Carl and I had a great time in Thailand – so much so that we increased our stay there by three days. He had been there for several weeks already so had the climbing scene all spec’d out for us. He met me at that airport (in a heroic journey that actually took more time than it took for me to get from my hotel in Bangkok to Krabi), and then we took the taxi/boat combination that he had arranged to get us back to Rai Lay beach. (No slippery treks through the downpour for me!). We spent the first afternoon climbing on a wall right behind the hotel we were staying at and then over the course of the next week and a half hit 4-5 other areas around the island, and it was great. The rock was solid, the climbs led to extraordinary beach overlooks, and if you were smart about the shade (and Carl had scouted this as well) it was possible to do all this without overheating. The areas usually didn’t have a lot of what I would call “easy” climbs, so my warm-up usually felt someone abbreviated, but it all worked out – no further injuries, and some great climbing.

The daily rhythm outside of climbing was quite chill. I picked up a copy of Harry Potter 7 in Bangkok, and Carl had first dibs on that because I was still finishing my review of the previous books. So we spent a lot of time reading, ate all our meal’s at Mom’s Kitchen (which was cheap, tasty and reliably safe), and wandered around the island a bit.

The one other adventure we had was renting a kayak and paddling to one of the neighboring islands. The goal was to find a hawker-free, quiet beach, and we thoroughly succeeded, finding a deserted stretch of good sand with a great view of other islands (and the storms that were circling but never really got us). I read, Carl napped, and then we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset from the water on our paddle back – good fun!

Having been wanting to climb with Carl in Thailand ever since I went there in 2000, these were a great 2 weeks. The world was calling, however, so we moved on to other adventures.

Thanks to the fare incentives of Singapore-based Tiger Airways, we had a 20-hour layover in Singapore on our way from Krabi to Darwin, in Australia. We thought we’d check the city out, and were quite glad we did, because it was very cool! Singapore is clean and modern, with a fantastic mix of ethnicities (felt like an Asia melting pot). We spent our one day there doing a walking tour of the city, hitting the Arab, Indian and Chinese quarters, with miscellaneous city architecture in between. (The only downside to the visit was that we came through on a Sunday and much of the city was shut down).

My favorite area by far was the Arab quarter, which was bustling without being overcrowded and had a neat mix of textile stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc., all frequented by locals. Even though we were only 2 hours away from breakfast, we tried some Muslim food (advertised as the best in the city), and indeed found it quite tasty. Little India was not quite as quaint, and I was traumatized by a lunch experience in which I think we were “taken” by our waiter and were served about 4 times as much food as we needed for about 4 times the price; couldn’t even make a dent and then had to go to the ATM to cover the bill. Nonetheless, the rest of the walk was enjoyable and interesting and by the end of the day I was back to raving about Singapore.

written by  GoBlue on July 26, 2007 from Krabi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys
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The long house experience was also pretty cool, though the transportation required to get us there was not so cool. "It's all about expectations!" We heard that many times in school in our MO classes, and I firmly believe it anyway. We thought the transportation was going to be a 4-5-hour bus ride; instead it was a 3 hour bus ride that was made into a 6 hour bus ride because we had a guide who decided/was instructed to stop a number of times on the way to see (what in my and most of the group's opinion were) trivial/annoying tourist sites. Then despite voicing an interest in getting to the Hilton resort more quickly, we continued with the stops and then missed the 3pm boat and had to wait for the 4pm boat to get across the lake to the resort. Mutiny. I had a brief go at some mediation between cranky co-workers and the leaders, with mild success; everyone was also better after a swim and an excellent buffet dinner.

The long house itself was pretty interesting. To some extent it replicated some of the other hill tribe tours we've done (akin to a human zoo). However, this group had a chief who seemed like the real deal. When long house tribe chiefs first become chief, they tour around to the various villages under their purview and at each point hear a different part of lore from the village elders and with that exchange receive a tattoo. By the end of the tour their entire upper body is covered, as was the current 73-year-old chief's. He seemed like a pretty extraordinary guy, though my attempts at communicating with him through our guide (who was still annoyed with us from our "pushiness" the previous day) were rebuffed. (Every time I would ask the guide to ask the chief something, the guide would answer for him, regardless of how much I clarified that I understood the precedent but was interested in hearing this chief's exact words (and watching his reactions, etc.)). I was mostly interested in hearing how he has seen his leadership responsibilities change over the course of the decades as his tribe went from head hunting (yup, like some of the Indonesian tribes, these practiced raids of their neighbors and staked the skulls of their enemies at the village entrance) to tour hosting (every day welcoming another group of farangs (foreigners, usually white people). He seemed genuinely pleased to have us there and excited to show us their ways. Most of the women seemed very angry all the time, though the guide insisted that they were happy, despite their dark faces.

The Hilton was also a nice break. We swam, lounged, played pool, played mafia and generally relaxed. I also discovered a minor travel crisis in which my flights from Kuching to KL and then to Bangkok were booked with 5 minutes of layover time. Oops. So I asked Kris and Seth whether I could jump on with the Canadians for the early shuttle to the airport. Instead, the whole group rallied to leave the resort early - I think it fit others' schedules, but no doubt it was also to make my life easier, and I greatly appreciated that. In the end, I was able to go on an earlier flight (purchased an entirely new ticket; nice, Air Asia), made my connection to Bangkok, and one hour after landing was checked into the ridiculously nice Novotel, where I spent only 10 hours (don't figure out the hourly rate), but got very clean and had an excellent night sleep.

Then, on to Krabi and my long lost boyfriend!

written by  GoBlue on July 21, 2007 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys
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So, instead I've waited ten days to write that I've spent all my time hanging out on the beach, climbing, reading and in general relaxing. As usual, I wish I had some pictures to post to show you how beautiful it is here, but I always seem to have a hard time getting my pictures online. However, Jocelyn is finishing her time in Malaysia today and will be joining me in Railay Beach tomorrow and I will be able to upload some pictures then (using her equipment).

For those interested in stunning scenery, the beaches here have amazing white sand, clear blueish-green waters and vistas that include limestone cliff islands that jut out of the clear blue water. It is incredible. Also, even though it is supposed to be "green season" (a.k.a rainy season), the weather has been phenomenal--no rain for 4 days in a row now, which leads to stunning orange/red/pink/purple sunsets from the beach.

For those interested in climbing, Railay has over 700 sport climbing routes on beautiful limestone cliffs, all within a 15-minute walk from where I am staying. It truly is an amazing climbing destination. Again, the lack of rain has made the climbing enjoyable.

The wildlife here is also quite impressive. The other day, after I finished a climb, I was untying my knot while talking to the guy who belayed me. At the same time a twig fell off a nearby tree and landed on my climbing knot. I wasn't paying much attention, but when I looked down I realized that said twig was in fact a 12" brown snake with a greenish head that was draped over my knot! I quickly grabbed him near the tail and flung him away. No harm, no foul. However, I found out later that there are a number of dangerous snakes here, including king cobras, pythons and vipers! I haven't seen any of those yet . . . but I have also seen very brave monkeys and a few freaky looking large spiders with green bodies (many of you know my love for spiders).

As usual in Thailand, the locals are very friendly. I was speaking with a woman the other day about the Tsunami in 2004 and found that she believed that Railay wasn’t as badly hit as Ko Phi Phi or Phuket because there is far less prostitution here than in those places. I thought about asking if she was a fan of Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson (who announced similar views about why America was hit by terrorists on 9/11), but then I thought it was better to smile and look surprised rather than judge her outright for such misguided thinking.

Anyway, there is also a lot of “herb” here, as the locals call it, due to the westerner, tourist influence, which is highly unfortunate because the locals don’t actually need anything to lower their already low ambitions. Then again, this is a Western way of thinking . . . According to Buddhism, not being overly ambitious leads to a happier, more peaceful life. So who am I to judge lifestyles that have been thousands of years in the making? Still, smoking or selling too much pot can’t be great for the locals in the long-run. In fact, just last week two local, well-liked businessmen were separately arrested for bringing over 30 kilos of weed into Railay. It is too bad that the locals are paying the price for Westerners who want easy-to-get and cheap-to-buy “relaxation” while on holiday . . .

So, thus is my time in Railay to date. I could write more, as usual, but perhaps for another time.

written by  GoBlue on July 20, 2007 from Krabi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Carl's Circuit
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Updates since the last blog:

On Saturday we went to the market. While in some ways a typical Asian market, this one was particularly fun because we had a local guide, Min (a man), who's great. It was mostly a food market, though it also had some other stuff (junk), and Min led us in a lot of sampling. My favorites included some fried falafal-like things that were Indian, peanut pancakes (crepe with butter and peanuts), and fresh pineapple. I also found another new fruit (langan?) that I am allergic to. Other than that we saw a ton of fresh vegetables, many of them new to me, as well as some jellyfish and interesting forms of meat. All told we spent over an hour there and I greatly enjoyed it.

While waiting to move on to dinner, I also got to hear from Min more about Habitat in general; highlights included learning that they are not exclusively Christian in the sense if the recipients are Muslim, as Eddie and Katie are, they receive a Koran (instead of a bible) with the keys to the house. Interesting, and in my opinion appropriate. Later that night we also went out as a group for the first time - tons of fun. It's interesting hanging out with people of such different ages - makes for a neat dynamic.

Sunday morning began with a 7:30am pilates session (Andrea, one of the BCG Stanford grads, is an instructor back home and several of us were interested in trying her class, so we rented out the hotel conference room for an hour). It was ridiculously hard - so much so that I really couldn't do much of it and didn't even really get a workout because I spent most of the time in a failure state. Nonetheless, it was fun, and it was a great prequel to the next event: the spa. I got a 1-hour massage and then some stim on the left side of my neck to try to adjust the chronic sleep-induced ache that has returned.

That afternoon we went to the rainforest wold music festival, which was awesome. I had low expectations going into it, and it turned out to be very cool. The afternoon started out with 2 workshops; I chose feuding fiddles and an introduction to Afghani music, which I thought I was going to hate and ended up really liking. They had a drummer that was unbelievable (and drums that were unbelieveable). One was sort of a tom tom with a little iron plate in the middle that allowed the player to make about 15 different sounds, and he had incredibly fast hands.

We took a 2-hour break to eat some good ethnic food, and then that night there was a big concert with 11 bands from all over the world - local to kick it off, then Afghanistan, Poland, UK, Vietnam, Tuva (which I deduced and have since confirmed is near Mongolia), Kuala Lumpur, Italy, South America and Madegascar. Each group played for between 15 and 60 minutes each, and it was really interesting. The Vietnamese group had some crazy instruments including clapping their hands in front of pipes (like you can do on your mouth). (The woman actually started out by playing a song on her mouth (something we all knew so we could see it was working)). They also had some ... weird ones - hard to describe, but cool. The polish band ("Shannon") is also worth looking up - almost Dave Matthews like, but different (same same but different!). The fiddler was great though - had seen him in the afternoon workshop too. We left the concert at about 12:30 and then bussed back for an hour.

Monday we got started late because we were up late the night before, but still made good progress, and today we finished up our work on the house! Eric, our foreman, said we did well - were ahead of schedule (and hopefully made a house that won't fall down). We finished all the brickwork except for a tricky spot in what will be the ceiling of the bathroom, and plastered several of the walls (turns out plastering is my favorite task). We're in the process of assembling pictures, so I will have some soon, but suffice it to say that we build a house! Pretty cool.

Tonight we have our local farewell dinner with the affiliate and then tomorrow we leave for the country to visit a long house hill tribe for 2 days. Then Friday we depart! It's gone quite quickly (I seem to say that about every location) but has been a great time (also say that about every location). Again as usual though, I am really looking forward to the next stage too!

written by  GoBlue on July 17, 2007 from Kuching, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys
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The trip is going well. I really like the group - a great group of individuals with mix of laid back-ness and interesting-ness. We are making decent progress on the house too. The daily rhythm is something like this: leave the hotel at 8am, drive 45 minutes to the village, working by 9am. Break at 10:30 for 10-15 minutes, work until 12:30. Break for 30-60-minute lunch, work until 3ish, maybe another quick break, then finish at 4:30.

After a day or so of framing and dirt shoveling, we were ready to pour concrete. The first day of that was all manual mixing, which is very, very hard! On the way to the internet cafe tonight I passed a pile of sand beside a pile of gravel and it gave me the shivers. My back was nearly broken for the first day or so despite decent efforts to use my legs, but it seems to be recovering. We also found a great massage place nearby that's $15US per hour! Very therapeutic.

Today, thanks to a wonderful new invention (the cement mixer), our work didn't involve manual mixing - such a treat! We carted wheelbarrow-fulls of this to the site this morning and finished pouring the floor of the house. Then we formed human chains to move many bricks and started on the walls.

Aaron, one of the Irish lads and I also played soccer against the local kids at lunch today - that was a ton of fun, though in 90+ degree heat, it wiped me out for the afternoon. Hopefully we will repeat that, without the dehydration factor. Eddie, the husband in the couple we're building the house for, played on our team as did one of the young girls; the other 12 were against us, and when they come up to your hip height, it's quite a challenge not to send bodies flying!

Every night we congregate around 7 for a group dinner, then have free time (though by then most of us are eager to crawl into bed - long days!). It's a good rhythm - lots of fun! And now, off to dinner...

written by  GoBlue on July 13, 2007 from Kuching, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys
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It's been great hanging out with my family and staying put. Some thing that I'd not thought about missing was not thinking twice about drinking water from the tap and eating anything and everything I felt like...definitely don't have to do that here! Turns out I had pretty good timing on my return. My grandmother just had knee surgery (she was fired up after hearing about Jennie's grandmother's 2 knee replacement surgeries and had it done while I was away) so I've spent some quality time with her in physical therapy and getting her active around the house. Other than that I could probably cut and paste my first entry from Hong Kong. I've done plenty of eating, resting, running, shopping, roaming, playing with my two little cousins, tv watching, beach time, and I think you get the picture. :)

Signing off...

A view across Victoria Harbor at Hong Kong, take 2

A view across Victoria Harbor at Hong Kong

Sunset from the ferry (Lamma to HKG Island)

Beach at Lamma Island

Hong Kong at night

With two weeks completely to myself, I’ve been struggling with the decision of what to do. Visit Laos? More of Cambodia? Back to Northern Thailand? Viv’s family in Hong Kong? A bit of Malaysia? In the end, I decided to come to Southern Thailand for a few weeks of both rest and recreation. I’m now in Railey Beach, one of the top climbing meccas in the world. It is comprised of amazing overhung limestone jetting out of beautiful beach and surrounded by lush jungle. I chose to come here, to only one place, in large part to hopefully heal my back and then climb a bit while I wait for Joc to finish with her good karma acts in Malaysia (I’m hoping she is working hard enough to provide good karma for the both of us because I am being satisfyingly selfish and lazy).

Although this place is gorgeous, I had one of the worst days of the trip so far getting here . . . good story. I read in the guide book that the only way to get to these beaches is by long tail boat from the port city of Ao Nang. So, when I arrived in Krabi by plane I took a taxi to Ao Nang and stayed there for the night because a storm was coming in and the long boats were done for the night. The next morning I awoke to an amazing monsoon-type storm at 6am that must have had sustained 40mph winds (it was crazy for about 1 hour). By the time I loaded onto the boat the seas were pretty rough (and as a side note, the rain cover for one of my packs ripped while getting to the boat). About 3 minutes into the 20-minute boat ride a wave came up and over the front of the boat, completely soaking me and both my bags.

The boat then dropped me off at Railey Beach and refused to take me to the neighboring Ton Sai beach even though that was what I paid for. Then as it started raining (which really didn’t matter given my status) I headed to the nearest climbing shop to get the low down on the area. I ran into a kid who was staying at Ton Sai and told me that I didn’t have to wait till low tide to walk to Ton Sai, I could instead walk over a rough, bushwacking trail to get there earlier. I decided I would like to get to my bungalow to get all my stuff out of my bag and start drying as soon as possible, so I started walking. I got on a trail that was definitely not easy and could be described as “bushwacking” so I continued. I realized later that I was WAY, WAY off course! 1 hour later and a frighteningly close call with slipping on a cliff and almost tumbling into the sea (my hand and wrist are now all cut up from my “heroic” save of myself and bags), I found the real trail and ended up in Ton Sai. Only after hauling my 70lb bags for 1.5 hours did I find out that it is low season so they only have electricity in Ton Sai for a few hours a day. Despite what the website showed, I would not be getting an A/C bungalow with warm water . . . I thought this would make for a difficult time drying all my wet belongings. Turns out I was correct.

After two nights of effectively camping out in Ton Sai I put my heavy bags back on and trudged another 45 minutes back to Railey to a bit better bungalow with electricity all day. Now I am chilling for a few days, sleeping, reading and exploring the cliff faces. I climbed two days ago and my back wasn’t too happy about it, so I’m hoping that a few days off will set me up. In the meantime, I’m finding the best crags to visit and recovering a bit. Provided the sporadic, heavy rains cooperate, I think I’m in for a great time here over the next few weeks.

PS - I tried to upload some pictures today, but was thwarted again . . . I might have to wait till Australia to find a good connection, but I'm hoping not.

written by  GoBlue on July 11, 2007 from Krabi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Carl's Circuit
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With two weeks completely to myself, I’ve been struggling with the decision of what to do. Visit Laos? More of Cambodia? Back to Northern Thailand? Viv’s family in Hong Kong? A bit of Malaysia? In the end, I decided to come to Southern Thailand for a few weeks of both rest and recreation. I’m now in Railey Beach, one of the top climbing meccas in the world. It is comprised of amazing overhung limestone jetting out of beautiful beach and surrounded by lush jungle. I chose to come here, to only one place, in large part to hopefully heal my back and then climb a bit while I wait for Joc to finish with her good karma acts in Malaysia (I’m hoping she is working hard enough to provide good karma for the both of us because I am being satisfyingly selfish and lazy).

Although this place is gorgeous, I had one of the worst days of the trip so far getting here . . . good story. I read in the guide book that the only way to get to these beaches is by long tail boat from the port city of Ao Nang. So, when I arrived in Krabi by plane I took a taxi to Ao Nang and stayed there for the night because a storm was coming in and the long boats were done for the night. The next morning I awoke to an amazing monsoon-type storm at 6am that must have had sustained 40mph winds (it was crazy for about 1 hour). By the time I loaded onto the boat the seas were pretty rough (and as a side note, the rain cover for one of my packs ripped while getting to the boat). About 3 minutes into the 20-minute boat ride a wave came up and over the front of the boat, completely soaking me and both my bags.

The boat then dropped me off at Railey Beach and refused to take me to the neighboring Ton Sai beach even though that was what I paid for. Then as it started raining (which really didn’t matter given my status) I headed to the nearest climbing shop to get the low down on the area. I ran into a kid who was staying at Ton Sai and told me that I didn’t have to wait till low tide to walk to Ton Sai, I could instead walk over a rough, bushwacking trail to get there earlier. I decided I would like to get to my bungalow to get all my stuff out of my bag and start drying as soon as possible, so I started walking. I got on a trail that was definitely not easy and could be described as “bushwacking” so I continued. I realized later that I was WAY, WAY off course! 1 hour later and a frighteningly close call with slipping on a cliff and almost tumbling into the sea (my hand and wrist are now all cut up from my “heroic” save of myself and bags), I found the real trail and ended up in Ton Sai. Only after hauling my 70lb bags for 1.5 hours did I find out that it is low season so they only have electricity in Ton Sai for a few hours a day. Despite what the website showed, I would not be getting an A/C bungalow with warm water . . . I thought this would make for a difficult time drying all my wet belongings. Turns out I was correct.

After two nights of effectively camping out in Ton Sai I put my heavy bags back on and trudged another 45 minutes back to Railey to a bit better bungalow with electricity all day. Now I am chilling for a few days, sleeping, reading and exploring the cliff faces. I climbed two days ago and my back wasn’t too happy about it, so I’m hoping that a few days off will set me up. In the meantime, I’m finding the best crags to visit and recovering a bit. Provided the sporadic, heavy rains cooperate, I think I’m in for a great time here over the next few weeks.

PS - I tried to upload some pictures today, but was thwarted again . . . I might have to wait till Australia to find a good connection, but I'm hoping not.

Large Lizard near Escher Wall in Railay

Large Lizard near Escher Wall in Railay

View from top of Gengis Bond (6b) on The Keep Wall

The house itself is coming along nicely, considering 1+ days of work. The roof was already built, so we are working on preparing the foundation. I have become somewhat of an expert in rebar bending and tying, and my posture is perfect right now in order to protect a very sore back (shoveling gravel and sand). A group of local kids is perpetually hanging around, and we all get a great kick out of shouting hello back and forth to each other and giggling in between.

The couple for whom we are building the house is currently living in the house next door with 8 adult relatives. That clan cooks lunch for us, and it's fun to sit around smiling at each other. Today I tried what turned out to be homemade chewing gum (sort-of; I wouldn't have recognized it as such without being told).

Tomorrow we pour concrete and while it's drying have the afternoon off to do some shopping. I am going to try to pick up some extra t-shirts as I am tearing through my wardrobe. Although it isn't as hot as I expected it to be (discomfort-wise), I still sweat out pounds every hour (drank 4 liters of water today during our 9-5 workday!).

It's great fun though, and very rewarding - Eddie works with us and he and Katie seem like very nice people. Katie's 8 months pregnant, so I think they will get good use out of their new house!

written by  GoBlue on July 10, 2007 from Kuching, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys
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Likes
1. Scenery was absolutely amazing.
2. Interesting people/culture that have suffered through many years of hardships but are progressing nonetheless.
3. Ability to travel freely and affordably

Dislikes
1. Constantly circling, aggressive merchants
2. Hanoi (specifically the pushiness of people)
3. Excessive honking

This is a very short list, off the top-of-my-head. I’m sure in hindsight there will be many more things that can go in both of these columns.

One quick note on Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City): it was great. WAY better than Hanoi, and if I had the experience, I would have done the Vietnam traveling in reverse, starting in Saigon and ending in the north (This is one of the interesting things about Vietnam. You will inevitably do a lot of things wrong that will cost you time or money or both before “learning your lesson”. However, the chances are you will not encounter quite the same thing again so the lesson is a bit lost. Alas.) Anyway, Saigon is a bustling big city on the verge of becoming a true cosmopolitan city but it is missing the deceitfulness and constant noise (at least to the same degree as Hanoi). So, overall, I enjoyed it immensely more than Hanoi. It was a great way to leave the country, helping my entire Vietnam experience to sit incredibly well.

written by  GoBlue on July 7, 2007 from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Carl's Circuit
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