Mmmmmm Ice Cream

Still just climbing up and down rocks every day. Definitely starting to feel pretty beat up at this point. Tonight I shall buy my plane ticket down to Tonsai for some climbing on the beach. 

Yesterday the hostel picked up some ice cream to make sundaes and I couldn't have been happier. We also had another wonderful night around the campfire. It was such a special moment to look around the fire and see people from England, Holland, Australia, Canada, Germany, France and Spain. With so many issues going on nowadays within the US and throughout the world, it was so satisfying to have such a connected experience with people from so many different backgrounds. 

With little to talk about aside from climbing, here are some fun facts about Thailand:

• Almost every toilet comes equipped with a "bum gun"; essentially a handheld bidet, aka a garden hose for your back end. One hand sprays the water, the other applies the scrubbing. Most people love them, I'm still undecided. 

• It's very rude/disrespectful to point the bottom of your foot towards another person. And you best not point them towards an image of Buddha. 

• Traffic generally drives on the left side of the road... or the right... or middle, depending on where you feel like driving. Traffic is rarely enforced. BUT, if you're a tourist on a scooter in the old city, you're pretty much guaranteed a fine at one point or another; either for not wearing a helmet or not having a proper license. Although I've already heard of several people who have talked their way out of tickets. 

• There's a lot of pride in cooking a Pad Thai dish. So much so, that many restaurants don't offer it in fear of not preparing it well enough.

Rest Day

I've become quite comfortable here at Jira's restaurant and homestay. Doing some rough calculations, I could live here with a bed in the dorm, 3 meals a day and 3 beers a night for a year for about $3,500. Pretty sure 2 months in Boston would cost me more. I asked the owner if I could stay here for a year and she very happily said "chai" (yes). The 8 inch long millipedes in the dorm provide the greatest opposition to this thought experiment. 

When I first booked my ticket to Thailand, the first route I looked up was "Anxiety State Crisis". It's a 2 pitch 5.11d that climbs its way up a pillar in the cave, into the roof and through a hole at the top.  

I finally found a partner interested in this adventure. Getting to the start of the climb involves 2 rappels and various scrambling on iron rungs until you get to a small ledge 80 feet above the cave floor. You're introduced to serious exposure right from the start and it's described as "3d climbing". There's stalactites abound and if it seems you've run out of holds, turn 180 degrees and you're greeted with an airy traverse to another set of stalactites. Absolutely stunning climbing. After a 180 foot rappel from the top to the cave floor, we both agreed that it was the coolest, most unique climb either of us has ever done. 

That was yesterday. Today was the first rest day of my trip. I'm sore in places that haven't been sore since the time I tried drunken wrestling on Christian's hardwood floor. 

I've passed the time washing my clothes and shoes, grabbing food at the market and exploring the town. Grabbing one of the scooters at the hostel, I explored the back roads of Mae On. The roads that wind through the farms and hills of the countryside were an absolute blast to explore. Ripping around on scooters is by far one of my favorite experiences of Thailand. After picking up a cheap pair of sunglasses on the way back, I got that little oil burning, 4-speed, semi-automatic scooter up to an ear-piercing 75 mph. Satisfaction was achieved. Time for a tall Chang beer and some fried big noodle. 

The Green Curry Soup Is Spicy

Nothing new to report over here! Bonfires, jam sessions, cool bugs, crag dogs, snakes and more caves. Oh and I sent another 7a+ (5.12a)!

Sawadee krap!

Caves And Massages

Yep, still climbing. My apologies if you're getting sick of all the climbing blabbering. Here's a fun tidbit though, see this cave next to one of the walls? A monk lives in that cave with his pet pit bull. I have yet to see him but he apparently can be spotted walking about during the day. And the guidebook says that women should keep their shoulders and knees covered when climbing here because it can be offensive to monks to have those sections of skin exposed. 

Take a look at this cave!! It's absolutely massive and it's loaded with climbs! The shot below is of the lower entrance. There's no climbs down there but it's a beautiful room nonetheless. 

Here's Matt on one of the single pitch routes. There are routes to the right of him that go twice as high, all the way up to the roof of the cave. We didn't get on any of those unfortunately. Maybe soon! Hopefully I can get some decent shots with my DSLR, these cell phone shots don't do it justice. 

Finished yesteday on a 3 pitch route towards the top of the mountain. The position and exposure during the last pitch was a wonderful way to end the day. 

If you're wondering where I'm staying, it's at a hostel across the street from the climbing. Below is what $3.40 will get you for a bed, hot showers, internet and access to bikes and scooters. They also run a restaurant with amazing food all for less than $2 a dish. The portions are big enough to save for lunch the next day. The owner will give you Tupperware and keep your food in the fridge overnight. Such great service. 

After almost onsighting a 7a+ (12a) this morning, I took the afternoon off to borrow a scooter and head into town for a Thai massage. $4.28 buys you an hour massage and boy oh boy did I need it. My back was a disaster and now I feel all limber and relaxed. 

For real though, I can see why spoiled Americans like myself stay here for a lot longer than a few weeks. 

That Thai Limestone

Day 3 of ordering the omelette on rice and it doesn't get old. I'm sure they offer other meals for breakfast but I don't care. 

Been checking out all of the different walls the last couple of days. Each wall is so different but still so incredible. Have yet to try a route that I didn't love. There's pumpy overhanging climbs on pockets and tufas, thin delicate faces, windy traverses on slopers and underclings, stemfests through massive tubes and even some fun cracks!

Here's Steve on the finish of a super fun 6b+. It ends with an 8 meter chimney that offers fun stemming with wild exposure. 

If you were wondering why the crag is called crazy horse, check out this shot of the crazy horse buttress. See the massive horse head sticking out of the mountain? It even has 2 massive protruding rocks for ears.

This morning I decided to explore the higher walls and see if I could scramble to the summit. Mission accomplished and I was rewarded with a decent view! Unfortunately on the way down I trodded through some brush containing some ma mui plants. The result was experiencing the worst itch and pain combination I've ever experienced in my life. The pain was worse than getting a tattoo and it was all over both of my legs. From now on I'm sticking to the trails. 

Finished the day at the Heart Wall which no photo could ever do it justice. Amazing limestone features all over a super imposing tall, overhung wall. 

Probably going to be staying here for longer than anticipated. 

Crazy Horse!

Due to some lingering jet lag, I'm still waking up between 5 and 6 every morning. It's actually kinda nice having that extra time in the morning.  

After a delicious breakfast of steamed rice with an omelette on top (a delicious combo I would never have thought to make), I  headed out to Crazy Horse with some new friends from the hostel. My goodness this place is incredible! Beautiful limestone cliffs with caves and tufas and climbing everywhere. 

We spent all of our time in one area today and still didn't get to all of the climbs we wanted to. This cave had a few really fun climbs inside of it.  Also, check out the massive honey bee hives all over the wall.

These climbs were on the other side of the cave. It's painfully hot and humid when you're in the sun, but the climbing is so fun that you almost forget about it.

After climbing I finally had a chance to ride a scooter around. Most people ride scooters or motorcycles of some kind in Thailand. The best part is that this hostel lets you borrow a scooter for free. We took them down the road to explore the town a little, check out the local market and stop at 7 Eleven  (my toothpaste was confiscated going through security at the Singapore airport). Despite having to drive on the left side of the road and move into the breakdown lane when cars came up from behind, I had an absolute blast. Definitely doing that again. 

Temples In The Old City

First day in Thailand was a great success. Many people have told me to try the street food here and they weren't kidding around. So good and so incredibly affordable. 

This morning I woke up super early because my brain still doesn't know what time or day it is. It was a good opportunity to soak up the morning sun, grab some breakfast and aimlessly wander around the Old City. There are more temples here than there are Dunkin Donuts in Boston. Some of them small and modest, others massive golden palaces that require you to pay to even get near them. Fascinating history and architecture but like Kyle told me yesterday, "you kinda get bored of them rather quickly". 

And with that experience under my belt, it was time to get out of the city and get on some epic Thai limestone! At the high cost of 35 Baht ($1), I took a 50 minutes bus ride into the country side. I'm now at a hostel across the street from all of the best climbing in Northern Thailand. Nestled in the mountains, this hostel sits on beautiful property, has beds available for $3.40 a night and offers the best tasting food I've had so far in Thailand. And every single person staying here is a climber. I've already joined in on some card games, slack lining and riding scooters to the local market to buy deep fried mushrooms and other delicacies. Tomorrow I finally get my hands on some Thailand rock!

The Journey To Thailand

Welp, I'm officially halfway across the world now and boy does it take a long time to get here!

First of all, I had an interesting time identifying exactly what would be necessary for a 6 month backpacking/climbing trip that could fit into a single bag. Below is what I came up with. I've been in Thailand for 8 hours and I'm already making an ordered mental list of which items I could get rid of and not miss too much. I could probably ditch a couple of t-shirts... but I could also ditch the towel and use the t-shirts as towels... or I could just free solo and ditch all of the heavy climbing gear. After all, I didn't pay for travel insurance for nothing!

Here was my view during 2 separate 12 hour flights. I watched movies, read books, picked meat out of my wonderfully basic meals and endlessly pondered the ideal sleep schedule so as to avoid jet lag upon arriving in Thailand. With 3 different layovers in 3 different time zones, I could never quite seem to come to the same conclusion twice.  I ended up staying awake during the entire first flight, and sleeping the entire second flight so as to wake up Tuesday morning in Singapore. I think it worked out pretty well. 

In case you haven't yet seen the Singapore airport, let's just say that it makes the Mall of America look like a joke. Also, my new favorite airport pastime is finding those fancy duty free shops, locating the most expensive Cologne on the shelves, and covering myself in it to see if people notice how rich I smell. Hasn't gotten any attention yet, but my wrists now smell like Johnny Depp...

Although the flights were long, the process was seamless and I made my way through Thailand customs without a hitch. With 30 minutes of free airport wifi I tried to reach out to my friend Kyle who is living in Thailand and then come up with a backup plan in case he doesn't get back to me in time. I failed on all fronts and sat there in the airport lobby thinking about how crazy the Thai alphabet looks. 

Just then, I see a red truck pull up and drop some people off. This sets off one of those dramatic Hollywood cut scenes where I'm blasted into the past to remember something I read weeks ago. Thailand has a communal taxi service similar to Peru's collectivos. It's super cheap and can get you around fairly easily. I walk up and ask how much it is to get downtown (Is there even a specific "downtown" in Chiang Mai?). The man says 200 Baht, and as if I knew what the hell that meant or whether or not it was a good deal, I said thank you and walked away. As I'm trudging away determined to walk the 8 miles to get to "downtown" I notice the man in the red truck following me. He yells out the window "100!". I pause as if to be contemplating this new deal (that I'm cleary going to take...) and then crawl into the back of his truck. 30 minutes in Thailand and I've successfully bargained with my first cabbie! 

I ended up finding a hostel in the Old City and I've already met so many amazing people. I'm learning tons about the culture here which is vastly different from anything I've experienced in North and South America. It has already been a wonderful learning experience. Grabbed some street food with a new friend and of course I had to go with the Pad Thai. Not too bad here. Kyle ended up stopping by the hostel later and dropping some more Thai tips and tricks.

Tomorrow I shall get one of those cheap massages and probably make my way to the epic climbing!

Cooking Popcorn In The Car

One last car cooking video before I head off (far away from my Saturn) for 6 months. Who doesn't love popcorn and a thought-provoking film?

HE'S BEEN REINCARNATED AS A TRICYCLE!!

Boulders And Country Music

55 degrees and sunny in Soddy-Daisy Tennessee. Justin, Alie and I spent 3 days climbing some really awesome boulders at Stone Fort. We also checked out the sights around Chattanooga and Nashville. Tennessee is pretty fun!