Hello!
I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Ao Nang, in the Krabi province, with fast computers, Skype, air conditioning and a promotion for Internet Buffet which means up to 14 hours for 100 baht! Woo hoo! This is extremely exciting as I'm coming from Ton Sai with slow internet for 3 baht a minute. Ooo-eee!
After a ridiculous couple of weeks at AUA (10 or 11am until 9pm, 5 days a week)we got a week off. I didn't really have any plans and when Tim, a friend from Chiang Mai, said he was in Krabi and kind of half seriously/half jokingly suggested I come down, I decided I would. Everyone says it's beautiful, it's known for it's amazing rock climbing and Tim promised the air was nice. So I bought some plane tickets and headed off.
After landing in Krabi, I made my way to Ao Nang (where I am now) via an airport taxi. I shared it with a German whose name I can't remember. He was a huge guy. I thought he was with these two other people so I asked if they were going to Ao Nang by chance and he said yes. This was good because the taxi to Ao Nang is 600 baht, but split 4 ways, it wouldn't be a big deal. Turns out he didn't hear the "are you
guys" part of it, and it was just him, so the cab was 300 each, but that's ok. He's been to Thailand like 6 times but only the islands. He was heading straight to Koh Phi Phi (actually pronounced Pee Pee, but decided to go with a nicer spelling) to party. He likes to party. We got to the boat dock and said goodbye.
Then I took a longtail boat to Ton Sai. It's a beach for rockclimbers, rockclimber hippies and other people who look good walking around in their bathsuits and it's only accessible by boat or by foot from the adjacent beach. Pretty cool I guess. It's in a sad state right now though. The area is really nice and huge resort villages are popping out nowhere, and Ton Sai is the next to go. So all of these little bamboo hut climbing shops, places to eat, convenience shops, cafes and reggae bars are all coming down. And not only are they getting kicked out, but they also have to clear the area. So these bar owners who've had their little places running smoothly years have to take apart and burn it all. (They're into burning things in Thailand. Hence the trouble in the north.) So there's kind of a depressing vibe going on there now. Piles of bamboo and everything else to be burned everywhere. But being Thai, not too many people seemed too upset about it. They seem to all have friends with bamboo bars, climbing shops and convenience stores on other beaches, so they'll go there and probably start working without being asked and hope to get paid for it.
Anyway, I got to Ton Sai, met up with Tim and his friend Adam (rockclimbers and walk around in bathing suit-ers, but not hippies), got a bungalow near them and went to sleep. I seem to have a bad habit of staying up the entire night cleaning the night before an early flight. I don't know why. It's weird. It's happened since I started college. I always assume I'll make up the sleep on the flight, but that never happens. There are three kinds of bungalows available and I got a second tier one. Bamboo, wood, concrete. Fan on the ceiling, with a nice bathroom, and the electricity worked from 6pm - 8am. So I slept, woke up, had dinner with Tim and Adam, a drink on the beach with Tim and then back to sleep.
On Sunday Adam had to do a visa run to Malaysia so that meant that Tim couldn't climb, so he took a day off, which was good for me, cause I had someone to hang out with and show me around for the first half. Yay Tim! Ton Sai is a good place for rockclimbing but the beach isn't that great, so we headed off to Railay Beach. This is one of the places that's been taken over by huge resorts. Fancy stuff! There are two ways to get to Railay from Ton Sai. One is walking through/on/over rocks, but you can only do that at low tide. The other way is climbing up and over to the other beach. I'll see if I can find a map that explains it better. So Sunday morning, we climbed. It's kind of fun. It's all jungle around there. Huge green trees and rocks. And when you finally come out on the other side you seriously feel like you've snuck into the rich people's world. You go from dreadlocked backpackers to German families not wearing any clothing. The beach is beautiful and it's surrounded by huge limestone cliffs. It's great. Thai (or possibly Burmese) people walk around selling overpriced drinks, pineapple, beach mats and massages. Their friends and family huddle in the shade of the trees of the resorts. The farang are out in full force. Topless. It's just weird. The Thais are walking along the beach with long sleeves, long pants, hats and scarves around their necks (not Muslim scarves, just laborer scarves, I can't explain) and the Europeans are barely wearing underwear.
So getting to the beach I realized (again, this happened in Koh Pha Ngan last year) that I'm not really a beach person. I don't really like salt water, sand, sun or wearing a bathing suit. Damn it. But I'm here and I figured I may as well make the most of it. So I did the whole thing. Wore a bikini, went swimming and then laid out in the sun in hopes of getting skin cancer, I mean a tan. So that was Railay. Fancy. There are free bathrooms with toilet paper and running water, and all the signs are spelled correctly. It really doesn't feel like Thailand. But oh well.
Then we were off to Pranang Beach. It's kind of between Railay East and Railey West. Maybe it should be called Railay South? I liked this one a lot more. Still with the topless Germans and Swedes but also with Thai people just out for a swim. I think there's more shade at Pranang, and maybe that's why there were more there. I went in the water again and met three sisters who were shocked when I could (pathetically) speak Thai. They were 11, 15 and 16 from a town about 20 minutes away. Oh yeah, what do Thais swim in? Whatever they're wearing. Shorts and t-shirts usually, but if it's jeans and a frilly top that day, then that's what they'll wear in the water. I like their style. On the beach were the people selling stuff and then also three ladies set up with little corn/chicken/spring rolls shops on their mats. It was amazing. Little grills and everything. And behind Pranang Beach there are rocks, no resorts, so when the water gets boring you can watch the rockclimbers! Oh! And monkeys! I guess it's kind of bad cause the tourists feed them and I know that's not good, but it is kind of exciting to see monkeys. Especially when they steal someone's 50 baht pineapple.
So Pranang, water, sun, the whole thing. Tim said something about me "looking a little red" and offered some sun block and I put it on. He was being nice. I was bright red but had no idea. Tim took off in the afternoon to come to Ao Nang (where I am now) to do some internetting and "sort out his life." I stayed in Pranang, but moved out of the sun. A little later "Climber Dude" arrived. Tim and Adam had talked about him earlier. Thai guy, best climber they'd ever seen, 5 feet tall, but 7 feet tall when he puts his dreads straight up. He was pretty amazing to watch. With all the limestone all over there are also a ton of stalactites and this dude just jumped up, put his feet over his head, climbed up, jumped over to another one, jumped over to the wall, climbed in a hole and then bouldered across the wall, and then jumped down. Effortlessly! Absolutely amazing to watch. And even better when you watch other people try to do it afterwards and you see how difficult it really is. He has a whole routine and most people on the beach kind of followed him to his two other sites but I played it cool and read my book. After he had stopped for a while he came over and gave me a flyer for a party at a bar on Railay. I said sorry but I was staying on Ton Sai so I had to go back before it got dark out. He asked my name and I asked his and when I checked the spelling in Thai he huffed, turned around and walked away. That was a first. He eventually came back and said, "Why you speak Thai?" In Thai I said, "I'm an English teacher in Chiang Mai." I think I threw him off. I walked back to Railay with him, he bought me an iced tea, I drank it then climbed through the rocks back to Ton Sai. Climber Dude's day goes like this - he works at a climbing school in the morning (people like me who are interested and maybe know a little but can't go by themselves go with climbing schools), then comes to Pranang to impress everyone by climbing at about 3, then he goes to Railay Beach to impress everyone with his frisbee skills around 5:30 and finishes it off by impressing everyone by running back and forth on the shore with his 3 foot dreads behind him at sunset. Tim said the first day he saw him he had a guitar and sat for a while after climbing impressing everyone with his guitar skills too. He pretty much stars in his own movie all day everyday.
So I got home from my big day trying to be a beach person and what do I get? The worst sunburn of my life. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO painful. SOOOOOOOOOOO red. And because I had worn a bikini for the first time, possibly ever, I was burned all over. Scalp, face, eyebrows, nose, chest, shoulders, stomach, arms, legs, back. Damn. How did I not see this coming? I don't know. But it sucked and I felt like an idiot.
I met up with Adam and Tim and their friend Tui, one of the shop owners taking her shop apart (could also be spelled Twee) and had dinner at our bungalow's restaurant. I got chicken and cashews. Tui ordered a bunch of Thai stuff which was cool cause I'm always too nervous to order strange things, but I like tasting them.
Monday! Time for rockclimbing??!?! Adam and Tim offered to take me out for a day which was extremely sweet of them. Except that I'm not good, they are. They weren't extremely sunburned, I was. They seemed fine with the first part, so I tried my best to get over the second part. It's possible I would have gone out with a climbing school, but with the sunburn I didn't really want to do much, and I didn't want a group of people saying, "You can do it, Beth! Just get your left arm a little bit higher!" First stop was to a shop to buy a hat. Mission for the day - stay out of the sun. We went to Railay to go to one of the easy spots for me. Problem with the easy spots is that Climber Dude's climbing school already had them! Booo. So we had to start on something kind of tough. The rockclimbing in Ton Sai and Railay is just amazing. It's everywhere. Everything is limestone and most things have hooks and bolts or whatever so you can climb on them. So we found a spot, near the easy spots, but it was right along the water, and the water had eroded the bottom, so the beginning was really hard. I tried, but... no. Couldn't do it. Adam and Tim did it and then we moved into one of the easier ones. I eventually found some routes I could climb. And then Adam and Tim found ones that were interesting for them. It worked out well. When Climber Dude was done with his climbing school he looked over and said, "Ajarn!" which is the nice way to say teacher. I think it means more like professor or something. I say, "Chan bpen kruu" which means "I'm a teacher", but then sometimes people refer to me as Ajarn. It's fancier I think, so I'll take it. Anyway, I got to introduce Tim and Adam to Climber Dude which was nice. I remembered his real name (Nu), but I could tell he didn't remember mine. I didn't ask, but he only referred to me as Ajarn, so it was just a guess. Tui met up with us for lunch, and again, ordered a bunch of Thai stuff I'd be way to nervous to order. I love hanging out with Thai people! In the afternoon we went to another spot and I did one more climb. I was happy just to watch, but I think Adam and Tim felt bad that I sucked. My main goal was really just to stay out of the sun. But climbing was fun too. Monday night, Tim, Adam and Tui took off for a free dinner on Railay and I met up with some climber people Tim had introduced me to earlier for dinner. There were some English teachers from Japan, a hippie couple with a one year old named Mango, and a bunch of backpackers. Everything in the south is at least double the price it is in Chiang Mai. Pad thai, noodle soup, fried rice, mango shakes, everything doubled at least. It killed me. Bottled water and accommodation too. Grrr... Anyway, the best deal in town is a 40 baht unlimited salad bar. It works for the climbers, the hippies, and people who happen to really like cucumbers. Guess where I fall. So that was dinner. Some salad and a lot of cucumbers. Pretty exciting actually.
My original plan was to stay in Ton Sai for Saturday, Sunday and Monday, but leave Tuesday cause... I'm not really a climber and I felt like I should be in a place with people of my kind. Not Railay definitely, but that German guy was going to Koh Phi Phi and he definitely wasn't a climber so I thought maybe that would work. I was also out of t-shirts, so I had to put on a tank top and I was still really burned and everything seemed wrong. Tim and Adam were going off to climb stuff and I packed up and checked out but decided to take one last walk around Ton Sai to say goodbye.
While I was walking around I realized that the beach wasn't really all climbers. There were lazy girls reading books too! They were mostly part of the "people who like to walk around in bikinis" group, but they were sitting in hammocks, in the shade, reading books, so I admired that.
Damn it, I can do that! I found out the price to go to Koh Phi Phi was the same price as my bungalow for the night, and at dinner the night before it sounded like while yeah, it was really pretty, it was actually more expensive and finally I realized that the German guy hadn't been that interesting. A 30 something year old German investment banker who likes to party. I think I rather be surrounded by people who like to rockclimb than by people who like to party. Even more, I didn't really care who I was around, because my only mission was to read my book outside while staying out of the sun. That's what I can't do in Chiang Mai. It's disgusting to be outside and I barely ever make time to read. Therefore, it didn't make a whole lot of sense to go to Koh Phi Phi. So I did my walk around Ton Sai, enjoyed the jungle, helped out some kids who had just come off the boat (two climbers and a girl who was definitely there to read her book in the shade and probably wasn't going to walk around in a bikini) and checked back in to my bungalow. Tuesday morning I sat, drinking a mango shake, reading David Sedaris on a beautiful Thai beach with amazingly talented rock climbers just behind my book. It was great. Sitting next to me was a kid named Gabriel, from Portugal/England/Wales/Ireland (hippie parents, raised on communes and stuff!) who I had helped out when he had gotten off the boat. So he moved over to my table and we talked for a bit. I felt like I had been such a burden on Tim and Adam, it was nice to meet someone new. The climber/hippie people I had eaten with were also cool, but they were all out deep water soloing that day. I hadn't minded being alone, but I guess company was nice too. Since I finally knew more than someone, and the mango shake wasn't going to last forever, I said we could head over to Pranang to see Climber Dude and the monkeys. The show usually started around 3. We made plans to meet up at 2 to walk over. Back to the book.
Then a kid comes over and says something like, "Oh, I can't help but talk to people who are reading a book I've read. David Sedaris is great, huh? My friend's dad works at his publishing company and I met him in New York just before I came out here." Oh god, he's from Westchester. I was right. Not just Westchester, but Ossining. Weird. And not just an Ossining kid, but an Ossining Walkabout kid. He was a youngen, just finished Walkabout in 2006 and doing a gap year while he deferred from Colorado College. I hate 90% of "gap year" kids I meet. Usually they're British, but I think American ones might be worse because they think what they're doing is so novel. If you want to be travel around the world for a year on your parents' money and think you're the coolest person alive for it, that's fine, I realize teaching in Thailand for a year isn't too much different, but at least wait until after college.
I put him in place. I had overheard a little bit of a conversation he had been having with a group of other climber people. One guy said he was from Vancouver and an English guy said, "Where in America is that?" and a big America/Canada discussion followed and there was something about what percentage could place Maryland on a map. So when Zach, Ossining '06 kid, asked, I told him I had gone to school in Wisconsin and then asked if he knew where that was. He said he had been there before. His first guess was the top left state of the four corners. Nope! I said the city I lived in was about 2 and 1/2 hours from a very major US city (Chicago). He guessed Denver. I said that Denver was actually just as far a drive from my city as Ossining was (16 hours). He said, "I know this isn't right, but Dallas?" I said no. I asked him what time of year. He said summer. I said I would help him out and I said it actually bordered Canada and gets a lot of snow. Next guess, "Oklahoma? Wait, is that a state?" I said Oklahoma was a state, but Oklahoma City was the capital, so he was close, but I wouldn't really call Oklahoma City a major US city, and I was pretty sure Oklahoma bordered Texas. I asked what he did when he was there and he said he was hiking some mountain range I had never heard of. Wisconsin isn't really known for their mountains. I asked if he was sure it was Wisconsin and then he realized it was Wyoming he had gone to. He said he forgot there was more than one state that started with W. I didn't mention Washington or West Virginia. I said not to worry about the location and just try to focus on MAJOR US cities. Not LA, not NY, not Dallas, and not in the south. Blank. He asked if I would tell him what letter it started with. C!
Chicago? Yeah!
So that was Zach, from Ossining. To be fair, his volunteer project was getting kids from the Ossining Children's Center to rockclimb at a new climbing gym in Valhalla. That's pretty cool. He came to Pranang with me and Gabe. On schedule, Climber Dude was there. The monkeys had taken the day off. After Climber Dude did his thing Zach and Gabriel tried. Zach couldn't get hold on to the stalactite, but Gabriel did a pretty good job! The problem was once you get up, you have to get down. So he got up, got further up, went over to another stlactite, got down a little bit, and then had to drop down. Eek. While I was watching Gabriel, Climber Dude said/asked, "You, me, we eat dinner tonight?" I said, "Ok, I'll eat dinner with you if you can answer one simple question." "Ok!" "Ok, ready? What's my name?" He was hopeless. As expected. I realize that Beth is difficult for Thais, but I had given him my Thai name too, so there was no excuse for that. I told him my Thai name and my English name and watching him try to pronounce Beth was amazing. I wish I had video of it. This master-of-everything cool was just incapable of saying Beth. Bes. Bet. Bek. Besh. Bech. Best. Besk. I usually say "Beth" and exaggerate holding my tongue out while pressing it against my top teeth so they can try that, but he was just not having it and kept going trying to somehow replicate the sound without having to look so stupid. It was great. So I said no dinner. The real reason was that unless you pay for a boat, it's scary to climb back to Ton Sai in the dark.
So on the way back from Pranang, Gabe and I said goodbye to Zach (he was staying on Railay) and I noticed a tour group of college kids from what sounded like Long Island. And guess who was leading the pack... Russ Alexander. This name probably doesn't mean much to most people, but he is/was the guy pretty much in charge of Study Australia, the organization I, um, studied in Australia with. He was the orientation dude, the go to guy for Sydney people, and tour guide for breaks. Wow. He was busy tour guiding and then rushed off to the next site so I didn't stop him but I stopped some kids not paying attention in the back of the group. "Is that guy's name Russ?" "Yeah." "Are you guys study abroad kids in Australia?" "Yeah" "Wow. I was you 4 years ago." Really it was 3 1/2, and I did a Learn-to-Surf trip for break, not the trip to Thailand, but four and Thailand was easier to say and sounded cooler. I don't think they cared. Walking back to Railay one of the fancy resorts had a sign with all of the guests checking in that day and it said, "Welcome Study Australia!"
We eventually got to Railay, watched Climber Dude play frisbee for a bit then walked back to Ton Sai. Back to the salad bar, this time they had one plate of potatoes which were a real treat, and then back to my bungalow to read my book at night, because I didn't actually end up getting time to read it during the day.
Tuesday was good. But I was really ready for a day of sitting by myself, in the shade, reading my book, so I tried again Wednesday. It worked! I read outside in the shade with a banana milk shake. It was perfect. Tim and Adam were taking a "rest day" so I met up with to go to Pranang because I didn't want Climber Dude to think I was trying to stalk him. I was definitely stalking, but I think I was just stalking the sport in general, not any specific person. He wasn't there that day but there was a group of kids from Malaysia. One thing that's been really cool about being here is that there are a bunch of Southeast Asian countries that I forget exist and they seem to have really good rockclimbers who come to Ton Sai in groups of 20. Malaysia, Singapore, Phillipines. I feel terrible but I hadn't really ever thought about those places before. Malaysia and Phillipines sound scary and Singapore sounds too strict, expensive and messed up. But all the people were really cool and interesting! Well, from what I heard. I only talked to the Malaysian ones, but they were so cool! It makes me feel like a jerk for having had no interest in going there. I think I have to get better at rockclimbing so I can go to Malaysia and ask those kids to show me the good places to go. Or look for the guy I talked to on MySpace. Ha ha. MySpace.
Ok, so Wednesday evening Tim, Adam and I had a final dinner. Gabriel saw us and joined. Then we went found Tui and had a final drink on the beach then went to sleep. It was nice.
This morning I checked out for a second time, grabbed a boat to Ao Nang and have been sitting in this unlimited internet for 100 baht cafe since. It feels good.
Gabriel was in town looking for a dentist so we ate lunch but I was so worried about someone taking my computer where I already uploaded my pictures, and downloaded Skype and Quicktime, that I made for a really anxious lunch partner.
All in all, it's been good. It definitely took some time to get adjusted, but I that's just what seems to happen when I try to go to the beach. It's pretty and all, but the sun, sand, saltwater, I'm just not that into it. And the sunburn and the superfit people walking around in bathing suits definitely didn't help. But I'm happy I got out of Chiang Mai, I'm happy that I went to a new place, I'm happy I didn't run away to Phi Phi and I'm happy that I spent all day today at this internet cafe. I'm trying to do what I can't/don't do in Chiang Mai and this is it. I even called Grandma (but she didn't pick up).
I posted pictures....
Random Feb/Mar/Apr Chiang Mai picturesMy spontaneous weekend in Cambodia with MonoMy Ton Sai trip!I never posted a blog about my Cambodia trip. Or about what Parkour is. Or the Mennonite missionary bowlers. Or other stuff I probably said I would. But I guess if you're interested, just ask.
I'm going to try to call Grandma again.
