Cela roams around: climbing

Sunday, 9 January 2011

Climbing in Vang Vieng

The last day that I've been in Vang Vieng we've gone climbing. There were five of us, three of us climbing. Todd and Phil had their gear with them, so we only took three motorbikes and I rented shoes. But that itself lasted forever, everything from the beginning went wrong, breakfast took ages, Todd's friend who borrowed us his harness and chalk bag was one hour late, renting motorbikes and taking petrol and renting my shoes was constantly going wrong, cause if the place was not closed for lunch brake, they did not have what we've wanted or we had to go to their second store and so one. Literally, everything from the beginning went wrong.
But in the end, we had motorbikes with petrol and we drove to the place where I wanted to rent shoes and we've lost Phil and Markus on the way and we did not find them until the end of that day. Though we've found one Aussie guy with gear who joined our climbing expedition.
The same story as with Markus and Phil was with rocks. I think that four of us who were still left we were driving about two hours around the place where rocks were supposed to be and we've never found them. That was very frustrating. So in the end we've given up and decided to go tubing. Not that we've rented tubes and went down the river. We've just driven there and went drinking. And this was exactly when we've met Markus and Phil again. It was a little bit tricky to drink and drive later on (at least for the drivers) but nothing has happened, except broken line, in Todd's motorbike, connecting tachometer with the wheel. He locked it and forgot about it. But still it's costed him only 60.000 kip in the rental place, which was nothing to get his passport back.
Next step after coming back was to have a dinner and go for goodbye party as Todd and me were leaving the next day. I was going to 4000 Islands and he to Chiang Mai. We've formed surprisingly big party crew. It's even difficult to tell who those people where and how we've started to talk to them, but that did not matter at all. It's mattered even less when someone has found five bags of weed in one of the cushions at our table. Everyone remained silent about it. It was a little bit like we were part of the conspiracy theory. Does not matter if we were or not, at the end cushions were empty.

Searching for rocks

Is it possible elsewhere than in Laos to have a nice sleep in a bar?

Yoooooooo

Here you don't need your own lighter. Lighters are glued to the walls, to make sure that you will not lose it

Goodbye bucket

Saturday, 18 December 2010

TonSai Beach

As usually I've stayed in Railay longer than I've planned.

After first night in Railay West I've moved to different part on peninsula - TonSai Beach. And this one is definitely climbers' paradise. After retrospection the day before I knew there I want to be to give this place a chance: Saithong Bungalows. 150B for single, very simple bungalow with bathroom it's the best what you can get in Railay. It's the cheapest place, but also the coolest one. At the top of the hill, in forest, with mosquitoes and relaxed atmosphere. Just after I got there I've met people with whom I've been hanging around whole week, climbing, kayaking, building sand castle, partying, having breakfast. I've just joined them at the table when they were having breakfast during day of rest.

They were group of random people who just met there couple of days before. Climbers and non-climbers, better and worse climbers. Crowd from different countries. This is as always something that makes group unique and very much rock'n'roll. And of course climbers society, which is chilled and relaxed.

Right away I've joined them at the beach, where we've started to build sand castle. It was Brad's idea and actually everyone liked it so much and got so involved, that we've spent prolly about 3 hours designing and building. I don't remember when was the last time that I did that, but certainly it was loads of fun.

Next day we've went climbing and kayaking. Plan was to kayak to Happy Island and climb there, but as planes were changing every 5 minutes in the end we've kayaked another 30 mins to reach Ko Poda, where we were struggling again to find rocks, but eventually we've succeeded.6a+ But the problem was that everyone was so buggered after paddling and it was so late that we did not do too much, but still the whole day was cool. 10 people on the kayaking, climbing trip, that must be fun. I was paddling only on the way back, cause we had 2 doubles and 2 triples, and person in the middle seat in the triple is not supposed to paddle, so girls were changing and paddling less than boys, especially those who were climbing.

The following days people were leaving and new people were coming, we've been making new climbing friends, so there was always someone climbing similar level as I do (as usually I've started to regret quiting climbing) which currently is very low. 6a+ is was I managed to do top rope and I was struggling. Funny thing though I had the feeling that I have better sense of balance and that I know better where to step for optimal performance. Maybe indeed I had talent and I've wasted it. I hope to do some more climbing in Chang Mai or Van Vieng (or both) if I manage to organise it with Meike and Todd with whom I'll be meeting tomorrow in Kho Tao, as they left one day before me.