Climbing in Thailand

On my boat ride over to Ao Nang where I am writing this blog (the internet is much cheaper here) I had one of those amazing feelings where I realized just how lucky I am to be in such a beautiful and friendly place! It was very peaceful.

I have been climbing a lot in the last few days. I met a German couple who arrived the same day I did and did not have a rope. So we climbed the next day at a couple crags to the south (Muay Thai and 1,2,3 walls) and it was so fabulous! We hoped on a couple of 6a's (5.10a) and up to 6b+ (5.11). I got spanked on the 5.11, but it was so much fun and required some very unique stemming and even head jams! We grabbed a late lunch and then headed over to Phra Nang beach. I have never seen a more beautiful beach in all my life, even in pictures. The view out over the turquoise water was nice in itself, but the real treat was the huge overhanging cliff above the beach painted with beautiful streaks of red, brown, blues, and off-white limestone, with enormous (200' long) stalactites! WOW! Although the scenery was grand, and the climbing was ridiculously fun, the best part was meeting all sorts of different people. Frank and Bea (the german couple) introduced me to several other germans in the area, and I met some very nice people from Norway too. Everyone here, and I mean everyone is so friendly! It would be no problem to just walk up to a group at a crag and climb with them. I also met a guy who went to the U of O and had taken a Rock Climbing class from the same instructor that I took my first class from a couple years later. It is a small world at times....

In the evening I met a couple of younger travelers (19 and 20) from Atlanta and climbed with them all day yesterday. Rachael has been here for a month and took her friend Jon and I to all of her favorite spots. We climbed mostly hard 10's and a couple low 11's, but the moves on these climbs were so spectacular! On one climb I was hugging a tufa for about 20' as I shimied up! Most of the climbs are overhanging and this one was no excpetion-it really messed with my head! It's so fun to be climbing right next to people who are putting up really hard routes-13's are NBD on the beach here. At least for some people....who are genetic freaks.... :-)

The time here so far has been awesome. Typically, I get up whenever I wake up (usually around 7:30), toss my stuff in my large man-bag, and head down for some breakfast. Tea, and either mango sticky rice, an omlette, or some pancakes fills me up and then its off to climb for the day. Lunch is usually 'street-vendor' style and can be rice and bbq kabob, or some kind of noodle dish. Then its off to the beach and a little swimming. Up to the bungalow for a quick shower and some reading, then a nice dinner, and then I'm so ready to just pass out. Its fascinating how little you do here and still get so tired!

I took today off from climbing so that I dont over-climb and headed over to Ao Nang. I need to grab a beach towel, a pair of loose-fitting man-capris for climbing and lounging, a couple shirts, some snacks, and to write this blog. I'll probably crash out on the beach here for a bit too because it is also very nice. Emily will be here in 10 days and I am getting very excited for that. There are very few people (maybe none) who share our very strange sense of humor. That is most apparent when all my jokes (that I find pretty damn funny) fall on a flat audience with most other people. Oh well. Once she's here we'll have a few months of traveling together and sharing funny stories so I guess I can wait a few more days...

Arrival in Tonsai, aka Taxis, Trains, Buses

Well, here I am, typing on a computer within view of the Andaman sea, surrounded by towering cliffs of beautiful pocketed limestone, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. I can hardly believe it's true! But it wasn't that easy. I had some friends who just flew down here and now I see why...its kind of a pain in the ass to get here!

I knew that I was going to be in Thailand for about 6 weeks, and you only get 30 days on a transit Visa. So I was led to believe that all I had to do was go down to the Immigration office, pay $15 and be on my way. So after I had a nice, relaxing, two hour Thai massage (that only cost $10!) I hoped in a Taxi with all of my bags and immediately was on the edge of my seat driving through the terrible trafic! 30 minutes later I was standing in line at the Thai Immigration office where the nice uniformed man told me that I was out of luck, but have a great day. So I saddled up with my 50lbs of gear (ropes and quickdraws are NOT lightweight items designed for backpacking with!) and walked the two miles to the US Embassy. I didn't know it was two miles at the time...the map I had didn't have a scale. Who the hell makes maps without scales! I guess things like that bristle a geologist. Anyways, after arriving I was quickly asked to leave by a guard who barely spoke english. Feeling miffed I sat down across the street and realized I was right next to the US consulate office. I headed inside only to be told that they take off the last friday of every month and I should come back monday. Well, that was out of the question because my train ticket said I was leaving for Krabi that afternoon.

So, after having spent the better part of a day, all I wanted to do was get to the train station, find some food, and rest for a bit. It was another mile or so to the subway station which took me directly to Hualumphong train station. I was booked on a 12 hour sleeper train to Surat Thani, and then a bus to Krabi. Thankfully there was air conditioning! The train was, of course, about 2 hours late, which turned out not to matter anyways. The ride was manageable, and I think I slept a reasonable amount to boot. We arrived in Surat Thani at 7AM where I then had to catch two different buses to get to Krabi. Once there I headed down town amidst the bustle, found some delicious Pad Thai at a street vendor, and tried to understand how I was going to get to Tonsai Beach.

Tonsai and Railay East and West are separated from the rest of the world by tall limestone cliffs. The only way to get there is by longtail boat from Ao Nang. I read that the easiest way to get to Ao Nang was on a Sawangthaw (a taxi made by putting seats in the bed of a pickup) and that they would find me. Sure enough it only took 5 minutes after lunch for one to find me and then another 30 minutes to get to Ao Nang. Getting a boat from there was super easy and then, bam, I arrived on a beautiful beach. Its pretty hard to believe that I'm here. I've been planning this for long enough that it just feels unreal to be here. But I AM here and now comes the task of finding people to climb with until Emily arrives in a week and a half. Stay tuned for more adventures!

SFO, Tokyo, Bangkok

Welcome to Bangkok! I cant quite remember the last time that I was that excited. Standing in the immigration line to have my passport checked I could hardly stand without wobbling! I've been thinking (and worrying a little) about this moment for a couple years now and its an amazing feeling to see those dreams happen. My travels took a couple of detours that were unexpected...as expected.

The plan was to leave PDX on Monday morning, fly to SFO, then to Tokyo, and on to Bangkok. When I arrived at the airport, the attendant asked me with a sour face, "Why in the world did you book your flight to purposely miss your connection in San Francisco?" Uhh-ohh. Apparently the airlines changed the departure time without telling me. After calls to the travel agency and pleading on my part I was able to get on a later flight to Tokyo. But then I missed that connection because weather kept us from landing in SFO. So I had an unexpected layover there. Training myself to be okay with such fluidity is not always easy. But I hoped on BART, headed to downtown and wandered around for a long time. I eventually found the Apple Store where I pirated their internet to find a hostel. It was only a couple blocks away and only $25! Much better than the 50 I would have spent staying near the airport. I met a bunch of fun people, ate some great indian food, then crashed early. BART to the airport in the morning was smooth and I got on my flight just fine. With an exit row seat! Oh yeah!

I had no idea how long the flight was to Bangkok. I thought mayble 12 hours. It was 11 hours to Tokyo, then 7 to Bangkok! Oh well, not much I can do about it now. There was a group of ~50 brand new peacecorps workers headed to Thailand on the same flight and I got to be quick friends with quite a few of them. It certainly made the time go by a bit faster. The Tokyo airport was really neat. They had so much art up on their walls. But the little airport cartoon dude was probably the best! Another 7 hours of flying and we landed in Bangkok. The journey has really begun...

I was really worried about getting from the airport to someplace to sleep. It was relatively easy even at the ridiculous hour of 1:30AM. I grabbed a Taxi and he flew at easily 2x the speed limit. It was a flat fare and we flew by all the metered taxis....hmmm. Although he didn't speak english, and I don't know enough Thai yet, we managed to get me to the right place, Khao San Rd. It was a madhouse! People everywhere, prostitutes (or at least women who really looked like them) everywhere, Tuk-Tuks flying down narrow streets. Oh my god I'm in Thailand! I went to a few different guest houses until I found a reasonable rate. US equivalent of about $9, but no place in the US could ever get away with it. The room was no larger than the small bed (I had to keep stuff on my bed) and the bathroom was a whopping 4 sqare feet shower included, no windows. I flicked on the fan and eventually slept for a little bit.

I hoped up this morning, showered quickly to get rid of all that nasty travel sweat, and headed out on the town. Its now 9AM, around 85 degrees, with a similar % humidity. I'll probably be here for another day or so while I check out a few Wats and figure out how to get a train ticket south. Then it down to Surat Thani on the train, over the Krabi on a bus, hop skip and a jump to Ao Nang in a shared truck, then a longtail boat to Tonsai. I feel like I can handle it. Then I'll be on the beach! With that amazing limestone begging to be climbed. Wait, did I mention that there's a beach? And climbing? Mmmmm, life is good.

The two weeks before Thailand

Well, I leave tomorrow morning for Thailand. It still seems surreal. I’ve said all my goodbyes and until next times. I’ve shored up all my odds and ends. I’m as prepared as I can get. It will have to be enough.

So what have I done in the last two weeks since moving out of Utah? I had decided on staying for two weeks because my dad thought he would have some work for me to do on his new house. Rain and weather kept the roof from getting finished which in turn kept me from having a shop to work in. Oh well. I spent a lot of time hanging out with my brother and my dad, which was great. I found a coupon for two weeks of Bikram Yoga for $20. After not doing Bikram for about 6 months I had forgotten how much work it is, and how great you feel afterwards. It makes most other yoga styles seem inadequate in comparison. The three of us went to the Rogue Brewery and Cape Perpetua on the coast one day. Living in Utah destroys your ability to drink lots of alcohol! I had only two pints and I was unable to think straight! Mmmmm…..beeeeeerrrrrrr. I spent most afternoons going for hikes nearby in the Amazon Creek watershed.

Then I got a little bored. I began really missing all my friends in Utah, and especially Emily. I was tired of ‘climbing’ at the Crux-I’ve been ruined by how awesome Momentum is. So Emily was able to get me a buddy pass on Delta and I flew back to Utah for a weekend. And so I am in the airport in SLC, getting ready to board my flight back to Eugene. The weekend was great! I got to see a bunch of friends, was able to spend a lot of time with Emily, and use of some of my remaining Centered City Yoga passes that I thought would go unused. There are a lot of things that I will not miss about Utah, but my friends are the thing that I will miss most of all.

So the plan is to fly back to Eugene this afternoon. My dad will pick me up and we’ll drive to Portland this evening and stay with some of his friends near the airport. We both have flights that leave mid-morning tomorrow and that is the start of my trip! I fly to San Francisco, have a ridiculous 12 hour layover, and then leave again near midnight for Tokyo. A quick layover there at some ungodly hour of some day (I have no idea which day) and a shorter flight to Bangkok, and I will be in the Land of Smiles. It will be midnight when I arrive. Then starts the most anxiety-inducing part of the trip; somehow getting from the airport to Khao San road and finding a place to sleep. Although I’m not completely sure what time it will be, I have a hunch that it will not be a natural feeling time to go to bed. But who knows. My hope is to meet some people on the plane or at the airport and share a cab. The next time I enter a blog it will be from Thailand and my perceived difficulties will be over! I’m sure that it will really only be the start….

Driving to Oregon

Here I am, in Oregon, standing in a light rain (we call it drizzle here). Didn't I just live in Utah? Wasn't it just really cold and snowing? Yeah, I thought so. So what happened and where am I headed?

This is the first entry of a long string detailing my travels in the next year or so. I thought this would be easier (and faster) than writing 20 different e-mails every couple of days. The basic outline is this:

Early January-move everything to Oregon
Mid January-Fly to Thailand and climb beautiful limestone walls over sandy warm beaches
March-ish-Fly from Thailand to Nepal and trek through mountain valleys and raft some rivers
May-ish to September-Go back to the states and guide on the Rogue river in S. Oregon
Fall-ish-Head to Peru and Chile for several months-Machu Pichu, the Atacama, the Futuleufu

So this is the first part. I spent the first week of the new year packing up all my stuff. When I moved to Utah in August of 03, it was an enormous feat requiring a full pickup truck and a 20' Uhaul. For many reasons I have been slowly getting rid of all of my unnecessary possessions over the last couple of years. Everything I own now fits into my Honda Civic. Everything else was given away, sold, or recycled. Damn that feels good...

I drove out of SLC on Sunday the 6th of January. I wasn't going to leave until Monday because of a forecasted snow storm, but Emily convinced me to head out in front of the storm instead of after it. After a sad goodbye at her work, I took to the road. There was only about 2 hours of snowy driving before I hit sunny skies and smooth driving. Well, as smooth as a really overloaded Civic with two bikes and a roof box can be driving into a 50 mph headwind. At full throttle, 75 was my max! The drive was more or less uneventful and I made good time.

I pulled into the Full Sail Brewery in Hood River for dinner after 12 hours of continuous driving. The beer and spinach salad never tasted so good! I had heard about a collective of people from my friend Clayton that allow you to stay for free at their place, called couch surfing. Since I had to stay the night in Hood River, I decided to see if there were any couchsurfing spots available. I checked this all out before leaving and had been in contact with a woman near Hood River who was willing to let me crash at her place for the night. I met Alyssa at the brewery and we got to know eachother a bit before heading back to her place. She is a school teacher and had to be up early, and I was tired from driving all day, so we said good night and I crashed on her couch. She was so friendly and generous! It was a great experience and I would highly recommend couchsurfing.com to any of you looking to do some budget traveling.

In the morning I ate a quick breakfast at Alyssa's house, did some yoga, then went in to Hood River for an interview with ECHO River Trips. I had been talking with the manager about being a river guide next summer and this was the chance I had been waiting for. I was definitely anxious about the interview because I have been wanting to be a river guide for several years now. We walked down to a coffee shop, then sat around talking about traveling, rafting, kayaking, etc for the next hour or so. I walked away with a job guiding on the Rogue this summer, and at least a couple trips down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho! There have been very few days in my life that I felt as successful as I did then! I hoped in my car, and finished the last 3 hours of my drive to Eugene. It was surprising how many beautiful verdant fields there were, most of them filled with cute spongy-looking sheep. I met my brother and dad for lunch at my favorite place to eat (Cafe Yumm) and spent the rest of the day catching up.