How I beat myself up a bit more, or Ton Sai beach

Krabi is not an island but a town located on Thailand's mainland. Its famous beaches are Raily, Ao Nang and Ton Sai. Raily and Ton Sai are accessible only by boat, because they are surrounded by huge limestone karsts. Raily is a resorts' beach, with high priced accommodations. So obviously I went for Ton Sai.



Ton Sai is quite undeveloped, compared to Raily. It's all dirt roads and most of the accommodations are inside the jungle, a lovely setting, which comes with loads of mosquitoes at night and an active group of monkeys, stealing bananas from kitchens. I was told that Ton Sai is a hippie's favorite location, but I guess fashion changes. The dreadlocks and hoola hoops have been replaced with climbing ropes and quick draws. I barely managed to see one hippie, but all the walls around were loaded with climbers. It is a lonely place to be if you're not a climber.



Therefore to start my climbing session, I took an islands tour. Nothing like another day of swimming and sightseeing. This time the tour was on a long tail boat, luckily not the tiny kind. On the tour I met Melanie with whom I spent most of the day, and a couple from Canada and Sweden. Melanie is actually working for Teva Naot, an Israeli company, in Germany. Meeting people is one of the reasons I take the tours. The tour visited several islands, Tup island being the highlight, whereas chicken island was, well, just an island with a piece of rock resembling a chicken's head. Hmmm...



On the next day I took a half day climbing session. I went with a guy named Dee and he led the climbs for me so I could climb top rope. I had enough of leading in the meantime from my Laos climbing experience. I also asked him for easy climbs so I only went on 5 grades. The wall I climbed on is called “One Two Three” wall. Guess why... It was crowded with beginners, meaning you either had someone climbing right below you or descending above you. This time it suited my level and I had quite a good time, trying more things, and even slipping once. The slip wasn't that great though, as I slipped on my right knee, not a favorable knee to hit these days.

Dee, my climbing partner for the half day, owns and operates his own climbing shop. He opened it two months ago and he has been climbing for about three years. Later on I went back to his shop to rent climbing shoes, in order to help him a bit, instead to the already big climbing schools around. He also knew Adam, another climber who runs his own climbing shop in Vang Vieng, Laos. Of course, I met the guy. Small world...

The next day, surprise! (An e-mail coordinated surprise) I met Shannon and Zack again. They arrived to Ton Sai with a single purpose: to climb! Supriza! (Ok, I'm stopping now). They've been carrying their climbing equipment all around Asia and Krabi is the big opportunity to use it. Next day I went with them climbing. They needed a warm up after a long period without climbing so they mostly took leading 5 grades. Therefore I could climb top rope right after them, with a lot of positive encouragement from below. They urged me into climbing a 6a I felt too tired to even start, but I managed to finish it (though I cheated a bit, by grabbing onto gear instead of rock in a tricky part).




My original plan was to move on, but after the last fun day with Shannon and Zack it was hard making up my mind. I really wanted to sea the East side of Thailand's islands, but it would mean traveling without any company again, not to mention my destination was Phangan island, one day before the famous full moon party, a tough day of travel ahead. A rat or some other rodent woke up at 5am, crunching the wall, as a sign to leave (the crappy bungalow and take another?)

And so I made up my mind to move on to Phangan. But that's a whole different story.

Rock climbing course - day 3



On this day we practiced multi-pitching. When you climb long stretches of rock, you rope might be too short. Therefore climbing is done in parts, or several pitches. The leader climbs the first pitch, attaching the rope as he goes. At the pitch top, there is anchor, to which the leader attaches himself. Then he starts belaying his partner. The partner is now secured and climbs a regular top rope climb, except that his belayer is at the top. After that, both climbers are at the same anchor and the process repeats at self to the next pitch. Going down is done as in abseiling, where you go down on your own without a belayer.

Practicing on ground the procedure at the anchor took us most of the morning. Then our guide split a grade 5 climb into two pitching by creating an anchor at the middle. The other two guys practiced it and it was already time for lunch. After lunch I went up with the guide. Initially I didn't want to lead after the previous day's experience, but the first pitch seemed easy enough so I decided to give it a try. Important note: It always looks easy when you look at it from below. It is a completely different world when you are actually climbing and your field of view is quite limited, so you don't see all possible hand holds and foot holds.

And so I lead the first pitch (nerve racking!!!), attached myself to the anchor and got the guide up. He led the second pitch and I followed. Initially I didn't believe I could climb it, but I guess I started to get a bit the hang of it. The stress created by your legs is sometimes enough to keep you standing on 'impossible' ledges in the rock. Relieved I went through the whole procedure again and started abseiling down, stopping on the way for a photo. When I touched mother earth's soil, I released the rope, sat on my knees and kissed the ground.

The other guys continued leading and climbing other grades but I was content for the day and settled with just watching and clapping hands. So, I had fun this day, which is a good way to end the course.

Rock climbing course - day 2

Today we did leading. While the two guys with me went leading on grades 5a and 5b, I went on grade 4. It made me realize that what I need in a rock climbing course is how to climb, not the basics for five minutes and then a swim in deep water. While the other guys were improving, me, an old dog, did the grade 4 again and it was still hard as the first time. I also know from other sports where safety is important (e.g. diving) that building a confidence is a very important process. An initial bad experience can make people hate it.

In addition to that I have a sore throat, so, combined with the tension, I felt pretty bad before my leading climb.

Leading a climb is much more intense than a top rope climb. You have to concentrate on your moves and be more careful about them. There is nothing to the feeling of attaching the rope into another bolt in the wall. So I can understand the thrill people get from it. But there is a fine line which separates thrill from suffering, and I was more to the second.

Therefore, in general, I felt quite miserable today. And then I managed to forget all that, and registered for the third day as well, somehow thinking that more climbs would be nice practice. Even more than doing nothing and watching the cliff just stand there. But I have no intention on leading tomorrow. It is too much for my current confidence level.

Rock climbing course - day 1

I can sum this day like this: "What d'f#$% was I thinking to myself?!". Instead of starting climbing on a climbing wall I went today straight for the rocks. I think I should find places to run for physical activity instead...

I am sitting now, bruised, cut, scratched and battered. I've done three climbs out of five and, for the first time for a new kind of sports, I am not enthusiastic about it. When I reached the top, instead of feeling "Yeah, I made it!" I felt more like "For the love of Buddha, get me down, NOW!".

After getting the basic climbing instructions, we started by climbing inside a cave. We had two climbs, graded 5a and 5b (I think it's the French grading system). I imagined climbing as something same as walking up, but with your hands. But the first one, graded 5a, had a crack in the middle, so you had to hold one leg on one side of the crack and the other leg on the other one, not exactly what I had in mind. The second one, graded 5b, ended at the top of a stalactite hanging way above the ground(!). The only way to reach it was to push yourself off a stalagmite, placed about 30-40cm next to the stalactite .

After lunch I was dead tired but we had three more climbs to conquer. This time on a wall of granite. It is much sharper than the limestone the cave is made of, but less slippery. I started with the hardest one, 6a. Climbing should be mostly leg work, but in this climb most of the work was based on hands. I managed to climb the beginning quick, arriving with exhausted hands to the real difficult part. Climbing uses underdeveloped muscles of my hands. As a result I had to take four rests before I barely managed to reach the top, exhausting the guy securing me with the rope too. After standing back on soil, I barely managed to untie my shoe laces, and gave up on the rest.

On a serious note, it was very impressive to see the height I've climbed, but I didn't feel exhilarated. Comparing it to other activities, maybe the fact that we went on these climbs first, which weren't easy for me, were discouraging. I need to start on easier climbs, building strength for the task at hand (pun intended).

The course goes on for two more days. Common sense knocks inside my head and tells me to stop. But my curiosity for knowledge and trying new things ignores it. Therefore I read a bit about what we are going to do tomorrow, leading. When rock climbing you can climb using a "top rope". That means that you climb and the rope secures you if you fall. But how does the rope get there in the first place? Someone, the really first person, climbed and dug bolts into the walls. When a pair climbs, the first climber takes the lead, attaching the rope to the bolts as he climbs up, until he gets to the topmost point. Then the second climber collects the carbines used for attaching the rope, but he does it secured by the first guy. The thing is, that if the lead guy falls, he falls the distance to the last secure point + that distance again as the rope is not secured. Ouch...

See you tomorrow! Hopefully in one piece... ;-)