back from thailand!

I finally found the time to update my dear blog once again!eversince I came back from Thailand I was stuck with having to rush out my assignment due in 4 days time.cant believe I was stuck at home for at least 2 days doing it up.its not so bad when everyone else is doing it, but it sucks when only you are stuck at home with it.haha.but Im not complaining anymore.BECAUSE I AM DONE WITH IT!

Lets see what happened on my first trip to Krabi- Thailand!=)

On Day 1 arrived at phuket excited and not so happy with my bag load.but I couldn’t wait to visit the famous Tonsai island which almost all of my climbing friends have been to and I have not. Once we exited the airport, swarms of taxi drivers “devoured” Jansen and I with offers to take us to Ao Nang pier where we would take a long tail boat to Tonsai. We rejected all of them because we wanted to take a cheaper means of transport. Didn’t mind the wait, but along came this super super insistent cabbie who kept lowering his offer to take us to the pier. Finally, he ended giving us the offer of 200 THB to Krabi bus station!which was not too far off from Ao Nang Pier. Jansen and I looked at each other and said yes without thinking. Ok.we thought for a little, but it was such a great offer we couldn’t resist.

We were in the cab for less than 5 mins when the driver stopped us along the road and beside the bus stop and said we were here. Jansen was shocked because that was not the Krabi bus stop he knew.we clarified with the driver and he said he told us he would take us to one of the bus stop that we could TAKE A BUS TO KRABI BUS STOP!

CONCLUSION: we got “toked”

“toked” means to be cheated, especially when it involves money.

We could have easily gone to the bus stop on our own way cheaper.but yea.hard lesson learnt.

Routes that I onsighted:
1.Groove Tube (firewall), I climbed up with my whole bag of stuff and reached the first pitch!it was breathtaking up on the first pitch of groove tube!i could see the whole of tonsai beach! Perspiring and shaky me had to learn how to tie a prusik chord and abseil down!all learnt in about 10 mins???? And yes, on the way down the abseil line, I kept telling Jansen I didn’t want to die. And I didn’t!=)
2. climb of the ancient mariner (melting wall)
3. Schlingel Moritz (at the tonsai beach)

routes I sent!=)
1. Schlingel Max (Dums kitchen)

routes attempted:=(

- at the Nest wall.
1. Technobug: it was my first route I attempted in Tonsai. Was a total noob. Scared of this. Scared of that.gosh.looking back, I wish I wasn’t so lousy.haha.it was just a simple 6a that Jansen breezed past!
2. Banana hammock
3. Little fish
4. Britishly White. My first 7a!and yes, I hang dogged the route!Jansen very kindly offered me to clear the clips and yes I went up feeling butterflies in my stomach. The starting left me off the ground and overhanging!i didn’t want to fall before the first clip and break my back on the rock!haha. the rope drag on this route is freaking bad!it took two people to pull the rope down!it was a 7a route on its own to clear the rope.

- at Melting wall
5. Captain hook

- at Tonsai Beach wall
6. Lion king! My first 6c route!heard so much about it, wanted to challenge myself on this route. The beginning was alrite. But when I reached the lions head. I had practically nothing to step on!blame my lousy footwork and hole in the shoes!hahaha.i was afraid to even load any weight on my feet and ended up stressing my upper body. I took a long time on this route! But I want to send it on my next trip!something scary happened on this route, I was supposed to clear the clips for the person who left it up. And when I finally reached the top I realized I forgot to bring a crabiner to top out!i looked down on Jansen who was belaying me and asked him what to do. I was shaking up there by now. He told me to take out my belay rope and tie in again. I was scared when I heard it man!it was a totally unorthodox method and never tried before by me!he had to warn me that if I lost the rope while untying it, I would be stuck up there forever. To take out my belay rope meant that I was relying only on my sling which was clipped into the ring anchor at the end!if any of those gave way. I would say good bye to everyone. And so with my fingers shaking and my breath becoming irregular I untied the belay rope and tried in vain to tie a new figure of 8. The frustrating thing was I could not tie a figure of 8 at all while I was up there!i was panicking too much to be able to tie one properly. I kept looking down at Jansen for help. But he couldn’t really help much except just look. Desperate I shouted at Jansen for help!he told me to take the quickdraw and tie a double figure of 8 and attach it to my harness. I did it. And yes.strange enough, I was able to tie a double figure of 8!and so with my body still shaking, I was lowered down.finally!was alittle upset at myself on this route for forgetting how to tie a figure of 8. and Jansen thought I was angry. Resulted in a little misunderstanding. But we cleared it up.
7. Hang Ten.A 7C route which Jansen promised me a PRADA HANDBAG if I could clip all the way till the 3rd clip!i agreed. Did ok for the first 2 clips. At the 3rd clip. My left hand had to hold a lousy slopper and I struggled to pull in rope to clip.by the time I managed to pull enough rope to clip.my left hand gave way alr!dar.i missed the PRADA BAG!=(

Spent the last 2 days in Tonsai Bay resort feeding our bodies to bed bugs!had 2 sleepless nights in a row from bed bugs bite. Could hardly sleep. My whole body was itching like mad. I had like 5 bites in a row.wonder how those puny little disgusting things could cause so much damage to my body. The minute I closed my eyes, my body would start itching. At first, on the first night, I thought it was mosquitoes flying around.i got up in the wee hours of the morning to light the coil.couldnt sleep after that.played with my Nintendo DS till daylight. The next night was not better. Jansen spammed the beds with the NS repellent. The infamour green tubes which is reputed to burn through skin FAILED! We were still getting the bites. We gave up.slept at the beach.it was freezing and all. We experimented with the repellent. We caught a bed bug and put a circle of repellent gel around it to see if he could get past. At first it tried to avoid it.but after about 5 seconds, the bug happily scurried across the “line” of defense. I smeared more all over it. And the more I smeared, the faster the bug ran over the “lines”.darn. I should have know it didn’t work.haha.

Moved over to Railay beach just next to Tonsai beach.got up super early in the morning to trek over with our barang barang because it was low tide.could cross over all the barnacles and sand without getting wet. Had to make 2 trips coz we had too many stuff to carry. It was a move slightly more manageable than moving out of hall=)

At Railay Muay Thai wall:

Onsighted:
1. Nuat Hin

At 123 wall:
Onsighted:
1. king cobra.
This is a route which all the schools bring their students to try it. Good and easy warm up route. But the rocks are well polished.makes gripping hard.so smooth la!
2. Make a way.
good long route!28 m!we had just enough clips for this route.phew.

Sent:
1. short and savage.
Was about to give up on this route after failing to send it 2 times. But Jansen urged me to give it another try. And so I did, and I sent it!yay!i finally knew the feeling of sending a route which I thought was almost impossible.yes.i will always remember this feeling and always look forward to it!

I did a short summary of my thoughts while up on this route:

1st attempt: “where the heck are the holds?”
2nd attempt:” hmm, I think I know where the good holds are and when to rest, I know I can do it.” ---the next minute, “ jansen, can I rest?” darn.
3rd attempt: “ I know I can do it!—SENT!

Trekked over to the low tide wall

Onsighted:
1. walk in the park
- name suggests it all!

Attempted:
1. Narsilon!it was a 7a which I wanted to just give it a try with no expectations!i saw a good rest spot in the middle of the 28/30 m long route and aimed to go all the way there first. Did pretty ok for the first part. I didn’t expect to finish the beginning and reached the spot to rest!the crux was just about to happen. Tried for a few times and finally got it. And the second half of the route, I began to hang after every clip!ahaha.i suck!

We got stranded after doing these 2 pathetic routes because of the high tide. We slept around the rocks and I played with all the sand and water I could find.took random pictures of the sand,sun,sea. We were stuck doing nothing for 5 hours!i was never so bored.decided to pack up and leave at about 6pm because the sun was setting. I didn’t want to be stuck on this beach at night! We started to trek, the tide was still high.i slipped and fell and guess what.my beautiful havianas broke!darn.had to break at this timing. How could I continue walking barefooted when I could not see what I was stepping on?and mind u, the rocks at the bottom were sharp.i was scared.jansen was already waist high into the body. Just then a boat came and offered to help us!PRAISE THE LORD!we arrived on shore safe and sound and half wet, and I was still missing a slipper=(

Left Krabi for Bangkok on the 31 July 2009!

Stupid plane got delayed.we were stuck at the airport playin the Nintendo for 2 hours. Got onto the taxi to a cheap inn. Poor jansen, left his hp in the taxi and couldn’t do anything about it.

Finally, the day of shopping had begun!took a train and got off at Mot Chit station. The station that leads to the shopping heaven!haha.THE FAMOUR CHATUCHAK MARKET!the place is humoungous!3500 stalls!we didn’t know where to begin. We decided to split up for the good of both.and yes.i never did so much shopping in my life!


Day 2 in Bangkok saw us goin to platinum mall!another shopping heaven!but this time, its better with more people coz the prices become wholesale= sickly cheap when u buy more than 3 pieces of clothing in that stall! I could only buy so much before my pockets burned. Amazingly, jansen ran out of money before me!muahaha.gave him the rest of my money to buy him a spanking pair of white shoes!=)

We bought so much that we shipped a box worth 10kg back to Singapore because we were severely overweight in baggage from our climbing gears. Cost us 74 bucks but I guess it was worth!=)

MORE SHOPPING TO BE DONE in Bangkok

And yes, I enjoyed myself in this trip.i learnt a lot of climbing techniques and the dos and donts thanks to Jansen=) he taught me with patience how to abseil, top out, etc.thank you!cannot wait to go back to krabi again!