Thailand trip : Sweet and Sour

Thailand was an amazing experience !! Sweet ...I shared a crag with monkeys, ate the tastiest food of me life, went for a ride on an elephant, swam amongst a school of yellow and black stripped fish, had a holiday romance, saw the madness that is Bangkok and climbed up a storm on Thailand's majestic limestone for 8 days. Sour ... after 8 amazing days climbing and 8 remaining my left foot got sore and wouldn't heal up and developed into an injury which kept me off the rock for the rest of the holiday :( Yes I was devastated to have gotten injured and not recovered, but it is what it is, and I feel lucky to have gotten 8 amazing and memorable days climbing on the majestic Thai limestone before my foot went bust.

 

 The weather is insanely hot, not far off 30 degrees everyday and the the humidity was between 70 and 90 percent everyday, so I was sweating buckets and milling through 3 t-shirts a day, climbing during the day was off limits and the good slots for climbing were early morning or from about 3 or 4 in the evening until it got dark at 7. The rock was very nice to climb on. Lot's of pockets and underclings, big fat tufas to bear hug and lay away off, many big stalactites and large features through nice steep ground. The friction wasn't that bad I have climbed on limestone with a lot less !! The bolts and threads were nice and close together most of the time and I thought the grades were all in all pretty fair. The lovely temps in the evening coupled with the gorgeous views made the climbing really enjoyable.

The most memorable moment of the trip was climbing at a sweet crag called Diamond Cave North with a live reggae band jamming out the choons as I spent the evening climbing lovely long 6a+'s with a family of about 25 monkeys scurrying all the way to the top of the 5+ at the left edge of the wall. It was an amazing sight to see even the really young monkeys following their elders up the route and seeing tiny baby monkeys clinging to their mammy's bellies 70 ft up off the ground !!

 

 

After climbing around the Rail Lay and Tonsai areas for a week or so we decide to travel to the beautiful island of Koh Phi Phi which we heard was supposed to be a sweet place to hang out and a had a nice crag at the end of the beach. At first glance the crag at Koh Phi Phi look crap. I t was a really blocky clonglomerate rock which looked like a huge overhanging brick wall without the mortar. I warmed up on a 5 and it felt more like a 4 so I thought to meself ''I'll do another one of those and call it a rest day'' However I was in for a surprise and a ferocious battle as I unknowingly stepped onto a long and fiercly overhanging, roofy 6b !! I realised half way up pumped out of my mind. The ground was steep and the bolts were well spaced, my heart was running fast and my fingers were sweating hard, but my mind was calm and up for the challenge. I found a nice flatty hold and hung out resting. This was when the conglomerate rock really came alive and provided great routes, when it was at it's steepest. I committed to the climb and with the help of my californian climbing partner Jenni cheering me on I managed to pull over onto more favourably angled rock and clip the bolts :) Saweet climb !!

 

The next day we climbed on Koh Phi Phi again and cruised a few nice steep 5's, little did I know that this was gonna be my last day on the rock. Thailand is paradise ... paradise with really good crags scattered around the place and a must visit destination for any climbers with a taste for traveling and adventure. I loved my time climbing here in Thailand. It was majestic in rock quality, surroundings, views, rest day activities and food. Undoubtedly I will return again for more relaxing weather, more friendly atmosphere and more truly magnificent climbing action !!