Dirty South

Decided to get out of Chiang Mai for a while and check out the southern part of Thailand. My goal was to visit a few islands down south for some quality beach time and even a bit of climbing if possible.  The first stop on the trip was Bangkok for a day. I spent most of the day doing very touristy things like visiting the Grand Palace, going to a few wats, and observing the craziness that is Khao San road.

After 6 hours of flight delays to get to Bangkok I was tired

Dress codes.

Wat Arun

Grand Palace

Standard garb for all farang: Shirt with Thai Beer logo on it.

The most obnoxious road ever?

After spending the day in Bangkok I hopped a night train south to Trang, the industrial hub of the south, before catching a long tail boat to Lao Liang. The island is actually part of a natural park, however there is an eco-resort on the island. The maximum capacity is around 30 people, all set up in tents on the beach. Besides the obvious beach bumming I was able to do some kayaking and climbing. Most of the routes have only been put up in the last few years and with minimal traffic hasn't become super polished like the routes in Krabi. Needless to say I was sad to leave, but onward and upward.

The other part of Lao Liang

Kayaking

Limestone love

We were grossly out matched

So, no one really describes the layout of Krabi very well, and its sort of big deal to have that knowledge before you get there, as such it took a solid day to work out the kinks. For starters Krabi isn't even where the climbing is. Krabi is a geographical region in Thailand, and its capital is Krabi Town, which is situated inland a bit and not very spectacular. Ao Nang, where I ended up staying for no apparent reason, is the beach west of Krabi Town that is built up for tourists and provides long tail boat taxis to a small peninsula. The aforementioned peninsula is further broken down into areas including Tonsai, Railay East, Railay West, and a number of other beaches and islands. Regardless its really confusing if you have never been there or cannot find a map of the area anywhere.


My first day there consisted of checking out all the beaches and climbing crags. I had heard that most of the crags are overrun with climbers constantly, especially during this time of the year, however I was surprised to find very little activity in any one location. Unfortunately when I went back the next day with rope in hand it was swarming with climbers. It was sort of horror show but between the waves of newbies I got a few routes in at Muay Thai wall and Escher Wall. Also, I have never seen such scary anchors and threads in my life. Most of the threads were damn near cut through with wear and most of the anchor rings were worn almost all the way through. Scary shit. Haha my favorite was the first thread on this easy 5 over at Muay Thai wall. Imagine a root the size of your wrist wrapped with a thread about 10 ft off the deck, and below the small belay stance a steep slope. Really bright route setting there. Regardless, I checked out the hype and climbed a bit so I was happy.

Originally I had planned to head out to Ko Tao, a small island in the Gulf of Thailand that is supposed to have good scuba diving, but I sort of got talked into going to Ko Pha Ngan. If anyone is unfamiliar with this infamous island it is the location of the Full Moon Party. Essentially its a bunch of Europeans (and some North Americans) getting drunk, drinking mushroom shakes, listening to techno, and being dumb. This idiocracy involves playing with fire in various forms, including my personal favorite double dutch fire jump ropes. Lots of burn victims. As appealing as all this sounds I reluctantly went and proceeded to have a very horrible time, but whatever I saw it for what it was. Apart from the Hat Rin, the beach where the party is held, the island actually has some quite white sand beaches. This is where I spent most of my time while on the island. 

Party paints and Roy Bans

That pretty much wraps up the trip in a nutshell. 

p.s. this kid

Here's to Now

The past 20 days have been a whirlwind of office work, student programs, trad climbing training, crag clean up, and teaching improvised self rescue courses. Luckily, it is the holidays and the new year is right around the corner. As a treat to myself I am headed down to southern Thailand next week for some time on the beach, some diving, and most importantly some climbing.


We recently had the 8th annual Crazy Horse Buttress crag clean up and it was a great success. The morning consisted of splitting into groups and attacking all the crags. Mostly we just clean up trash, cleared the trails, and cleaned the routes as best as possible. We also hauled an ungodly amount of gravel to various crags to stabilize the belay areas, before the next rainy season. After a long morning of physical labor most people spent the afternoon either climbing or sleeping. I opted to explore the local area and familiarize myself with it. I ended up walking around to a temple on the back side of the crag and visiting a tourist cave. After that I ascended a long stretch of stairs to bang the gong at the top of Crazy Horse Buttress. Overall it was a pretty successful day. Check out the link below:

http://vimeo.com/34063445

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So many stairs, drunk with fatigue

Views from the top

 Totally ignoring all safety measures

On one of my night time strolls I came across this gang of fixed geared riders at Tha Phae Gate. They were being very hipster and looking good. If your familiar with the movie "Stomp the Yard," it was very similar. Someone would do a trick and everyone would ooo and ahhh, then someone else had to out do it. Anyway, it was interesting to watch, though my camera didn't really get any good photos of the action.

Fixed gear gang at Pratu Tha Phae

Day practicing some gear placements

 

So, Christmas has turned out to be interesting here in Thailand. It's another strange Thai / Western cultural clash. The Christmas Promenade was set up at the Three Kings Monument here in Chiang Mai, it includes fish and chip stands, an ice ring, a band singing carols, a Thai Santa Clause, and of course a CMRCA climbing wall. Thought I would stop by the other night and see how everyone was getting on at the bouldering wall, which ended up being over run with kids. Below are a few pictures that may help put it into perspective.

Some random guy with Santa and co.

Ice skating in Thailand?

3 Kings Monument

The CMRCA Christmas booth

Katie and Santa

Midnight Express and Doi Suthep

                Time is flying by already. I have been here a month and still feel like I got here yesterday. It may be due to the busy schedule and cultural adjustment, who knows. The last week was pretty hectic at the shop. We recently took out a writer for the New York Times and as such he wrote an nice article about Pi Taw and the company in general.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/sports/03iht-athlete03.html

                Other than that we have been trying to get a new website up, premiered the Reel Rock Film Tour in SE Asia, and rock climbing at Crazy Horse. My friend Sam, who is working in Bangkok as a teacher, came up this weekend for a nice break. We ended up going out to Crazy Horse for a day of climbing, it was great to see Sam getting comfortable leading. Yesterday we headed up to Wat Doi Suthep, kind of a big deal in Northern Thailand. It was a good time.

Stairs to Doi Suthep

This what I got when I asked Sam to be happy

Doi Suthep

Gold is cool

Again I asked them to act happy, but I got strange instead

A monk painting some dragons

         So, I recently became a hypocrite. I purchased a fixed geared bike here in Chiang Mai after years of bashing them. My main purpose was to look cool with functionality being second and safety third. Actually fixed geared bikes are super cheap here. I bought this bike brand new and was given the choice of crank, head set, handle bars, tape, and pedals. All of this for under 200 green backs. Scooters sound good in theory but you can get anywhere in the city on a bicycle, and if I need a scooter for a longer trip I can rent one for relatively cheap. I've dubbed the new bike Midnight Express, after a pow-wow drum circle group from Montana.

Midnight Express