Fingers Shredded, Satiated with Sunsets, We Hit the Road

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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