Life in Thailand continued....

Well, I found a new place to stay. Same resort, The Andaman, but a nicer, larger place with fewer wildlife features. I like it.

The last few days have been a blur. I have been climbing a lot, hanging out on the beach a lot on my days off, and just enjoying the slow pace of life here. Well, I guess that's not quite right. Before I left I thought that it would be slow and langorous here, with whole days spent in a sun-drenched bliss-like state. That hasnt happened yet. I am actually very very busy! I have been climbing with three different sets of people and it is a little taxing to be juggling all the socializing. I know. Imagine that! But its true. It has been so truly wonderful for that to be the case. The Canadians I have been climbing with forbid me to take rest days that werent on their schedule. As did the Americans and the Germans. They are all such great people!



I have been climbing well for me here. I have been able to onsight 11a, and get 11b with only a little more work than that. I projected on a 12a a couple days ago and it worked the crap out of me! I have a long way to go before I can get a redpoint, but it seems do-able. As long as I take adequate rest. I have been climbing too hard I think and my forearms have tweaked a little. I will have to back off a bit if I am to continue here.

Yesterday was a rest day. I spent the whole morning reading 'Angle of Repose' by Wallace Stegner. A classic book about the West-I love it. In the afternoon I met the two Canadians and we (and a bunch of others) took off to a couple nearby islands to snorkel. The lighting was not so good, but there was a whole ton of sea creatures, including a barracuda, sea crete, and a reef shark. We had dinner at sunset on a remote island, then after it got dark went swimming in the ocean. It had all these phosphorescent little critters in it! Every time you disturbed the water it would light up all around you. It was like swirling your hands through the Milky Way! If you flicked the water with your hands you could send a 'fireball' of light from your fingertips. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I didn't want to get out of the water!

Then this morning I got up early and a few of us climbed Humanality (6b+). Its a 5-pitch sport climb right up off the beach and it was so fantastic. The climbing was mostly straightforward, but with a crazy stalactite move near the top. I felt so good because I didn't get super scared like normal with all the exposure (we were prehaps 150m off the beach). Most of these pictures are from this climb. I partnered with Jodi (Canadian), and because you need two ropes to rappell, we convinced Rusche (German) and her friend Mathew (French) to be a second party on the climb. It took about 3 hours for all 4 of us to finish, and when we were done we werent sure whether to eat breakfast or have a beer! We ate breakfast, but the beer was a close second!

After that I swam a bit, showered, then hung out on the beach waiting for Emily to arrive. She showed up after being in transit for about 40 hours. It was so good to see her again! SHe's definately tired and needs a couple days to acclimate and rest, as anyone would after coming halfway around the world into a completely opposite climate.

I'll write more in a couple days.

I wrote this a couple days ago:

Just one of those days,
When your life passes before your eyes,
Just one of those days,
When the past and the future collide,
Just one of those days.