Diving Down, Climbing Up, and What's In Between

Sawat de krahp everyone!
The last twelve days or so since my last post have been really great, so let me tell you about them.


I caught a bus from Bangkok to Krabi Province, described by Lonely Planet as "Thailand's most beautiful province", with the intention of doing some scuba diving and rock climbing. My first destination in Krabi was Ko Phi Phi Island. I didn't know what sort of scene Phi Phi would be, but the ferry ride out there prepared me: packed with tourists. Also note the looming monsoon clouds gathering strength overhead.


I landed on Ko Phi Phi and headed straight for a quiet end of the island with the cheapest bungalos. I was having mixed feelings about being around so many uniform tourists, but the blue green waters and high limestone cliffs were reassuring of my intentions for being here.


Ko Phi Phi is a beautiful island, and the sun sets right off the west beach leading to post card perfect pictures. It's not surprising this is a popular place.


Silhouettes of carste topography give the area considerable drama... especially if you're a climber.


Not feeling eager to take part in Phi Phi's alcoholic social scene, I signed up for a Master dive course the day I arrived. So, the very next day, I was out in the warm Andaman Sea checking out sharks, sea snakes, eels, and irredescent coral through the crystal clear water.


Already a busy place, it's hard to imagine the marine park just off Phi Phi in high season. But all those long tails sure are photogenic...


Taking a rest for lunch in between dives (and to let the nitrogen out of our systems) we have some fun on the boat. Serial divers are notoriously goofy. Everyone had plenty of time to practice backflipping off the boat's upper deck (that's me), an activity surely more dangerous than diving to 30 meters.


On day two of the course I did my first wreck dive. Diving a wreck is a pretty surreal experience, but similar to how you'd imagine it. Barnacles everywhere, ghostly light, and so many fish. Down here we saw many lion fish and a massive bat fish.


If you haven't done scuba diving, it's hard to describe the feeling you get surfacing after an incredible, mind blowing dive. You've just been underwater for almost an hour, looking at freek-show marine life-- sea cucumbers, anenomes, stone fish, sea horses, eels, a cuttle fish-- and everything has been so quiet. Underwater all you hear is breathing and bubbles with the snap crackle pop of coral munching fish, and you surface to a gentle lap-lapping of waves. The first moment of surfacing then is a moment of clarity when sound and vision return to normal; what everyone says is "Wow."


I'll be glib: there's more than one fish in the sea...


The last time I rented an underwater camera it was a bit of a disappointment, but this time, perhaps due to clearer water or better light, perhaps due to improved technique, I took some good clear shots like this moray eel.


Just hum to yourself Camille Saint Sains' "The Aquarium".



The iconic long tail boats make cliche but beautiful pictures.



I hiked up to the islands main view point (and tsunami evacuation route) to check out another beautiful sunset. I wasn't alone here, but it's a really nice vantage point of the island.


When the sun goes down and its beating heat dissapates into a somewhat cooler but still drenching humidity, a multitude of parties hosted by the numerous bars are fired up. On one night I went to one with a friend to observe the debauchery, and was at first reminded of college frat parties. They put on this drinking contest encouraging young women to drink buckets and shots of hard liquor; it's no surprise that right after finishing her turn in the contest this budding sorority sister ran over and yacked into the ocean. Observing people reveling in gross intoxication I remembered my past but felt only sadness for these people; I cannot celebrate that lifestyle any more.




Next came the fire show with professional fire dancers, and I had so much fun taking pictures. Letting the poi and firestaff be paintbrushes of light, I experimented with exposers and aperatures, panning and pulling the zoom, and really getting milage out of my image stabalized telephoto. Don't mind me while I dork out a bit =)


Going back to my cabana my last bit of Phi Phi night culture was a trio of painters up late creating paintings of pop culture. Scenes from Tarintino movies, portraits of Che Guerva, and other Western iconography hang all over the walls as they silently paint and humor my clicking camera.


After my dives were finished and I'd spent a day climbing Phi Phi's singular "Tonsai Tower", there was no reason for me to hang around the over priced and over run resort island. Since the water is too shallow to land a long tail on the beach, we had to hop out and walk to shore. Easy for me with my backpack, but not so much for prissy tourists with their rolling luggage. In this way the tourists are seperated from the travelers; here, at Railay, the tourists fill up the expensive resorts of Railay West, and the dirtbagging climbers (that's me folks!) hike on over to secluded Tonsai Beach and it's hundreds of bolted sport routes.


Being shown to my bungalow at Tonsai, I found this foot long centipede. It moved like a snake, really quickly. And the local man showing me to my room didn't want me to go anywhere near it or, as I am want to do, to poke it with a stick. While I wasn't about to pick it up, this "ferang" (Thai for "foreigner") has been closer to more dangerous bugs and wanted a good shot!


My first night on Tonsai beach is really beautiful. It's the night before my birthday and the moon is really bright, and it seems I've found my place in a warm community of rock climbers.


I got really excited when I spotlighted this silly frog. He's like a balloon. He fills himself up from the back, then thrusts it all forward into his throat to make his loud bullfrog croak. I was able to set my headlamp down right in front of the bugger, and remembered catching frogs in Michigan as a boy while I took pictures. I've always had a soft spot for amphibians.


The setup on Tonsai is pretty ideal for a relaxed climbing lifestyle. The limestone cliffs come right to the beach here, with unique stalagtite formations, big hand holds and steep overhangs, it makes for some really fun climbing. Not to mention the cave, with its insane ceiling routes, is next door to ever popular Freedom Bar.



Thailand jungle foliage.


See the water spider? After climbing hard for 4 days in a row I took a rest day. The timing was perfect because it rained more this day than any other day I was on Tonsai. I had lots of time for wandering around and seeing little things, like a spider on lilly pads.


And each night you could count on a pretty chill scene at the Casbah Bar, punctuated by a slacklining, fire twirling bartender.



Yes, it's more firedancing pictures. But this time the dancer isn't a profession (though she does harder tricks with better coordination), she's just another traveler who, for the time being, is part of the Tonsai climber community.


That's me stemming my way up a 6b (French for 10.b) climb. This was probably my favorite climb because of all the stalagtites.


And here's a friend of mine doing the same climb. I borrowed a trick lense from a fellow camera dork for this picture, so that's why everything but Chris, the climber, is blurred. This is jungle climbing!


This is my friend Georg (German for George). He and I climbed together at Ko Phi Phi, and met up again on Tonsai. He was my main climbing partner, and we had a lot of fun route after route.


Another friend from Tonsai, Juul from Holland, here takign on the 6c+ "Lion King". You can tell by the exhausted expression on her face that this is a tough climb-- really pumpy.


And here I am on the same climb, Lion King. Earlier in the day I tried to lead it, falling several times at the third bolt, so here I am again going at it on top rope. Even on top rope I couldn't make it farther than I did trying to lead it; I think my earlier attempts had left me too weak. But even though I never made it to the chains I felt great about going for it.


Carlos bouldering on the beach. Since it's monsoon, and most mornings it was raining, the limestone was dripping wet in many places. Even so, most of the best routes were still climbable.


Check out my buddy Borg throwing a strong heal hook on this 7b. He made this climb look easy; the dude's a real bad ass.


Another day in paradise...


I hope you agree that this is a really cool spider. As big as my hand.


After diving, climbing, and all that was in between in Krabi, I took an overnight bus back to Bangkok. Besides sky train, the chanels are my favorite way to get around in Bangkok. Sure, they are extremely polluted and smell awful, but you can ride all the way accross town, with no traffic, for 18 baht.

That was this morning, getting back to Bangkok. Laundry finished, emails sent, and blog updated, I'm heading out again early tomorrow morning for the final installment of my Thailand adventure. In a move reminiscant of my jaunt from Belize to the Mayan temple complex Tikal in Guatamala, I'm jumping accross the Thailand border into Cambodia to visit the ruins of Angkor Wat for a few days. It's a bit of a dangerous journey, what with the tension between Thailand and Cambodia, but I hear it's worth the trip. I actually don't know anything about it at the moment, but I'm about to look it up in Wikipedia.
I really appreciate anyone still reading. These days I'm really enjoying myself and I hope sharing these experiences is giving others some joy too. I'd love to hear your comments; leave them here, send me an email, or find me on FaceBook. Oh and thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday-- the wishing must have worked cause I had a great 26th.
Much love to everyone.