Thursday, Jan 3, 2008

Here are some leftover pictures from New Year's:

So many fire dancers:

Kristen and I!:


OK!, back to the present. The past couple of days have been full of stuff.

Since my last post, Kristen and I have explore the area surround Rai Lay beach, which includes Phra Nang, where I did my first bouldering in Krabi on a stalagtite and semi-traversing a dimpled wall, Rai Lay West and East, and Ton Sai (the real climber's paradise). We had to hike through the jungle to get here. But once we got there we ate some chicken that was being cooked on the side of the dirt "road" and enjoyed a mango sticky-rice dish with coconut milk (sooo good). On the beach I bouldered a small outcrop of rock in between two huge cliff faces which were ridden with climbers from all over the world. Mainly sport routes, but some great roofs and great rock. The climbing was fun, and totally amped me up for a half-day of climbing the next morning.

Kristen and I spent our last hours on Rai Lay beach rock climbing one of Thailand's most famous walls: "1-2-3." The climbs were basic; the last two were difficult, and I'm proud to say that I topped out on all of them. It was Kristen's first time climbing and she did great as well--she got super super high. Here is the view from the top of the highest route we climbed (30m):

It was invigorating and tiring, but an experience I don't think either of will forget!

Once we were off the rock we took a long-tail boat to Ao Nang where we took a bus-like tuk-tuk.. sketchy--at one point there were 15 people on board.. it's kinda like a small pick-up truck (really small) with benches in the back and a roof for your stuff. i should've taken a picture! We arrived at teh bus station in Krabi Town and were directed to the 7/11 (yes, they have them here, too). There we stocked up on some erally really really cheap food and crossed the busy road to where we must HAIL down a bus from Phuket to Trang. We met 4 locals who helped us out and taught me some basic Thai, like the words for hot, and very hit, which I have entirely fogotten.

We managed to make the bus, then head south to Trang, about a 2 hours bus ride. We set up shop in a cheap hotel for $280BHT a night with a/c!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and knowing we were on to the next leg of our journey through Thailand after we left Trang.