There and Back Again

Lauren and I met up at 4:ooam the morning we were to fly to Thailand and over 40 hours later (with no sleep aside from what we managed on the plane) we arrived on Ton Sai Beach. As the long tailed boat took us to our destination I was immediately enamoured with the huge limestone cliffs surrounding Ton Sai and Railay beach. We were dropped off on Ton Sai right in front of the well known "Freedom" bar where my attention was immediately drawn to an overhanging cave where climbers were working on insanely difficult routes. It was an amazing site to see and one I had waited for years to experience. We went straight to Andaman Nature "Resort" (not a resort at all) recommened to us by Greg and Graham (thanks!) to find a bungalow and within half an hour we were drinking Beer Chang on the beach. We took a little time to get to know the area which consisted of Ton Sai Beach, Ton Sai Road (which really isn't a road but more of a dirt path) and the one trail that you can take to hike up and over to Railay East. We were so exhausted that we went to bed that night at 5pm and managed to sleep until 6am the next morning. After the 40+ hours of traveling we were in need of some serious rest.


Ton Sai Beach


Me enjoying a Beer Chang after arriving at our Bungalow!


Climbing cave next to Freedom Bar.


The next day we were stoked to go climbing as the limestone in the area seems to call to you. We started our day at the Diamond Cave on Railey East and after hours of climbing we hit the beach for some relaxing. This is pretty much how we spent the next 8 days on Ton Sai. We'd start the morning with a yummy breakfast, hike over to the climbing area we'd decided on for that day, climb until we were exhausted, and then head back to Ton Sai for a Beer Chang and beach time. It was awesome. We did some incredible climbs of which my 2 favorites were Groove Tube (6a...see picture above) and We Sad (6a+). One of the coolest climbing experiences we had while in Thailand was the day we spent deep water soloing. We went out on a long tailed boat with a group of other climbers and were taken to a small island where we dove into the water and started climbing. It was incredible! It was the strangest feeling to reach a point where you couldn't climb any farther up and to just let go. No rope to catch you, just water beneath you. It was also a little scary as you could see where you were going from the boat but then once you were on the rock it seemed much farther up. I didn't think this was going to affect me at all (I had already seen other climbers experiencing this phenomena before I climbed) but I have to admit....it was a little more unnerving than I expected. I think it was the combination of climbing and then just free falling until you hit water. In my mind, these 2 things had never been combined so it took a little bit of adjustment.

Me climbing at the 1,2,3 Wall.


My first 6b+ lead at the Diamond Cave.


Me inside Diamond Cave.


Stalactites are made for climbing!


Long tailed boats on the beach.


Me loving life on Ton Sai beach.


Limestone on Railay East.

While on Ton Sai I had my 28th birthday. Notice I did not say, "I celebrated my 28th birthday". To begin this story I should say that while in Thailand Lauren and I decided that we needed to eat as much as possible. We were climbing and hiking everyday so we could afford to eat a lot AND we knew that we'd never find Thai food as good as it was in Thailand so logically we needed to eat as much as possible and to try as many different dishes as we could manage. We ate pad thai, various/numerous curries, the infamous banana pancakes, BBQ chicked- Thai style, and other things that we had no idea of what it was but it looked yummy so we went for it. It was also extremely hot and incredibly humid everyday so most of our food consumption occured before and after the sun went down. On our 2nd day on Ton Sai we discovered Mango Shakes. They were a perfect afternoon snack to cool us off and hold us over until we ate copious amounts at dinner.
Well, one day we went to Phra Nang Beach (said to be the most beautiful beach in the world) and we'd just left a climbing area that was in the sun when we spotted a long tailed boat with a "menu" attached to it. I can't even begin to explain how excited I was to see "pad thai/mango shake" hand written on the "menu". I was also stoked to be ordering food from a boat where I could watch them make my food while I stood in the Andaman Sea. We enjoyed our shakes, and I my pad thai, on the beach and then began the hike back to Ton Sai Beach. Well 12 hours later we both knew we'd made a big mistake ordering a shake made with ice off of a boat where we had no clue as to wether or not the ice was bought or home made. This then leads me back to my birthday. We both spent my birthday in bed only getting up to run to the toilet. It was terrible. Thank goodness I always travel with Cypro so we were able to begin the meds immediately but it took us 2 1/2 days to fully recover. These were our last 2 days on Ton Sai and we spent them sick. One day in bed the other just lying on the beach getting tan.
The pad thai and mango shake from the boat. This is the culprit of my illness!

Monkeys on Phra Nang Beach


Happy Island off of Phra Nang Beach.


Before flying back home we decided to spend 2 days exploring Bangkok. After our last Thai massage on Ton Sai, we headed into Ao Nang (the launch point for boats to Ton Sai, Railay, and Kho Phi Phi) for some street food to catch a song thaow to the airport. We knew there were shuttles to the airport but we preferred to take song thaows as a means of public transportation. We'd taken one on our day off to get from Ao Nang to Krabi and had been told we could take one to the airport. Song thaows are basically trucks with 2 benches running the length of the truck bed with an awning over the top. The back is completely open so people can get on an off as they please. We found a song thaow and informed the driver that we wanted to go to the airport. He said, "OK...40 Baht" and we agreed. We were actually surprised by this low quote as it was only 30 Baht to get into Krabi and the airport was about 10 kilometers outside of town so to only charge us 10 baht for the extra driving was an incredibe deal. After about 15 minutes in the song thaow the drive stopped at the local bus station to ask us for payment before driving the extra distance to the airport. He again asked us for 40 Baht. We each handed him 40 Baht and he immediately said "no, no, no". We didn't understand what was happening. After minutes of him trying to communicate in what little English he knew and us attempting what little Thai we knew we realized that he had meant to say 400 Baht but had mistakenly said 40! He was completely embarassed. We settled on 300B which was what the shuttle would have cost us BUT the song thaow was much more interesting!!!
Song Thaow in Krabi.

We arrived in Bangkok on Thursday night and found the hostel Keith had booked for us with ease. It was there that we took our first hot shower in 2 weeks and fell asleep in an air conditioned room. After all the hot nights on Ton Sai with only a fan to cool our bungalow air conditioning felt like heaven. The next day we rose early and decided to explore the neighborhood our hostel was in. We found a local market only a couple of blocks away from our hostel where Thais had veggies, peppers/chillis, fish, household items and meat on display. I love local markets that aren't targed towards tourists as there is so much that can be learned about a culture through the narrow paths winding between the stalls. From there we walked the streets checking out food stalls and street vendors. We then took a tuk tuk to the Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). I was amazed with how intricate the temples where in Thailand. Many buildings were made with tiny peices of colored glass. I can't even imagine how much time it took to build these intricate buidlings. Afterwards we at lunch at the stalls next to the Phraya River which runs through Bangkok and then went to the Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha). This Buddha is 46m long, 15m high and is almost too large for the buidling it resides within. It was an incredible sight.

This temple also houses the worlds largest Buddha collection which was also quite impressive. That night we decided to go check out Kho San Road as we'd heard numerous others talking about this infamous street. I have to admit, I was less than impressed. Kho San Road was packed with foreigners and western restaurants including McDonald's and Starbucks. Street stalls were set up everywhere selling pirated CDS and DVDS, inexpensive T-shirts, and giving people dreadlocks (b/c they are native to Thailand you know). It was a foreign enclave within the city streets of Bangkok and I've decided that most international cities has such an area. I prefer to avoid these areas and after half an hour on Kho San Road I was ready to go. We decided to check out the night market in the Silom district. It was there that we finally found mango sticky rice! We'd been on a search throughout the day as we'd been told not to leave Bangkok without trying it. It was delicious. On our way home we experienced the scariest Tuk-tuk ride we could possibly imagine. We are now 99% sure that our driver (who was a young boy around 20 years old) was either on drugs or mentally challenged in either case he should not have been opperating a tuk tuk. Not only did he drive at speeds far exceeding all other vehicles around us but he managed to squeeze our tuk tuk between cars and lanes where any wrong move by anyone else would have resulted in an accident. About 15 minutes into the ride we realized he had no idea of where he was taking us and got really angry with us and tried to throw us out of the tuk tuk. Lauren and I happily exited but refused to pay him as he was trying to charge us the entire amount he had quoted us for the ride back to our hostel. After a few minutes of arguing he told us to get back in and resumed the unusually high speeds he'd been driving at before. Then suddenly he realized where he was and where he was taking us and he was then very chattery and friendly with us. Within another minute however he cut off a taxi and then at the next stop light jumped out of the tuk tuk and tried to start a fight with the tax driver he had cut off! Thankfully we were within minutes of our hostel and we made it home safely. That was our last tuk tuk experience in Bangkok.



Another photo from the Grand Palace.

The next day was our last day in Bangkok and given our love of Thai food we decided to take a Thai cooking class. The school we attended was called Silom Cooking School which you can check out here: http://www.bangkokthaicooking.com/contact.html
The school was awesome and Nusi (the owner/instructor) was fun and a wonderful cook. He learned everything he knows about Thai cooking from his mother and shared his family recipes with the class. At the end of the day he gave us all a cook book with recipes of what we'd made that day and some additional recipes of popular Thai dishes we'd not had the time to make. We started the morning by going to a local market with the class (only 8 students) and buying all the ingredients we would need for the day and learning about Thai foods and spices. We managed to buy fresh veggies, tofu, shrimp, and chicken to feed the whole class for less than $20. We then went back to the school which was composed of 2 rooms with a large balcony set up with 4 2-burner propane stoves. The whole place was decorated colorfully and had plants everywhere. It was very cool. Nusi would tell us the ingredients and we would prepare everything then go outside to our individual stoves and he would talk us through the cooking process. We would then eat our dishes and begin another! We made ALL of the following:

* Fried Noodles Thai Style (Pad- Thai- Sai -Kai)


* Spicy Shrimp Soup (Tom- Yum- Gung)


* Green Curry Paste (Nam- Phrik -Kang- Khiao- Wan)

* Green Curry with Chicken (Kang- Khiao- Wan- Gai)


* Northern Chicken Salad (Laab- Gai)


* Rubies in Coconut Milk (Tub -Tim- Grob)




Lauren cooking during our cooking lesson.


I was so full when I left but I couldn't help but eat everything b/c it was sooo tasty. After cooking classes we went to the infamous Chatachuk Market where we spent hours walking through the stalls and checking out the souvenirs for sale. By the end of the day we were exhausted so I enjoyed my final Thai massage. I have now been back for 2 weeks and keep wishing I was back in Thailand. There were so many climbs I did not have the opportunity to get on and so many more places I would have liked to have gone. The people were friendly, it was an easy place to travel, and the food was amazing. I can't wait to go back.