People, food, and of course climbing

So the injuries are healing up and im still resting my knee off of my project, but sent two in the past two days. After the rest day tomorrow i should be strong enough again to give it a go. Outside of Harry the monkey we are getting in with some of the locals as well. Wee, Tex, Pineapple, and Bang are all local climbers and we hang out with them and motivate each other to climb. Wee is the main Thai local climber here. He has a school for climbing, a guide book, and puts lots of work into the rebolting project here from all the metal corrosion. Bolts dont last too long near the ocean. At Phra Nang beach, where most of our projects are is where the locals hang and its starting to feel like a home crag. everyone says hi, exchanges gifts, smiles, beta, and belays. Its a very genorous environment. Wee actually bet me a beer i couldnt send one of my projects yesterday, but little did he know how motivating that was...SEND!!! It was a warm half drank beer, but beer still the same. We still meet up with Kai and Lindsay everyday and eat/climb with them. Its rained the past 6 days in a row, but it brings cool temps and we climb in a cave so no worries. The conditions have taken its toll on our gear and weve had to chop off some rope on both ropes so far. Gear doesn't last long in the sand. As far as food its usually banana sticky rice with coconut milk in the morning and dinner and lunches vary from fried rice to noodle dishes with seafood or chicken. Pad Thai, Fried Yellow Noodle, and Shrimp Tempura are some of the favorites. No massages yet, even though they are so cheap. We try to keep ourselves on a budget and a massage cost as much as three meals. Plus we figure once we get one it will be all downhill from there. As far as blonde hair goes...it dont mean shit, hah. But theres really nothing else but climbing. We sleep, eat, climb, rest and repeat. Usually it puts us in bed before 9 and most nightlife doesnt start til 10. The nice thing is we are up before most people and have at least our warm up climb to ourselves on the beach. More sending this afternoon. And looking forward to sleeping in and taking a rest day tomorrow. O and after not experiencing air conditioning since weve been here its actually been pretty east to adjust to the heat. Peace in the Southeast!!!

Sunset Thailand

Harry

So we have made quite a few friends, but there is one in particular that has been a pain in our ass.  He's very cranky, steals, and messes with your shit while your trying to climb.  Here is some pics of the little asshole!!

Taking its toll

Well its really to no surprise that with climbing this much comes injuries. Both of my ring finger tendons are weak and are taped up now when i climb. And the most devastating thing happened yesterday on my project. On the crux heel hook i pulled too hard on my knee and messed it up bad for the day. I was limping the rest of the day and ate IBU like it was my job. I took a rest day yesterday to let it rest and have been climbing with a brace on today. I have to stay away from the project for a good while and let it heal. Its difficult because ive put so much work into getting my project done. Hopefully i can practice patience. Ryan sent another project this morning and the day i got hurt sky sent the project that i was working on with him. Our German/Australian friends left this morning and we celebrated by eating good food and watching crappy movies in the lounge. Good thing it was a rest day because it was hotter than two mice fighting in a wool sock out. Well after a tasty lunch its back to the project wall to build up strength in my knee again. Pretty soon we are going to have to start looking into travel plans for north Vietnam because our visas expire on the 11th. Well!!... this is thailand's biggest deal signing off.

9 days left

Unfortunately, we have nine days left in here.  Things have been really great, we have meet some great people and climb a lot.  Feb 7 we will leave for Vietnam, and spend 2 weeks there climbing and taking in the sites.  Not much to post, just trying to survive on 200 bought a day which is around $6.  Hope everyone is doing great.

Nevermind

Found it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry

I wrote a long post, but somehow lost it before i published it.  Hope everyone is doing great.

At last... Deep Water Soloing

So for one of our friends (Yon) bday we finally went deep water soloing. we had 8 people in our group so we had one of the two boats to ourselves. We went out about 40min off the mainland to the main spot where its at and spent some hours playing on some sweet climbs and some big jumps up to just over 60ft which was intense. We have videos of it and will post it when we have the capabilities. its hard to upload pics and video here. we at lunch on a private beach and then went back out for more. I fell on my face a bit the first time and had some pain in my ear for a bit, but we made it back alive. Its hard to focus on typing right now because the biggest storm and first storm just hit so hard the computer is wet. Perhaps its a tunami!! haha. that would suck. its a good thing we slept in and werent on the wall today. I guess jumping off rocks causes a big drain in adrenaline the next day. Well i suppose we will be more ready to crush tomorrow. O and ryan sent a 7c which is roughly a 12d!!! I will be throwing myself at it again tomorrow and hopefully stick the crux moves. We have really made our bungalow a home as well. we all did some laundry in the sink/shower and have a drying line up on our porch. We watch every few days to see who our neighbors are and welcome them to the Forest Resort. Although we have some french people next door that seem snobby. they refuse to take off their shoes when walking around the building which is a sign of disrespect. Its starting to feel like home with our regular spots and becoming familiar with the ins and outs of the area. Its also nice for other travellers who speak english so we can help them out as much as we can. Hmmm... maybe we should start a buisness in translation.

Rest days

Thank god for rest days.  Im sitting here on a computer getting wet from the rain.  It is absoulutly raining so hard the computer is starting to get wet, what a crazy place.  We have been climbing so much! The climbing here is so exceptional.  I was able to send my first 7c (12d) on phra noang beach. Yesterday we took a deep water solo tour.  Amazing! climbing 11c overhanging roof routes 30 feet over the water.  As soon as i can get a fast connection speed I'll try posting videos. I hope every one who is following is doing great, because i know we are. If anybody is worried about us being here, don't the atmosphere and the people is great.  We have not had any worries, and most times only worry about the euro tourist or the monkey's stealing are shit. Anywho i'll post more pics next time.  Peace!

P.S. my mouse is floating in water on the mouse pad!!!

What Day is it!!!!!

The days are starting to blur together, and not knowing what day it is is kinda nice.  We have been rock climbing, trying to stay hydrated, and trying to eat more than a 600 calories a day. (which is harder than you think).  Things are so nice here and the people are so great.  We have had the chance to hangout with a couple from California, a anesthesiologist from Germany, and a competitive ping pong play from Sydney Australia, all which a great people. (what a diverse bunch of people, and great climbers.

its a small world after all

So there hasn't been too many climbing trips that we have had that involve rest days, but after being here for so long they are needed. we found some buffets to stuff our faces a couple times to supplement the rice diet and a place with cool shade and lounging areas to watch cheesy old movies. We have a project route that we are working on, and after last days attempts i couldnt climb today from it. It has to have one of the toughest single throws on it ive ever done, and its right at the top. hopefully ill grow some new skin tonight for the session tomorrow. We also have our little community of people that we hang out with and constantly run into (this place is small and the bar we go to is called small world). Kai and Lindsey are from Cali and are great people to hang out with. And then theres Yon from Germany and Glenn from the down under who are two peas in a pod and are good climbers and hiserical people. We also have some nice new neighbors from London and teach english in china. We are the welcoming party now at The Forest Resort considering my hammock is right next to the reception desk. Well boys and girls its off to find food, sleep, and crush the project tomorrow. O and the bugs...F them!!

Ballers on a budget (Ton Sai)

Well we are here finally in tonsai after a one hour flight and being packed in a bus for way to long with no air circulation. After wondering around Ao Nang for a couple we hopped on a long tail boat for the 15min ride to tonsai. we stumbled across a nice guy from BC who was telling us that there wasnt a lot of rooms left in the area. worried we stumbled up to what BC mike said was a place he thought was ok. we found a room for fairly cheap and after a couple nights we got our host Sin to give us a good deal. we have a shower, toilet, and sink (however the standards of these would deter most people reading this blog... Alison) We have electric, but it comes and goes with the massive generators in the area. The food is cheap and our favorite meal so far is breakfast, sticky rice with bananas or mango. Now thats tasty!!! and at only 40Baht thats about $1.25 Our first person hanging out with was ironically from Utah and had worked for a wilderness therapy program. Apparently after that job you need to decompress halfway around the world. Now the climbing!!! and it is fantastic. the limestone is some of the most featured and crazy looking rock ive ever seen. tufas and stalactites everywhere and the walls are overhung so we are getting a workout climbing these steep and alien features. We are getting up early, around 6am to climb before the sun hits the beach because after its there no one dare climb. so we eat lunch and then laying in the hammock for a nap until either a evening session of climbing or dinner and walking around the beach. Not too much nightlife here which is good because its less of a temptation to drink beer and blow our daily budget. so most nights its bed by 10 and get ready for the morning session. as a matter of fact, its past my bedtime. tomorrow we attack a route called Lion King where the route description talks more about hitting ledges and breaking legs more than the climb itself. good thing we are a big deal. thats all folks.

khao san road

After having found Jess sleeping on an airport bench in the food court. We decided to leave the airport and head for the well known Khao San road located in the heart of Bankok.  This was an exploratory mission for one purpose, and that was to find the train station, and eventually catch the train to Krabi.  Three liters of beer, and a packed train station, we find our drunk ass back at the airport buying tickets to Krabi. Lesson learned!!!

Bangkok

So we arrived in Bangkok at 1130 pm which makes it like 930 am in St. George. The goal is to find jess somewhere within this amazingly huge airport.  IT is 130 am here and still no jess.  Jess if you get this we will be somewhere on the second floor, looking for you.

first impressions

so ive had alot of time on my hands due to the fact that i got to bangkok a day before ryan and sky. needless to say ive had more than ample amounts of time to observe people as i go from food, to solitare, to stepping outside for a smoke. one thing that has caught my attention is the cleanliness of bangkok. take smoking stations for instance. not only does everyone put their butts in the ashtray, but they "ash" in them to, not on the ground. if you spit outside, its also in a trash can. i still havent figured out why people wear doctor masks, but there seems to be no trend in who wears them. also so much stuff is in english which is nice because speaking thai is super intimidating. way more so than when i was trying to speak german and italian in europe. i hope to try my best to learn at least a few phrases before its all over. i saw my first thai mullet and it was on a woman!! sweeet. and there are insane amounts of westerners. i have also enjoyed seeing the varied style of clothing as well as old out of shape white dudes with young attractive thai's (they prob have money, haha). well thats it for now. only ten moree hours til the boys show up and this party can start. peace in the southeast!!

Getting ready for take off!

Sky and I leaving LAX for Tokyo!

where to find me

ryan/sky ill be laying on a bench on the second floor with the food court. ill stay put til i hear from ya. ill check the blog and facebook in a few hours.

off to a good start

after an insane amount of plane travel, sore muscles, and 6 new movies in my memory i have made it to thailand. however the emphasis is on i and not we. somewhere along the way i think in tokyo ryan and sky were late to jump on our plane to bangkok and missed it from the flight out of l.a. So now its time to see how lucky we can get and "bump" into each other in bangkok. good thing its a small town, haha. Surprisingly im in ok spirits all things taken into account. so for now i will wander bangkok airport in hopes of running into them. well a beer and a smoke sound pretty nice too. RYAN and SKY find me!!!!

The trip begins

So it's official, we are out of here. Thailand or bust!!!!!!

Wednesday 6 am

Its 6 in the morning and i'm desperately trying to put my life together in a some crazy small package, so I can get out of here by noon.  I never realized there would be so much to do, and of course I have waited until the last minute to finish things.  o'well Life goes on, I'm sure when i return it will be a cluster fuck, just as i left it.

Packing is killing me

So.... I have packed and repacked. Trying to fit 65 day worth of shit into a 60 liter bag is absolutely killing me. If I keep procrastinating, I'm pretty sure it will pack itself. Pack...call Skyler, repack...call Jess, unpack and procrastinate some more. Hopefully my pack finishes packing by Wednesday at noon!!!

trip report that is helpful for us

http://www.rollglobal.org/2010/03/budgeting-ton-sai/

The Wait

So sitting in chicago for multiple days going for a sweatpants marathon waiting for my plane to take off. This trip cannot start soon enough!!