Around the world to meet my...

Getting up early on the 21st, I met up with other travelers who also signed up for a 4 nights / 5 day all-inclusive side excursion from Tonsai. We traveled via long boats to Au Nang, then by vans to Trang, and finally by a small cruising vessel to the petite isolated island of Lao Liang - about 5 hours total - www.laoliangisland.com. We were told it was an adventure enthusiast’s paradise and that description proved to be fairly accurate. It had many climbing routes, bouldering, deep water soloing nearby, kayaking, snorkeling, and scuba diving. All structures, facilities, and accommodations were situated on the islands small and only beach. As it was the only sea level land mass, the remainder of the island was cliff-like. We all stayed in large "luxury tents", which were actually proved quite comfortable.

While there, I decided to enroll in the PADI scuba certification program, so I had class work and 5 dives during my stay. I was the only one in the class. The down side was that I had comparatively little time for climbing. Yet, on one busy day, I went on an AM dive, then went out with the group snorkeling, then went out later that afternoon with a group deep water solo climbing, then came back and climbed a few of the island's routes before dinner... tiring, but fun times!

I had recruited Berry from the prior day's deep water solo trip to go along. Other than him, I had never met any of the other travelers. It ended up being a great group of people!

The others on the trip were:
Berry,
Tommy and Hilary, a charming and attractive couple from El Cerrito, - Thanks for the great conversation!
Jonathan and Shaghig, another laid-back, cute couple. Thanks Jonathan for supplementing Pons' "broken-English-thank-god-I-had-a-book" scuba instruction - Jon is a professional scuba diver. Thanks Shaghig, for being so damn likable and for leading the laughter during my tales of prior reckless abandonment and the resulting injuries.
Ben and Mason, a couple of cool-cat's from Quincy, CA. Sam"antha, Mason’s girlfriend, who along with the others, works for the Department of Forestry monitoring and caring for spotted owls.
Shelby, an American college student in Thailand while working on an internship regarding the environmental impact of tourism on third world countries.
John and Camilla, a nice, recently married couple from Goteborg, Sweden, traveling with their 9 month old girl and proving once again that the Swedes are a friendly people enjoyable to converse with. It was a pleasure spending time around Majken! What a doll!
And, finally, Quin and Brett, a young married couple from Ontario, who have been away from home for about a year. They were the only "non-climbers" and were at the island to slow down and "get away from it all". Best of wishes on your return home!

Oh, as per the title of this blog entry.... In a small dose of "It's A Small World After All", I quickly learned that Tommy, Hilary, Jonathan, and Shaghig are all fellow alumni from Cal Poly, SLO. For an even larger dose, Shaghig and I realized we live two blocks apart here in Curtis Park, Sacramento and Jonothan worked for a neighbor of mine that used to live 3 doors down!

Picture to follow...

written by

Whereisdan on January 25, 2007 from Tonsai, Thailand

from the travel blog: Thailand on a whim

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