The Smokey Train to the Ultimate Warriors

After a rainy trip to Nanjing I made my way by train up to Xi'an, the jumping off point to see the Terracotta Warriors. Traveling by train is a cost effective and efficient means of traveling overland in china especially taking the overnighter, but in every other respect it is absolute chaos.

The waiting area for a train that can carry thousands* of passengers only has about 50 chairs. Everyone else is relegated to jostling for position to wait in line because, unless you have a guaranteed sleeper bed, which I'm happy to say that I did, you don't even have a reserved seat.** So if you're traveling overnight you could conceivably spend the entire time standing or leaning against someone else's luggage. As a result, once the gates open to begin boarding it is an absolute chaotic pushy-shovy free-for-all. Even little old ladies are cutting in front of you and shoving from behind.

From asking around, this level of chaos is completely normal and accepeted in China. It seems that when your country has over one billion people in it, waiting patiently in a queue doesn't get you anywhere.It difficult to get used to though, this pushy shovey attitude (although there is something sort of humourous about getting shouldered out of the way by two 60 something ladies carrying giant handbags that look like they weigh more than my backpack), and when you combine it with the overt stares from curious Chinese who don't see westerners much it makes travelling a bit stressful.

I won't say too much about the toilets on the chinese trains except to say that if you can hold it in then that is probably better. But toilets and tight confines aside (bunks are stacked 3 high in the same space that normal trains fit two bunks) the worst had to be the smoking. Technically smoking is not allowed on trains except in the area between carriages or in the bar car. But since there are a billion people in China and all of them smoke and there are no doors separating the carriages from the tiny platform in between carriages then smoking is essentially allowed or at least tolerated. This meant it was very uncomfortable sleeping on the top bunk where all the smoke would rise and just hang there and suffocate would be sleepers.

Xi'an is a former Chinese capital and one of the few ancient cities to have it's stone walls intact squaring off a 12km perimeter. These walls are something like 18 metres tall and wide enough to have 2 lanes of traffic on the top with cool looking watchtowers evenly spaced for defensive purposes and surrounded by a moat.


For me this was an equally impressive legacy to the Ming dynasty as was the Terracotta Warriors are to the Qin dynasty. Interestingly one of the main reasons that the current walls are so well preserved is that no one attacked them once they were finished so it's unclear whether or not they would have stood up, although they do look pretty impressive even now.


Once again my laissez-faire style of tourism had me pleasantly surprised since the only reason I went out of my way to go to Xi'an***was to see the Terracotta Warriors so the cool ancient wall was a bonus and walking around it, (even though it was raining) was pretty unique with the ancient and classically designed buildings on the inside of the wall and giant glass skyscrapers on the outside making for an interesting contrast.

The Terracotta Warriors are easy to access with tourist busses leaving from the Xi'an train station regularly every day. An entire tourism industry has been built up around the clay pits where the warriors were discovered. Thirty years ago the area was a farmer's field until one farmer happened upon the warriors while drilling a well.**** Now there are climate controlled hangars surrounding the pits with all the tourist amenities including KFC.*****

There are also relentless touts selling all kind of crappy merchandise or offering services such as tour guides. I was pretty disappointed in my guide because, even though I negotiated a reasonable price and she spoke english very well, she didn't really provide me with much factual information that I couldn't have got just from reading the displays and she had absolutely no passion for the site that some call the "8th wonder of the world". And when you've been up all night on a smokey train some infectious enthusiasm would have been welcome.

I did buy a crazy hat to add to the collection but stopped wearing it as it turned out to be a magnet for vendors and may as well been a sandwich board that read "Come and bother me. As you can see by my hat I like to buy stupid crap."

The statues themselves lived up to the hype and were incredibly impressive with one exception: They estimate that there are about 8,000 individual statues and they quote this figure in all the tourist publicity brochures and guidebooks etc. So far though, they have only unearthed and repaired something like 2,500 of them. So when you are expecting from the publicity to see an army of 8,000 strong and only 1/3 of the troops show up is slightly disappointing. Although it's difficult to argue 2,500 unique statues lined up in formation to "guard" Emperor Qin's tomb (a few kilometres up the road) is still pretty impressive, if maybe just a touch egomaniacal on his part.


Photos: 1)One of many different angles from which I took photos of the statues. 2) Crowded train from view from the top bunk. 3-5) Xi'an city walls. Note the raincoat...6-9)More views of the 8th wonder. Not shown here the 40 other "keeper" photos of statues.


*Or however many.
*The general admission seats are a lot cheaper though so that's something at least.
***And it really was out of my way. If you consult a map you won't see many routes from Nanjing to Beijing that go anywhere near Xi'an but hey that's just how I roll. It could be a while till I'm back around this way.
****The farmer is now quite a celebrity in China and was available to sign autographs, I would have except paying for the autograph of someone who essentially made a lucky find does not agree with me. It's like getting the autograph of a lottery winner. It's not like he did anything remarkable. He didn't even get the well dug!
*****KFC is by far the most popular western franchise in China and since it was everywhere else I wasn't all that surprised to see it at the Terracotta Warriors complex.

Yellow Mountain Stair Climbing - I'm the King of the World!

The forecast was for more rain. So was I content to just hang out at Starbucks and go to the movies? Nope. I figured "why not climb a mountain."

Huang Shan, means Yellow Mountain. It's not really known for sure why the mountains are called that. They are made of granite and aren't particulary yellowy. Also they are almost perpetually covered in mist or clouds (so some people also refer to them as "misty mountains" and by some people I mean me) so it can be difficult to even see them in the first place especially in the winter when it rains a lot.

Whatever the reason these mountains are a renowned Chinese landmark. Now, you may have noticed from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics that the Chinese do have a slight tendency to go all out or even overboard sometimes. This "nothing is impossible" mentality has nothing to do with communism or other political ideology and everything to do with the fact that manual labour has been an abundant natural resource in China for thousands of years.

With this in mind the some Emperor must have once said "Hey these misty, yellowy mountains are pretty cool. We should build a temple up top".


And when someone said "How are we going to get the thousands of granite building blocks to the top?The emperor said "How do you think? We're going to carry them up to the top one by one?"
And the conversation must have continued like this:

Lackey: "Won't that take a long time?"

Emperor:"Only a couple hundred years. But that's nothing. We spent 900 years on the Great Wall after all and it didn't even work. But you're right it would probably be better if we built 50,000 or so steps to the top to facilitate transportation. That way it will be much easier for my great-great-great-great grandson Emperor to be carried to the temple."

Lackey: "Um...are you on crack? That will take even longer."

Emperor: "I guess you'd better get started then."

Even though I was prepared for a rainy day mountain hike with my by now trusty and well used raincoat, along with a fresh pair of dry socks (wet feet are not pleasant), I was rewarded for this preparation with a beautiful sunny (or at least not rainy) day.

This really made the day (and the resulting photos memorable.) The day was memorable for other reasons as well though.

As I was applying my well practiced trekking skills by power climbing the stairs, I passed a lot of other tourists. A small group had caught up to me and much to my surprise started talking to me in English.As I was applying my well honed trekking skills by power climbing the stairs I passed a lot of other tourists. Unlike South-East Asia where you encounter lots of native English speakers, I found the opposite to be true of China.

In general, standing out from the crowd for no reason other than appearance can either make you feel like a rock star, like when people approach you out of the blue and ask to have their photo taken with you,* or the opposite when they just stand and stare from point blank range on the platform at the train station. Either way English speakers are hard to come by so it can be hard to interact with the locals. So when a small group of 3 students struck up a conversation in English I was pretty surprised.

James, Sunny and Susan** were taking time to see some sights in China that they had never seen before. James quickly suggested that we climb the mountain (ie walk up the stairs) as a team and it was great to make some local friends and learn about life in China.

I was also grateful for their hospitality as they not only shared their company and photo taking/modelling skills but also their generosity in sharing their snacks and lunch since though I had come prepared with many layers of clothing and lots of water I hadn't remembered to bring food.In reference to my powering up the stiars much faster than them and on my own Susan mentioned that I was very brave. She then went on to say that I was very handsome and reminded her of her favourite western movie star Leonardo DiCaprio.*** As nice as that was to hear it was a bit unrealistic as, although we are about the same age, Leo and I don't really look that much alike. That and he has questionable beard growing abilities. Still a compliment is a compliment and as they go being compared to a huge leading man, heartthrob movie star is always good.****

It is really difficult to capture the scale of a stone staircase to the top of a mountain range in photos or in words except to say that it very very impressive. I was expecting to be impressed by the trees and mountains and mist and general atmosphere but the man made staircase and temples at the top of a mountain range was a really historically fascinating element. I'm always fascinated by engineering marvels so if this was impressive I can't wait to see the Terracotta Warriors and the Great Wall.
Photos: 1-2) The famous trees, mist and mountain landscape near the top of Huangshan. 3) One of the many temples 4) Old school method of transporting building materials to the top. Presumably because it is cheaper. And I thought hauling a 30kg pack around Madagascar was hard work! 5-6) DG taking in the vistas. Rainjacket completely unneccessary for a change. 7) Just-going-to-take-a-quick-break-from...huh...huh...powering up the stairs. 8) Sunny, Susan and James. 9) The climbing team. 10) My new admirer Susan. 11) Look at all those stairs!

*This happened at least 10 times in my slightly more than a week in China. The staring bit happened much much more unfortunately.
**They all either chose their English names or were assigned them by their English teachers. James in particular chose his because he likes James Bond. A pretty good reason if I ever heard one.
***This was awesome!!!!!!!
****Being compared to legendary bearded karate master while in Madagascar was slightly better is all. No offense Leo.

Rain!

Deep down I knew that winter (mid-February) in China would hold different weather conditions in store than winter in South-East Asia. After all I was prepared for cold weather having carried what seemed like a hell of a lot of kilograms of warm clothes all around Thailand and Laos, but I was expecting proper winter: sub-freezing temperatures and snow.

Unfortunately I was welcomed into China with technically above freezing temperatures but with relentless icy cold rain that would dampen the spirits of even the most avid sightseer. I arrived at midnight and it was cold and raining and then it was also raining the next day and the day after and the day after and the day after...

I´m led to believe that Hangzhou is a very picturesque place featuring a giant lake in the middle of the city and numerous parks and gardens from which to view the lake and its thousands of years of history. It's hard to say really if I agree. There is definitely a body of water there, but whether or not there is any of that other stuff remains to be seen - at least by me. It was so rainy and cloudy that I could barely tell where the sky ended and the horizon or the lake began.


It wasn't just the rain mind you, it was the cold and the damp or probably the triple combination that really caught me off guard and had me shivering to the bone. In fact, much to my disappointment the weather was probably the most surprising part about China.

I was expecting and hoping for some serious culture shock but, other than the insurmountable language barrier, I found Chinese cities to be pretty much the same as any other cities. This was disappointing from the perspective of an adventurous traveller, but from the point of view of a freezing cold, soaking wet tourist I didn't mind so much and when I saw the familiar green and white letters,


I knew where I would be spending the rest of the afternoon warming up:

It wasn't just Starbucks that lent an air of familiarity to China (though given the conditions it was the most welcome). Western culture hasn't been merely embraced by the Chinese so much as swallowed whole without even a hint of chewing. Consumer culture is everywhere.


From KFC which is seemingly on every street corner the way Starbucks is in London, to high end shopping malls that I can't afford to shop in and feel out of place peering in the windows and to well, ya, the real deal:

And it wasn't just because Hangzhou is 2 hours or so from the financial centre of Shanghai. All the cities* were like this and I really wasn't expecting it. I was expecting, and hoping for, an experience a little less familiar.

One thing that wasn't familiar was the city called Huang Shan City.** I did know it was near Huang Shan (which means yellow mountain, also sometimes called the misty mountains - see future blog about my trip there) but otherwise it literally wasn't on my map.

I found it quite weird that a city of over a million people would not be noteworthy enough to include on the map. (One other thing I found out is that just when you think you understand how to pronounce a seemingly straightforward place name like Huang Shan - think again because you are waaaaayyyy off.) I guess when your country has over a billion popuation then a million here or there isn't really a big deal. Quite a bit different from where I grew up though where going into "town" of 30,000 was pretty important.

One thing about Huang Shan City that I found noteworthy, other than it's proximity to one of China's most famous mountains, was that it had a district called Old St.***

As you can see it's nothing like the Old St. in London but the sign is a lot more interesting. although the surrounding area wasn't nearly as much fun. It was raining though.


Speaking of places that it was raining it was also raining in Nanjing where a 16 year old kid acted as my guide after I got turned around exiting the metro and started off in the wrong direction for my hotel. The next day, instead of going out to the Ming Dynasty mountain monument after a visiting the drum and bell tower, I became fed up with sightseeing in the rain and so instead went to the movies.


Transporter 3 was the only one in Engish with Chinese subtitles. I would have preferred watching a local Chinese movie with english subtitles but there's not really much of a market for it. It was ok. Warm and dry in the theatre. The movie itself was pretty much the same as another Jason Statham movie that I had previously seen which may or may not have been Transporter 2.

I did get enough of a respite from the rain in order to take a few decent night photos though.


Even though the rain had dampened my spirits a bit I was sure that it would eventually stop raining. The last time I checked, Xi'an and Beijing were on the fringes of the Gobi Desert so there couldn't be much rain there could there? Could there?

Photos 1) Chinese character for rain. Not so much a photo as a graphic but whatever. 2-3) Dave in the rain in Hangzhou 4) West Lake. Hangzhou's "picturesque" lake 5-6)mmmmm Starbucks 7-8) High-end shopping 9) The gates to Old St. in Tunxi in the rain10) Nanjing's Bell tower in the rain 11) It seems not many people go to the movies on Sunday afternoons. Or at least not this one 12) Nanjing at night. Note not raining in this photo!

*The cities I went to anyway, Hangzhou, Tunxi, Nanjing, Xi'an and Beijing.

**Also known as Tunxi - although it took a while for me to figure out the two name system, especially when the names are in Chinese characters!

**Depending on the translation it is also sometimes referred to as Ancient St. but Old St. feels a bit like home and it's my blog so Old St. it is.

Tubing in Vang Vieng was Laos-tastic

Initially I was a bit apprehensive about visiting Laos becuase, after spending more time than I intended in Thailand, every day that I spent in Laos was a day that I couldn´t spend in China. And the more I read about China the more time I wanted to spend there.

During my travels however, I met lots of people who had either already been to Laos or knew someone who had been. I cannot understate the effect that everyone's reviews of Laos - in particular Vang Vieng - had on me.

Floating down a river on an inflatable innner tube. Effectively pub crawling from bar to bar in a tropical mountain environment. With great music, fun rides like swings and ziplines, cold drinks by the bucketful for only 10,000kip, beautiful smiling people everywhere and the hot sun shining (34 degrees in the middle of February). If ever there was an activity with my name all over it than this was it. How could I skip it? I couldn't.

So, I made my compromise and decided to spend 5 days in Laos, including 4 straight in Vang Vieng which left only 10 days in China*, down from the 20 or so days I initially thought I originally planned to spend there.

Back to Vang Vieng. If you want it to be, it is one big continuous party every day of the year and people brag about how many straight days they have attended.** It is a lot like what I imagine US spring break to be. Or, from personal experience, it reminded me of Cayman Islands Stingray City boat parties only instead of being in the Carribean Sea it`s on a fast moving river in South East Asia, instead of taking a party boat out to the North Sound you jump in from the banks of the river and instead of having live stingrays to play with you have manmade swings and ziplines with questionable safety records. Also instead of it being once a month or whatever the boat parties were it goes on every single day.***The attitude of the two events are the same though in that no one ever has a bad time, even when they hurt themselves.

Speaking of which, if you think that young backpacker types, mixed with cheap and readily available alcohol and giant swings over a fast moving, and in places quite shallow river are a recipe for people to hurt themselves, then you´ve given it a lot more thought than most of the people who actually attend.

It was commonplace to see people with bloody faces from landing too close to a rock or limping around with cut feet or worse and I even bumped into a guy who, even after he broke his leg, bagged it up and was back tubing down the river within a few days.

One girl (from Toronto if I recall correcly) who was on an organized tour and had only one day in Vang Vieng, arrived at the river, ordered a drink, went up to use the swing at the first bar, lost her grip and fell on her face into the water and knocked herself out cold. She seemed fine when I was talking to her that night though.

All of this element of danger does nothing to dampen everyone`s spirits and people wear their injuries like a badge of honour (after the pain goes away and or they regain conciousness that is).

I managed not to hurt myself on the river but, I will say that, at my age, four straight days of tubing is about three too many**** but, like any good holiday, it makes for some interesting stories and it`s good to find out where your limits are. My limit is four straight. The bucket of gin and tonic late on the fourth day probably being an unwise move.

Later on the fourth night I would, in separate incidents, trip and fall on my face, lose my flip flops and, I´m sure in a voice much louder and drunker than I inteded, vocalised to my new best mate Jaimie***** my disappointment about my lack of success trying to convince a pretty girl that I was the most charming and handsome and articulate guy she´d ever met.

Even in my post tubing state I was pretty excited that my next stop would be China though. It had been a long time comig. Bring on some culture shock!

Photos 1) Foreshadowing my stay in Vang Vieng, the bus I was on from Vientianne stopped to add some cargo. About 80 boxes of Tiger whisky. They stashed it wherever they could find room, behind seats, in the aisle, etc. I am not too mature to have made a little fort out of the boxes they piled around me and then take a photo. I got too busy in Laos to take any other photos so hopefully I´ve done a good enough job describing it. If not use google images to lookup tubing in Laos you´ll see what I mean.

*I would cram an awful lot into those 8 days though.
**One guy was up to 85 out of 90 days which he "tatooed" on himself with magic marker
***I heard tale that in the wet season the river really moves fast and it is too dangerous but something tells me that people still do it anyway.
****Though probably the greatest cure for a hangover is simply to go tubing again. Once you jump in the refreshing river, see smiling faces all around, listen to the exact same playlist you listened to yesterday and have that first sip of Tiger Beer, which for some reason was cheaper thanthe local Beer Lao, you forget all about why it was that you didn´t feel like getting out of bed just a few minutes earlier.
*****Met Jamie on the bus to Vang Vieng from Vientiane. He took the photo. We took turns convincing each other to go tubing on alternate days when either or both of us deep down new a break was probably a better option.

Dave Gets Trapped in Thailand with no Passport

Did I mention that all this time, while I was checking out historical sights, diving in tropical waters, learning to rock climb and whatnot I've been stuck in Thailand unable to leave until I get my passport back. No eh? Well I was.

x

I arrived in Thailand still needing to get entry visas for Russia and Mongolia.* Unfortunately for me they can't issue them in Thailand but can only issue them in the country of citizenship or residency. So, within 12 hours of arriving in Bangkok, there I was at DHL sending my passport to the UK in order to get a visa assistance company to take my passport and application forms to the relevant embassies to apply for the visas on my behalf.

In my head a best case scenario would get me my passport back within a week. But real life had other plans. DHL itself were conspiring against me from the start as they couldn't even guarantee my documents would arrive within three days and because I was sending a passport which is of a 'sensitive' nature it would take three additional days.**


Then I lost two days when the Russians asked for bank details since I in the employment box I put 'unemployed-travelling'. ***Then once my application had been submitted I was informed my visa to enter Russia would not be ready until the 3rd of February.


I'd really like to know what happened between Canada and Russia relations since the last time I travelled there in 2007 when I was able to receive a travel visa in one day because they've now changed the rules and in all circumstances Canadians have to wait 15 days to process a visa application.

Regardless of the reason there was nothing I could do about it and though I was initially quite stressed about travelling around with no passport I quickly got over it. That is mostly because Thailand is such an easy going society. Not one passport checkpoint to be found in the entire country. I still broke into a sweat every time I saw a police officer though (even more of a sweat than the 30 degree heat was causing I mean).***It was helpful to know the date that I could expect everything to be finalized though as this meant I could stop checking email and hoping every day.




So there I was, travelling all over thailand and generally enjoying myself waiting to receive my passport until the given date. When I didn't hear from them on the expected day, February 3, I didn't even panic and instead took the opportunity to use my extra day in Krabi to go deep water solo climbing which was memorable not just because it was awesome but because I hurt myself.


On the fourth, late in the day after getting back from climbing, I got the word that my passport was enroute and that I could expect to recieve it on Friday February 6. I should mention that because I anticipated travelling around I thought it would be safer to have my precious, precious, round the world trip dependant travel documents sent to the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok rather than trying to predict which hotel I would be at at the time.

This turned out to be a tactical blunder for two reasons. First, I didn't forsee the process taking so long and so figured I would be near Bangkok when my documnets were ready. I wasn't. I was an overnight train journey away in Krabi.


Second, according to the tracking number, my passport was due to be delivered before 5:30 on Friday. No problem I thought. I'll arrive Friday morning by train, swing by the embassy in the afternoon and, passport in hand, make for the Laos border on another overnight train and be having fun in the sun sometime on Saturday.*****One problem with that scenario was that being a cushy tropical government office, the embassy closes at 1:00pm on Fridays.


A further wrinkle was that Monday, February 9th was a public holiday in Thailand and other Budhist countries to celebrate Makha Bucha Day. I've since learned that it represents the full moon of the third lunar month when hundreds of monks independently made a pilgirmage to see Buddha, though at the time I was pretty unimpressed as I considered my self to be quite inconvenienced by this 'unexpected' holiday.


I'm not going to lie to you. I thought this really sucked. I don't expect much sympathy for being trapped in Bangkok for a long weekend but I had already overstayed my 30 day travel visa and every day that I continued to stay in Thailand was a day that I wouldn't be able to visit somewhere else like Laos or China for instance.



So, the travel plan appropriately revised. I was determined to enjoy my long weekend in Bangkok, where I took in some Muay Thai Boxing and nearly bought a suit (if I hadn't had a really heavy backpack already overflowing with winter clothes for the Trans-Siberian railway I would have) caught up on some Premier League football (it's really popular in Thailand - I even got them to show the Fulham match!) and both relaxed and partied my face off (I did have four nights to kill remember).
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Over the course of the weekend I learned a few things about Bangkok. If you want to, you can get just about anything in the world on the streets of that fair city. Weapons for instance, including brass knuckles, extendable battons, switchblades, butterfly knives, ninja throwing stars (all illegal in western countries) and even pistol crossbows are available on the sidewalk markets and street corner stalls next to the tshirt vendors. 'Massages' and at night-time more overtly sex is for sale no matter what street you walk down.
x


'Sidewalks' are a completely different concept in Thailand and Bangkok in particular. There it is where the scooters drive or where people set up tables to sell goods and services (see above) or just where they plant trees which then get so big that you have to step out into the street just to walk around the trees that are growing in the middle of the 'sidewalk'.
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Pink taxis were a nice touch and gave Bangkok a bit of a happy-go-lucky feel but the one of the things that took me by surprise was the sheer number of 7-11 stores. I bet you could give directions from any point in Bangkok to any other point solely by using 7-11's as a guide:

'Go straight on Soi 1 until you hit the 7-11, turn left and then take another left at the 7-11. Drive until you hit the 3rd 7-11 then get on the expressway. Get off at the 7-11 and go straight. If you hit the 7-11 you've gone too far...'

Anyhoo, on Tuesday morning I arrived at the Canadian Embassy at 10:00am, not wanting to get there too early since I already spent so much time there on Friday hoping the package would be delivered before closing and successfully retrieved my passport and went immediately to the train station to buy my ticket outta there. Free at last I could finally leave Thailand. More optimistically I could finally go to Laos.
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If you're thinking that all this visa related chaos might lead to quite a lot of additional expense then you are absolutely right. Not only did I have to pay around 50 quid each way for courrier service for my documents but I had to pay 100 pounds for the admin fee of the visa processing company and then, because of the time it took to process my Russia tourist visa, I overstayed my allowed time in Thailand by 9 days and was fined another 100 pounds. So in addition to the cost of the visas I'm out GBP 300! I sure hope there is a lucrative job waiting for me when I get back!




Photos: 1) Checking out the Wats in Ayuttaya, the former Thai capital. 2) Buddha stautes lose their heads over time apparently. 3) A little bit of trip planning 4) Passport in hand outside the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok which is on the 15th floor. They wouldn't let me take a photo inside.

*In case you've forgotten, I'm taking the trans siberian railway from Beijing to St. Petersberg via Mongolia in late February. The visa to enter China was really easy to get and I went straight from the airport to the Chinese embassy in Toronto on the 23rd of December after arriving from Buenos Aires and had my passport with visa in hand by lunch time the next day.

**I have absolutely no idea what this is about. I guess there is a lucrative trade in sending forged passports around by courier or something that requires additional scruitiny in order for the courier to cover their a$$.

***By contrast in Argentina I had to show my passport every time I purchased a bus ticket and then again when I got on the bus and also every time I checked into a hotel and even a couple of times randomly on the street.

****Riiiight. So I'm not currently employed while travelling the world and if I run out of money I'm going to chose Russia in the middle of winter time to overstay my visa and sponge off the government. I really think not.

Rock Climbing 101

I actually didn't really envision myself doing any climbing when I went switched to the east coast of Thailand. Even though Krabi (Tan Sai Beach in particular) is famous for it's picturesque limestone cliffs with routes for climbers of all abilities, I'd been rapidly burning through cash and needed to slow it down a bit. Krabi isn't the place to do it. For one thing, on the beaches where everybody stays there is a scarcity of accomadation owing to tsunami when all the buildings were damaged if not completely destroyed so rooms were pricey, at least by Thailand standards. And for another thing there is nothing else to do there really.* It does look like this though so you can see the appeal generally:

So, with some time to kill and since I was there, finances be damned!...I took a three day climbing course.

The course focused on basic safety techniques and how to spot someone else when they are climbing, what knots to tie etc.,

with minimal concern for how high you actually went, and since most of the beginner to intermediate walls have adequate hand and foot holds you could get way up there.

The course then went on to teach lead climbing, (taking the rope up and setting it up in the anchor) and then multi-pitch climbing and abseiling down.

It was a real thrill though to climb up and meet my instructor at the 'top' only to continue on and lead the rope up the next 'pitch' to another anchor and then abseil down. It was really cool and you can see how climbers get addicted to it.

It was amazing. My muscles weren't ready for three straight days of that though and I could barely make it through the third day.

I took a well deserved rest day. With the beach and sun, Tan Sai is really a good place to chill out. It is the type of place where the worst thing that happens is the sort of thing that was posted on the message board:

Then, on my 2nd rest day I was out taking some photos when I bumped into a guy I'd met a few days earlier named Mike. He really wanted to go deep water solo climbing. It's climbing over deep water with no rope so if you fall you land in water.

The idea is not to fall but to climb as high as you can or as high as you feel comfortable, then jump into the water. In fact Mike wanted to go so badly that when the place said we needed three more people or else the outing would be cancelled he ran up and down the beach recruiting people and as luck would have it, it was an easy sell.

Some of the guys were absolutely outstanding climbers, and could comfortably climb up the wall until they got so high they were scared to jump (around 23m). I got the one guy jumping from around 23m on video and it is truly impressive. I, however, am still a novice. Though growing in confidence, most of the techniques I mastered in the course related to knots and use of clips and ropes and whatnot so that was of very little help over open water.

Still, I managed to get up to about 12 metres or so but then got a bit stuck. The trick was to swing one leg over to the stalagtite and then transfer the rest of your body weight over. It's easier said than done for a short guy like me and I was not at all confident I had the leg span to make it. So rather than risk it I decided to just get myself in the absolute best position before trying.

It's a difficult thing climbing. There really is no one best position. Sure some are better than others but you have to keep going. If you're stuck, you're stuck. Just admit it and enjoy your jump into the water. But if you've read my Aconcagua blog you'll know that I don't concede defeat easily whether it is to a world class mountain or just some rock face in the middle of the ocean. So I powered on trying to slowly move into the best position. The chalk had worn off my hands and so had the reserve chalk that i chalked up on my arms (climbers like chalk) so my grip was starting to fade. But if I can make this one last.....ooops...... SPLASH


OW!

I landed on my left side. I gave the boat the 'i'm ok' line but I wasn't really. I was quite sore . Still, we moved to a slightly less challenging wall and I successfully did that 2 times so it's all good. My ribs still hurt 2 1/2 weeks later but i'm sure by the time I get back to London I'll be tip top.

Photos: 1) Learning to climb. 2) View of Tan Sai and East Rai Lei beaches. Hidden from view west Rai Lei beach. 3) Self photo having reached the top of one of my first lead climbs. 4) My excellent doubled up figure 8 knot. It better be excellent. My life depends on it. Needless to say I spent a lot of time practicing. 5) View from about 20 or 22 metres depending who you believe. 6-7) Showing off some mad skills. 8) Abseiling down all by my self. 9) Monkey theft advertisment. 10-11) Deep water soloing. Starting out well. 12-13) Making the move across towards the stalagtite. 14)Note the splash in the last one -sideways for some reason but don't have time to fix it for now.


*Why did I go then? I guess subconciously I wanted to learn to climb. I met people who were serious climbers who loved it there but I just thought it was also just a cool place to hang out. It is but really only if you are a climber.