Thursday, May 17, 2012

ประสบการณ์แห่งประเทศไทย (Thailand experience)





January 3. 2012... the humans get dressed and eat a quick breakfast, I being polyblend and having no mouth, pass on both.

Its been far too long since I've had an overseas adventure. Three months in south east asia is a good way back into the adventurous flow.
Crusin' to SFO

Its not long before our flight
 and we're all stoked to cram 
into a tin can cruising at
 500mph for the day and a half!


Anna Stoked!
Rachel Stoked
Steven Stoked

ZAP Stoked
 After a few hour I really got bored and decided to stroll around cabin and meet some new people, the flight attendants are super nice and chatty, pointing out some cool sights as we fly over Russia.


THE MOTHERLAND

With the first leg over, it is only a six hour flight from Soul to Phuket and I was too delirious to sleep.


Photo op with our next plane

Anna passed out so I figured I'd help keep her head warm.



Finally January 5. 2012  THAILAND!


We spent one night in Phuket Town before heading to Koh Yao Yoi or "long island"where we promptly settle into a slow and relaxed rhythm drinking coconut water and eating sticky rice with mango, SO GOOD!!!



relaxing at Activities Resort Beach
Sometimes you feel like a nut,
 sometimes you feel like Hanging on a nut
 The Owner of the resort surprised us with an invite from his "brother"- a super cheap trip to Egg Island. The tourist stop over on the way to Phi Phi. Its a cool little island with a few bars, restaurants and souvenir shops.

We spent the day snorkeling and bouldering in between sessions at the bar.

Water is not my natural element.
This is more my style



The crag
After a few days we headed to Koh Yao Noi to check out the limestone cliffs and meet up with Denny, a local who some friends met on a previous trip and recommended we look up.
The approach 


Just a few photos from the area...







ONWARD 

the Ao Nang area is the place most climbers head, its where you find the popular Raily and Tonsi beaches.
we opted for a more private and less hectic scene, we hopped a longtail and went deepwatersoloing! 
Rachel on the Long Problem  
Steven swinging on Monkey Business
 Steven chickining out before the problem even got hard
("I did't have any chalk" was the excuse given.)
Relaxing on the beach after a hard days work

KOH TAO



We spent the next week exploring Koh Tao, 
we didn't climb much but we did a lot of snorkeling. 
The reefs around the island were some of the most beautiful anywhere!











The next stop with quality rock was Chaing Mai, despite its number of Wats (Buddhist temples) 
the city is surprisingly western - English is spoken frequently amongst the locals and there is no shortage of american chain stores.
**As a side note, 
I have to mention this
 place also has the best roti 
on the face of the earth!
Anna and Rachel would 
order 6 plain roti at a time!

The main crag is called Crazy Horse Buttress. I have to say, it lives up to the title, seeing it from the parking lot you can easily make out the horses shape. Its a rad formation with good rock and great route development, it is also one of the cleanest and most thought out areas I've ever climbed. Well established trails and shade huts (+ hammocks) make this a great place to visit. not to mention the pit toilets in the parking lot are well taken care of, a huge plus!







A great day of climbing and meeting killer people! could you ask for anything more? ....well ya, I supose you could. 

**The wonderful adventures of Zap**

Crushing the playground- Prachuap Kiri Khan
free ride on an old School fixi- Middle Of Nowhere


Chillin with Buddha's- Petchaburi 

Hanging with the royal guards- Bangkok
Saying good bye to Anna as she heads back to Cali


Riding a stone Elephant- Grand Palace  
Thank you Guys for a wonderful trip! I cant wait for the next one!!


Saturday, May 12, 2012

Vietnam


So technically Vietnam was the last stop on our South East Asia adventure but sometimes its best to start with dessert...



The water is cold
The rock is razor sharp
The potential is endless



It took 5 days of waiting for the tides to be good before we were able to get a boat to take us to the limestone islands of Lan Ha Bay, the smaller and less crowed but equally beautiful version of Ha Long Bay.

luckily, Deep Water Soloing isn't the only option for climbing in Cat Ba.
Butterfly Valley is quite well developed with a rang of single pitch routes from 5b to 8b+







Enter The Dragon 8b

The Lip of Enter The Dragon

ZAP, Rachel and Bessy  
Finally the tides rose and we headed into the bay. We joined Slopony adventures for a pricey day trip as they were unwilling to give us any advise on the area or how to get there on our own (speaking as a climber and not a tourist who wanted to try climbing, I really dislike this company) 

Zap on the boat ride into lan Ha Bay


The rock in the bay is extremely beautiful! SHARP as **** but well worth the pain! most of the  problems/ routes are unclimbed and still a little dirty. I tried to take a photo of the book to remember what the names and grades were but a Slopony employee told me that was not allowed, so except for one I have no names or grades to share.



Rachel finding her groove 



getting ready to attempt the FA of Fear and Loathing 8a 
The rest before the last crux



The Route Above is About 14 or 15 meters tall and is actually quite steep.
 It was the hardest thing I finished on the whole trip, it finishes right of the bush via a dyno over
 a blind roof to two good holds that you have to hit just right! 
  it was TERRIFYING!!!!













As it turns out there is also some fun beach bouldering in Cat Ba. 






We left Cat Ba expecting to be done climbing these next few shots are what happens when you take a climber traveling... Till Next Time