prior to arrival we were able to book a room at the Climber's Inn right off of West Street. Lilly the owner and manager is the shit, period. This little Chinese lady spoke amazing English, had clean rooms, full stock of large beers and waters, and all the beta you could ask for. Unlike other hostels I have been to Lilly is a climber at heart, constantly trying to get time off to get on the rock. She knew all the crags and when the best time of year and day was to climb there, indispensable information. Plus tons of climbers stay there so its always easy to find a partner. Her right hand man, Steven, was also pretty cool, quiet but super helpful, he even showed us how to play Chinese cards one night......still trying to remember all the numbers...

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trying to learn Chinese cards

max, lilly, steven, and I before our departure

climbers dinner

claypot of duck and garlic

Culturally China is intense.......in every way imaginable. This trip also changed many of the engrained stereotypes I had of the country and its people. Living in Thailand for the last few years I have grown accustomed to being very polite, taking my shoes off at every door, and not using my scooter horn. Ha, China is much the opposite. The horns and honking abound, but rightly so, most of the scooters and some vehicles are completely electric which means they are deadly silent, so honking is imperative for self preservation. Most people we met in and around Yangshuo hadn't really interacted with foreigners before and were constantly staring, but once you said "nee hao" everyone smiled and replied back. Most of the time you hear about Chinese people being super pushy, loud, and easy to anger........and those are all mostly somewhat kind of true, BUT that is just the culture. Getting up the courage to just do simple acts like yelling "Fuu Yuan!" at the top of my lungs to get the waiters attention seemed like big milestones, but thats just the way things operate over there, no harm, no foul.

ATTENTION: The following may just be a first world problem, and I appreciate every opportunity I get to take advantage of.

Most of my adult life I have been traveling and have been doing so pretty consistently. I remember the first time I traveled abroad I felt like a little kid having to relearn everything I took for granted over again. Over the years this sort of feeling has slowly subsided, now that may be just being used to uncomfortable and challenging situations, or just age, who knows? This trip was the first time in a long while that I had that feeling of being an ignorant excited kid again. Constant stream of visceral experiences and just learning as much as possible about another culture and its history......outstanding!

no laws were broken in the filming of this picture

Wine Bottle

long beans

pole dancing on top of Moon Hill

checking out the Thumb Peak

No one ever really wanted to climb with us, mainly because we were up everyday at 6:30 am sharp and climbing by 7:30 - 8:00 am........we met most climbers when we were returning for the day and they had just rallied enough motivation to start moving. That being said we climbed 44 pitches in two weeks with about 4 rest days. Our rest days consisted drinking beer by 10 am and neglecting to drink water until the next morning. Though we did manage to take a bus to Xing Ping one morning to check out the Li River scenery printed on the back of the 20 yuan bill. It was a good little side trip / hike in the early morning and helped bypass the swarm of bamboo boats and tour buses that greeted us as we headed back to Yangshuo.

oh Alice, transport never hurt so good

about to hit Moon Hill

iconic routes at Moon Hill

After saying our farewells to Lilly and Steven we boarded a "sleeper bus" bound for the Zhuhai / Macau border. The definition of a sleeper bus was highly misconstrued, as if you are taller than 5'8'' you cant really comfortably fit into the bunks that were reminiscent of a bad sci-fi cryogenic life sustaining tube. Luckily we had the AC blasting in our faces, infused with the nostalgic smell of stale cigarette smoke. Zhuhai was wonderful....... if your into smog and rows of factories with low income housing right next to them. After crossing into Macau we felt like a new dimension had been breached. The influence of the Portuguese colonial period meshed with Chinas economic boom made the city a bit overwhelming. Known for its numerous casinos........well yeah just the casinos, Macau is a not the place where two western dirtbag climbers feel at home. Regardless we headed straight for the Venetian to let our Hong Kong dollars ride on the cheapest slot machines we could find. We were a head for a bit but quickly lost the 400 HK dollars we went in with.  Great trip with a great friend, and some of the best climbing of my life to boot.

casino lobby....not ridiculous

another great smog infused shot of Macau

local cemetery - ashes only please

Red Wing

Well, as it turns out I can't go without climbing for very long. I rang up an old friend Paul, who evidently is related to me very distantly, and told him "Red Wing." Paul, who lives in Fargo, got a crew together and we all rendezvous at a nice little camping area on the banks of the Mississippi. If I thought coming back to the states was a culture shock, then this was a climbing culture shock. The median age of these 10 or so climbers was 19 years old.........jesus its been awhile since I interacted with this age group in a non-work setting.

Their enthusiasm to climb was very inspirational, some of these guys drove over 6 hours to get in one morning of climbing.......ridiculous!? They also happened to be extremely strong in a sort of naive way, and were crushing 5.12 on the daily. Being around a group of young American climbers really got the old stoke going. The down side was that these guys could talk ONLY about climbing. It was like a giant pissing contest about who had done what, how hard they were climbing, etc etc. Had a few great conversations with a Serbian named Ivan and a guy that sort of resembled Kai the axe wielding hitch hiker.

Red Wing itself is well known for the boots of the same namesake, with the motto "Your work is our work." Such a badass classic American brand, in fact they are the only work boots I have ever owned, and will ever. Evidently they also used to have a large limestone quarry, which created the climbing area Barn Bluff. There are still drill bit runnels on the face of the rock and old rusty pieces of industry strewn about. Prehistorically this area had numerous Native American mounds and carin features, some of which were 6 ft x 12 ft (crazy!), but like all indigenous things they were destroyed by white dudes.

Rock: Limestone

Style: Semi-technical on pockets and slippery slopers

Caution: Large pieces of choss are knocked off by hikers and birds very regularly. Wear a helmet! Also, many of the expansion bolts are super rusty and do not instill confidence. Some glue ins are present and are bomber.

Sleeping: Bay City Campground or Island Park Campground

camping on the Mississippi

Ivan the Serbian crusher

To all of you allergic to bee's, just hope you don't get stung on the lip. It takes days to go away. However if you choose to go ahead with it, you can always tell people you got in a fight with some cowboy that was dissing your hair.

fat lip

It has been nearly 2 years since I have seen my old friends the Kranda's and about a year since I met up with Andy "AK-47." So, I decided to cruise on down to Madison to see them all. Only had about a day and a half so we promptly started eating cheese and drinking good beer. Got to meet the new member of the Kranda household, Abram, or as we have taken to calling him Lil' AK-47. Andy is also going to be a father....sort of. Haha evidently he is hosting a Finish exchange student for the year. Overall it was a pretty ok trip.

duck facin' it

team Kranda

Vacation with the Family

We were recently honored to host Katie's younger brother Michael here in the Kingdom. After some marathon travel MJ got off the plane looking pretty ragged, luckily we found some northern style food and Leo's to help his sleep pattern. We explored Bangkok for a day, including negotiating the hordes of Chinese tourists at the Grand Palace, and a walk down Khao San road before jumping on a sleeper train south. Our plan was to stay in Railay for a few nights and then head up to Ayutthaya, then split ways in Bangkok (I had to go back to work). A few highlights of the trip included beach time, a bit of climbing, and of course some food poisoning. 

Eating on the islands or off the mainland is a bit of a gamble over here, and as such we all suffered from varying degrees of sickness, MJ having the worst bout. Ha, and of course this all started taking place as we rode in a jet boat out to Khao Phi Phi. At one point we stopped for some snorkeling. Nothing like looking over and seeing the woman you love bobbing up and down in a beautiful tropical paradise, and then proceeding to vomit into the deep blue (the fish were happy to be fed though!)

classic Thailand

one of my most serious vices

hydration station

maybe some metaphors in there

Thai Ronald

Grand Palace - you can't see the 8 million Chinese people that were there

big buddha

Railay

Phranong peninsula

dick shrine

After the trip tot he south we headed back up to Ayutthaya to explore the ancient city. The city was once the capital of Siam, and was ransacked by the Burmese around 1767 and subsequently abandoned. Thai people are still bitter about the invasion and will rarely admit they were defeated. It turned out to be a badass little city, with tons of temples, palaces, and old architecture. As it turned out the king was released after a multi year admittance to the hospital, in true Thai style they threw days of celebration, and it made the trip a bit more memorable. 2 days then back to Bangkok. Katie and MJ headed back to Chiang Mai while I had to pick up my last ISV group of the season.

Ayutthaya

My last ISV group of the season went really well. We were able to complete a shrine that the monk had been working on for awhile and we also helped get a garden ready for some robust grasses that were to be planted by the Royal Project. Evidently the grasses are grown and then transplanted to steep areas of deforestation to help combat landslides. Tough work but we finished it all up.

working with the monk, you dig?

robust grasses

Back at the Elephant Nature Park we did the same old work - shoveling shit, cutting grass, etc. etc. Overall a great group of students.

butts

We have decided to downsize our lives a bit and move to a smaller, more manageable house near Chiang Mai University. The owner is the same woman, P Baet, who I feel is one of the last hold outs to "Thai progress." She has been keeping and restoring classic northern style Thai houses for the last 10 years and refuses to sell them out so that big companies can tear them down to build apartment buildings. The new place is actually an old rice barn that was converted into a house, and it comes with a huge enclosed green space. Only bad part is we moved 2 days before I left for the states........good thing for friends with cars (Thanks Jens!)