Gary Yetter Gets His Bread II

The time I had in Ton Sai was some of the best I’ve ever spent. I came there pretty much with the goal of lead climbing French 7a (Yosemite 5.11D) and smoking a lot of Thai stick. Having accomplished the former and indulged in the latter, I decided to aim a little higher and find a project. Luckily, I met Ben, a lovable computer programmer from the land of Oz. We chose a 7a+ called Reminiscence (established by the late Todd Skinner) and got to work one morning. After taking turns placing quickdraws and lowering off the route, we reached the crimpy, balancy crux (not my climbing forte). Ben and I both struggled, and out of frustration, I decided to try reaching the anchors by climbing a tufa to the right of the route. At the top of the tufa was a really good looking undercling. Once I got to the undercling, I visualized myself making a long reach for the anchors and completing the climb (albeit incorrectly). So I went. Placing two hands on the undercling, it felt solid. I got my feet high and began to stand up when RIIIIIIIIIPP!! I fell about 15 feet before realizing that the whole 20 pound piece of limestone had just been torn from the wall and hurled over my head. It landed just 3 meters from Diko (see previous entry). Scary fall, but scarier that I could have killed some people on the beach! On the bright side, the adrenaline from the fall relieved my fatigue and I gave the route a few more unsuccessful attempts before calling it a day. A couple days later, Ben and I came back. He led the climb and reached the anchors! This inspired me to finish as well. Ben talked me through the crux sequence and I also finished. That was our morning session. Then we came back in the evening and tried another 7a+ called La Bab, a Ton Sai classic. It was beautiful and a much different style than Reminiscence in that it was quite overhanging and pumpy, requiring more upper body strength and less footwork and balancing technique. Well, we got through it as well (with some breaks). I’d like to come back and do it totally clean (no breaks), but I’m content for now. My last day in Ton Sai found me on my first multi-pitch lead with a Kiwi girl named Leo. The climb was called Humanality (6b+) and went up about 350 feet above Ton Sai bay. The first pitch required climbing up the large roots of an old ficus tree. That was actually kind of challenging! Anyway, that was a great experience for me and the best way I could have ended my time in Paradise.

The killer hold

Ton Sai, I salute you!

Teo and Egk run a cafe on Ton Sai and make damn good hot chocolate! On my last night, I had a huge ganja cake (or “peace cake”) and about half that blunt in Teo’s mouth. Needless to say, I was well-rested for Humanality’s 5 pitches the next morning

I spent the next two days in Krabi, a relatively large Southern city. It was very mellow and comfortable and the food was amazing! As much of the population is Muslim, so this is reflected in the cuisine. Different from typical Thai but no less delicous. As I have a trip into the cold Himalayas coming up soon, I figured Krabi would be a good stating point to pack on some insulation, heh, heh. So I stuffed myself three times a day with chicken, fish, fresh veggies, rice cakes, fresh fruit, and noodles. One day, I felt like taking my motorbike for a long ride and ended up at a nice national park. I decided it would be a good day for a short hike and made my way around the park for several hours, teasing the spiders and soaking feet in the shallow river pools. I also stumbled upon an unattended juvenille elephant, which was having a gay old time ripping banana trees out of the ground. And by chance, I stumbled upon AHFX, the guy that tattooed my back last year (blogs.bootsnall.com/gary/). We had a nice time catching up at the local bar over bottles of 7-Up.

Typical Thai Muslim dish: chicken on rice with cucumbers and a spicy-sweet sauce, plus chicken broth

I found a bunch of these “mud boners” on my hike. Not sure what creates them, but I will find out

Baby Chang…little rascal

Next, I headed to Khao Lak, about 150 km NW of Krabi on the Andaman coast. Khao Lak, you may or may not recall, was the hardest-hit town in Thailand during the 2004 tsunami. A couple of my friends, Jo and Jess, of Oz live there and work for an aid organization dealing with continuing post-tsunami relief. It was nice time and I had a lot of fun with them and also exploring nearby empty beaches during the day.

An assortmnet of shells on Khao Lak beach

Nothing special, I just passed in on a ride through the country and thought it was pretty

And so, I returned to good ole Bangkok a couple days ago. For all the faults I find with it (crowds, pollution, stench of human waste), Bangkok is a pretty amzing place. So convenient, with beautiful palaces and temples and an amazing abundance of cheap eats. Holy cow, I really went for it my last days there!

A typical street eatery in Bangkok– damn, it’s some good eats!

Breakfast: pork with fried basal, deep-fried hard-boiled egg with rice on the plate; fish cake in the bowl, and a Coke for drinking. Cost: $1.50

And so I sit here in wonderful Khatmandu, Nepal after one night in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I’d only heard bad things about Bangladesh, but it wasn’t as bad as others made it out to be. Life really is your attitude. Nepal I am really stoked for! Biggest mountains on the planet (well, 8 out of 10 anyway). Tomrrow, I leave with my friend Tan Au Ca and our guide Pasan Sherpa for the Annapurna Circuit, which we will spend 22 days on heading all the way to Annapurna Base Camp. Happy to grub on some daal baht and burn the hell out of my calves. Namaste!

Tags: Thailand, Travel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 10:33 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.