Songkran / Tham Lod

It was another eventful Songkran this year. Essentially it is a giant drunken water fight for 3-4 days each year to celebrate the Thai new year. On a deeper level it is a astronomical date set when the dry season starts transitioning into the wet season, as such there are a number of Buddhist ceremonies to wash and cleanse the various statues of the Buddha and bring good luck. We decided to have a few people over for breakfast on the first day and then hit the moat for some fun. Luckily we only stayed one day to "play water" and then left for the north.

the interns in front of the shop

Noah's first swim in the moat...

classic combo, Chang and buckets

rock.

a roadside party, with complimentary scantily clad women

Max had a farmer theme going on

free drinks, why not?

Buddhist parade

Noah was giving us a lesson on how to take caffeine pills, even though he was the only one taking them, with a Chang. Keeping it classy.

We have been trying to slowly widdle down our Chiang Mai / Thailand bucket list for some time now. Songkran gave us a perfect opportunity to head to the hills and a secluded area called Cave Lodge. We had to first brave the early morning splashers to the Chiang Mai bus station and then proceed to manage hangovers while taking the 900 turns to Pai.

The town of Pai has been a hub in the northern regions for generations and is situated in a beautiful valley along the Mae Pai River. However, in the last few decades it has slowly been commercialized into some sort of hippies dreamville. Everyone you meet in Pai, that isn't Thai, either has dreads, no shirt on, no shoes on, wearing some strange amalgamation of cloth that is supposed to be clothing, or all of the above. This area used to be a trade route for opium connected to the Golden Triangle. As such the early visitors were usually junkies trying to get a cheap, high quality fix. After the break down of the opium trade and the state funded "progress" initiatives it has just become over run with smelly farang that have no business being on a motorbike. That being said, we rented motorbikes and headed up to Tham Lod.

Tham Lod is a local cave system that is still being formed by the river and attracts a number of tourists every year. Most of the local eco-tourism attributed to trekking and caving in this area can be attributed to John Spies and company. John came to Thailand in the late 70's and just never left. He has a quick unique history, which can be read in his book "Wild Times" at Cave Lodge. As an avid caver and cultural student his book was mind blowing. There are tons of caves in the region that still are unexplored, not to mention endless potential for climbing routes...

We took a tour of Tham Lod on one of our days at Cave Lodge, and I have to say I was really impressed. It is quite intact for the amount of traffic it sees. We paid for a local woman to guide us through via bamboo raft and a archaic rank smelling kerosene lamp. Many of the features I had never seen before in Thai cave systems, and there were even +/-2400 year old teak coffins in the upper chambers. The coffins had a number of coins thrown in them as offerings  and our guide told us the money was for the village as she safely funneled them into her pockets (yeah right lady!).

pit stop with possibly the worst bikes ever

pretty ok

electricity isn't consistent

John's autobiography, worth the read

Hill tribe man at the entrance of Tham Lod

6c behind the spirit houses

bamboo raft style

entrance

our guide referred to this as "popcorn rock," its a technical term

confusing Thai style signs

the guide chuckled when she pointed out the breast shaped feature on the left

paleo painting of deer, faded by the heavy cave traffic

teak coffins

stalactite city

clean limestone walls, everywhere

funny thing about the old bridge, it used to be called the new bridge

Katie reenacting a drunk

cave lodge

Tham Pha Daeng

This year the CMRCA team decided to head back up to the Doi Angkhan area in Northern Thailand for the 5th annual caving expedition. Last years trip took us down the Elephant Tusk Cave, named so because of the giant elephant tusk that was found about a third of the way down. I was able to get a pretty rough survey of the cave system and had plans to survey more.........but the river just petered out under a giant wall. 

Anyway, this year I have had the opportunity to meet a caver by the name of Angela, who moved to Chiang Mai originally to teach English but has since forfeited gainful employment for more liesure pursuits underground. Angela has over 30 years of experience in cave systems around the world, so we all tried to learn as much from her as possible, including how to survey properly.

The goals we set this year were to get into Tham Pha Daeng, which had been previously explored on a prior expedition but met a dead end at a giant flow stone wall. The following were our objectives:

1. Place titanium glue in bolts at every pitch, including re-belays
2. Create a Grade 5 survey of the cave system (thats where I came in)
3. eh those were the main ones, oh and to come out without injury

I was only able to stay half of the trip due to staffing issues at the shop, but below are some of the photos I was able to snap. It also happened to be Josh and Mario's birthday in that time frame so we celebrated roughly 150 meters down.

Bo heading down

Cake time, -150 meters

Ooan on a 60m pitch, going up is always a bitch

Custom apparel

Calibrating all the equipment with Pui

Ok, so there was a previous survey done and this was their map, we went much deeper than them and had better instrumentation. Still working on the sketch and hope to have it done soon. I have also started using this archaic cave mapping software called Survex (I thought the name was a joke at first, its not) Below are some of the 1980's DOS style projections, GIS eat your heart out.

Original survey map

Old school

Now, now, now there are more pictures to come, just need to get them up on here, so stay tuned. Oh, and we made a harlem shake video which is in the editing process right now........just saying.

Bonus Photo:

Everyones favorite Austrian, Mario Wild

Older

Getting older in a few days time. Came across this video and it felt fitting.

Looking forward to another great year.

35 from ARC'TERYX on Vimeo.

Updated

The last few months have been a bit hectic here in the north of Thailand. Funny how fast time goes by here. Seems like all the same festivals and events are repeating themselves with a strange tinge of familiarity. Even though they are not as new I keep finding new appreciation for the place and time I am in. Thailand can be difficult to live and work in, but if it was easy it wouldn't be worth it. 

After a few weeks of down time in January we hosted a hundred kids from the Harrow International school in Bangkok. The kids were a bit younger than I was used to working with but I have to say that they were by far the best group I have ever worked with. Only had to say something once. Very respectful and much more intellectually mature than most kids their age. After a four day program they put on a skit competition that was so impressive I was speechless. Below is a short video the company put together.

2013 Harrow Year 8 Expedition from Thailand Climbing on Vimeo.

Get paid to take kids on ziplines in the jungles of northern Thailand, pretty ok.

All the days and events have sort of become a blur in my mind, not sure of the order anymore. Somewhere in there I made a trip to Kuala Lumpur for a visa run. The city was nice and easy to move around in, even stopped in to see our friends over at the Camp 5 climbing gym (largest in Asia?). Malaysia has a very diverse population and culture history. Lots of Indians, Chinese, and people from all over Asia. The food was great and the people watching was top notch. I think because it is such a melting pot it has lost its own unique aura as a country. For instance in Thailand most people are bound by Buddhism or some sort of national pride, didn't really feel that in Malaysia. It was interesting to check out, but wouldn't want to live there.

On a sad note my old dog died back home. He lived a long life, 15 years or so, but was getting to the point where his body just couldn't keep up. My parents had him cremated and put in a jar, which we plan on burying on the property whenever the next time I am home. Coupled with that two of my great uncles have passed away. Mortality is hitting home a bit more now days. That being said there has also been some balance. Dan and Maddie just had a baby boy, and a number of my other friends are getting married or are expecting kids soon. Circle of life (cue the Lion King music).

I also had my first ever visitor while abroad, my good friend bearded brother Elliott Curtis Johnson. We lived together in college, listened to the Commodores, at burger time, and had epic bearded holiday cards. It was good to see a familiar face from the great northern prairie. Ended up being able to do some things that were still on my Thailand bucket list, including a muay thai fight. Haha Eljoy is not the kind of person to bullshit on anything, so when he told me after every meal that "this is the best thing I have ever eaten," I knew he was being honest. Makes the heart at ease knowing that he had a great time here and that we still enjoy all the same things we used to. Most of the photos a short clips are courtesy of e-joy.

KO'd 

Playing jenga with Elliott and a bar girl

The Wave and I

Banana trees

word.

Kad Luang

Trying to develop a green thumb

Wat Phra Singh

Soda straw (don't worry I didn't touch it)

Anxiety State Crisis Cave

Double bat

Crazy Horse

Katie headed back to the states for a few weeks to attend an outdoor educator conference in Colorado, and of course to see family and friends. It had been over a year since she was back. I was a bit jealous at first, but such is life, sabai sabai. It is nice having a bit of separation to regroup and recharge. I would be lying if I said I didn't miss her every moment of the day though. But as everything is finite she will be back soon enough.

That has been the last few months in a nutshell.