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Published: January 13th 2007
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Railay Rock Tower
This is one of the first rock formations to greet you on the longtail boat ride to Ton Sai. Long, long ago in a hemisphere far, far away, sea creatures with carboniferous skeletons swam about in the ocean, living, playing and eating each other. The dead ones built up on the ocean floor where they were compacted into a sedimentary rock called limestone. Some millions of years later, when the underlying tectonic plates decided to move, the rock was thrust up above the ocean surface and sea became land. Rain falling on these newborn cliffs, being mildly acidic from CO2 in the air, percolated through the somewhat alkaline rock, dissolving and reshaping it in a manner not dissimilar to melting wax The end result is jagged walls of rock riven with caves, cracks and stalactites. In laymans' terms, you get some extraordinarily beautiful cliffs.
When I left off in my last entry, I was on a bus to Railay, an idyllic little peninsula formed from those spectacular limestone cliffs mentioned above. The cliffs provide a spectacular backdrop, but the nicest thing about them is that they completely isolate the area from all the surrounding towns. The only way to get to railay is by boat, so while it's actually on the mainland, you really feel like you're on an
Railay Bay Rock Face
This is one of the rock walls that people climb on, and that cuts off Railay from the mainland. island.
Railay is world famous among rock climbers, who salivate at the mere mention of its bountiful craggy cliffs. There are literally hundreds of bolted runs within easy walking distance, ranging in difficulty from leisurely 5.6'es (which one could almost climb without using a rope) to prohibitive 5.14's, which only the best climbers in the world can hope to do.
On the advice of some people whom I met on the bus to Railay, I decided to stay at Ton Sai beach, which is the most rustic, low budget and laid back of the four beaches on the peninsula. The vibe is very island rastafarian - all the construction is bamboo, and there aren't so much roads as there wide dirt paths. Many of the Thai men who work on Ton Sai wear long dreadlocks and island-style tattoos on their rock-climing-toned arms.
I checked in to one of the dumpest bungalows I've seen at the Andaman Nature Resort. It still cost 300 baht ($8.50), among the most expensive accomodations I'd gotten thus far but the cheapest I could find. Point made: the west coast is more expensive. I was a little freaked out about the many fist-sized
Crazy Climbers
This guy is hugging a stalactite as he claws his way up to cliff face. holes in the wall and multiple gaps in the walls' construction, largely because I had recently heard horror stories about 6 inch-long centipedes biting people while they slept. Suffice it to say, I tucked the mosquito net in under my mattress in with exemplary dedication while I stayed there. I wasn't just being paranoid: one morning, I moved a bag in my room and a jurassic-sized centipede skittered out from underneath, which didn't ease my worries much. I made sure to bang out my shoes before putting them on, lest I find a crabby insect hiding in the toe.
I was very lucky to meet up with some great people to climb with - Craig and Janet, both experienced climbers from Vancouver, and Magalie from France, a beginning climber like myself. We pooled resources when renting equipment, since it is expensive, and ended up getting away with $10 to $15 a day for ropes, harnesses, shoes and quickdraws, but only because none of us was too intent on squeezing an inordinate number of climbs in each day. Thanks to Craig and Janet's advice, I improved my climbing skills immensely. The most difficult runs I succeeded on were 5.10a, which
Me with cliff
Here I am at the top of one of the first routes I climbed. It was one of the easiest in the whole area. I'm pretty happy with, and I got to climb what has to be one of the most photogenic routes in the whole area, Groove Tube. Nights were spent drinking coke and Thai whiskey (called Sangsom) from plastic buckets in beachside bamboo bars. The bars provided entertainment in the form of fire twirling shows, Thai Zeppelin cover bands, Thai tourist boxing, and launching these incredible paper lanterns that float gracefully into the night sky propelled by hot air from a flame at the bottom. One of the bars actually had a slack line (a tightrope climbers use to refine their balance) for patrons to pratice on. We had breakfast just about every morning at 9:00 AM in front of Wee's Climbing School at the counter of a thatched hut where they made fantastic black coffee and a memorable bowl of fruit salad with yogurt and muesli.
Most of the people staying on Ton Sai beach were absolute climbing junkies, and it seemed that the majority of them were staying for as long as their time constraints would allow (usually a couple of weeks or more), to the exclusion of any other touring interests. I met people who where there for
Night Scene
It was a full moon, so I tried playing with exposures. months, leaving only to renew their Thailand visa once every 30 days. Amazing dedication. It was a very friendly crowd. I even was lucky enough to rendez-vous with a couple of friends I met two weeks earlier on Ko Pha Ngan, Esther (England) and Linus (Sweden).
I spent four days on Ton Sai beach, and I really had to drag myself away. It helped that my feet were sore from the restrictive climbing shoes, my hands were shredded from grabbing the sharp limestone walls, and the muscles I didn't know I had were all dying for the opportunity to remind me of how underappreciated they had been.
For the next stop on my tour of Thailand's southern peninsula, I wanted to take advantage of my proximity to one of the world's premier dive sites, the Similan Islands. They are found about four hours by boat west of the coast near Phuket in the Andaman sea. Because of their remoteness, diving in the Similans is rarely done in day trips. Instead, people stay, for three days on up to two weeks or more, on sort of miniature cruise ships called "liveaboards", which have sleeping and eating facilities on board.
Bungalows
This is where I stayed. Eh. It can be a real blast, especially if the other guests (usually 10 to 25) are cool people. The food and diving are plentiful, and the scenery is dazzling, above and below the surface.
I didn't expect to be able to arrange a visit since I had waited until the last minute, but I tried anyway. I phoned ScubaCat, where my friend Cate had dived last year. Much to my surprise, they had a spot two days hence, and for a price that was expensive, but still one of the cheapest I had seen for a liveaboard. I grabbed the opportunity and bought a ticket to the north.
With a tear in my eye, I bade goodbye to my climbing friends, who were nowhere near done with their climbing experiences. I had to spend a night in Patong Beach, Phuket in order to get to ScubaCat. I will try to keep my rant short. Patong is tourist hell - an ugly beach with miles of identical plastic beach chairs and purple umbrellas, plus an overcrowded, overpriced, ugly strip with a McDonalds, Burger King, Subway and Starbucks, to name just a few. My hotel cost 500 Baht, by far
the most expensive on my trip so far. I was happy to leave early the next morning, and not just because I was excited about diving.
I did 11 dives in three days, including two night dives. Many of them were fantastic, but we had some bad luck with sediment and visibility on a few of the dives, and I missed the manta ray that some other divers on my boat sighted (every diver wants to see a manta ray, the gently twenty-foot wide giant UFO of the sea). The underwater environment down there is still very healthy and pristine, and many of the sites we visited had a dizzying array of creatures - the highlights of the dive were several huge boulders clad in a shimmering, undulating veil composed of thousands of quivering glass fish, a riot of colorful anemones, sea fans, giant clams, and coral. I saw legions of beautiful sea animals as well: delicate trumpetfish, fearful octopus, curious batfish, lobsters, enormous lamprey eels and titan triggerfish.
Food on the boat was excellent, and the other guests were drawn from all around the world: an ex army diver from Israel, a Danish motorcycle mechanic, a finance
Phra Nang Beach
This was the prettiest beach on the peninsula. guy from the czech republic, two mysterious Ukranians and five Chinese guys obsessed with waterproof electronics. It made from some... interesting mealtime discussions.
After three days and a whirlpool of dives had passed, I went back to the mainland. I could have been driven back to Phuket, but since I didn't want to go back to that hellhole, I had them drop me at the nearest bus stop, where I waited for the next (12 hour) bus back to Bangkok, where I was to begin the next leg of my journey: first, explore Bangkok, and then, Northern Thailand.
Until the next entry, I wish you all well.
Dan
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Mama Joan
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Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!
What an adventure! But I don't think I would have wanted to be on this leg of the trip--well maybe that spectacular diving. But that "easy" cliff looks plenty steep to me. Keep your blogs coming. The photos are sublime. Mom