Life on the Rocks

Hey All,

We just finished three weeks of travelling Northern Thailand and Laos.  And after a while another temple wat looked the same as the one we saw before.  We were getting "watted out" and it was definitely time to settle down somewhere and do a whole lot of absolutely nothing.    

Our destination for unparallel vegetative bliss would be the beautiful beaches of southern Thailand.

We decided to visit the Koh Phi Phi islands first.  The islands are made up of the larger Phi Phi Don and the smaller Phi Phi Ley.  They are known for their beautiful scenery and were the backdrop for Leonardo DiCapio's movie The Beach.  Blame Hollywood because now everybody looking for their own little piece of untrampled and secluded  beach paradise goes to Koh Phi Phi.  And what you get is exactly the opposite.

Throngs of tourists flock to the island daily by ferry boat from the surrounding areas.  Crusty old-school backpackers will bemoan the loss of the Phi Phi's idyllic, deserted beaches after the island's post Hollywood success.  But that's just the way things go with time.  Get over it.

I was actually glad to see the throngs of tourists coming back to Phi Phi.  The 2004 tsunami destroyed 70% of the buildings and took a worse toll on the island's inhabitants.  There are still visible signs all over the island of continuous but slow rebuilding taking place.  Some areas and buildings look like wrecking yards because they haven't been fixed yet and still show the damage from the tsunami.  Things are going slow.  So we didn't mind seeing the hordes of tourists and their money helping out the island and its recovery at all.

Doing a whole lot of nothing except visit the beaches was great while it lasted.  But soon we were getting the itch to do something a little more active with the rest of our time.  So we decided to do some rock climbing on the massive Tonsai rockface on the island.  There are several rock climbing schools on the Koh Phi Phi but we settled with Spidermonkey (www.spidermonkeyclimbing .com) because the owner and guide, Theep, gave us a great vibe. 

He was talkative, enthusiastic and funny.  His equipment was top notch and kept in great condition.  Above all, Theep stood at a diminutive 5'5.  That was an added bonus since we felt more comfortable  learning techniques from a guide that is closer to our size.  I can't imagine learning to climb from a guide that's 6'4 as moves and techniques will simply get lost in the height difference.  If anything, it's just inspiring to see a small guy climb up a steep rock face as easily as if he were climbing a step ladder.  We ended up taking a three day course with Theep to learn all we could about outdoor climbing.

Most of our climbing experience has been indoor where the routes are preset with plastic holds.  Outdoor climbing was so much more fun since there is more room for creative climbing given the natural holds of an entire rock face.  And the scenery was just incredible.  After reaching the top, with our fingers and forearms aching, we easily forgot to take in the view.  Theep had to shout and remind us to turn around to enjoy our reward for reaching the top which was an incredible view of the island. 

One day while walking to the climbing site we asked Theep about his tsunami experience.  He told us how he woke up one morning, set about doing his morning chores with Spidermonkey, when all of a sudden the street outside his shop was filled knee deep with water.  Then two more consecutive rushes of water followed, raising the water as high as 6 or 7 metres.  By then, Theep had scrambled up to a second story building and was trying to fish people out of the rushing water with his climbing rope.  Some of his friends were not so lucky.
 
By our third day, we were fairly comfortable on the rocks.  Our most memorable climb was Andrea's Spine (rated a 6b+ for those that care).  Andrea's Spine is this really odd looking stalactite that looks like it dripped down the entire rock face to form a limestone spine.  You have to hug parts of the spine with all fours and shimmy up as if you were climbing a palm tree in order to get to the top.  With a lot of coaching from Theep, both Jenn and I made it to the top.

After three days of climbing we were ready to wind down and celebrate.  Enter the Bucket.  Every few streets there are vendors lining up rows of colourful buckets on tables.  These buckets are not used for making sand castles. 

They're actually buckets containing the following raw ingredients ready to be mixed together:  1 mickey of Thai whiskey, one can of cola, ice and one bottle of Thailand's infamous energy drink, Red Bull. 

The first sip tastes like cough syrup.  Subsequent sips improve.  By the second bucket who cares!!  All the aches from climbing is gone.

Cheer from the top of Tonsai and the bottoms of our Thai buckets.

Lenny and Jenn