After a long silence, here we go. Sorry for being silent so
long – have no excuses, really, as have no work nor other obligations to
fulfill at the moment.
So after Yangshuo, in early December, me, Ben and Hans
headed to a little island in Thailand, called Koh Yao Noi. Alex (the apple
crumble guy) was already there, and Ben and Ange joined us a day or two later.
Koh Yao Noi is a lovely little island between Phuket and Tonsai, inhabited by
about 4000 Thai. It was refreshing to actually see locals on the island, and
for example kids playing soccer on the school yard while we were driving past
on our mopeds.
Climbing in Koh Yao Noi was pretty cool, although most of
the climbs developed there are not very hard. I will attach some pictures here
from the island – also a way to avoid writing more ;).
(If you want to hear a bit more from Koh Yao Noi or see more
pictures, check out my Finnish blog and pictures
here).
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| Hansueli being funny :) |
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| Where is it? |
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| Lonely boat in Koh Yao Noi |
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| At the Hang |
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| Exciting approach to the Watchtower |
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| Exciting exit from the Watchtower, Ben Sears in the water |
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| View from the Watchtower |
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| Our bungalow at Koh Yao Noi |
After Koh Yao Noi, we headed to Tonsai for 6-7 weeks. On my
part, Tonsai was not a place to tick hard climbs – I did not finish my main
project for the trip, my motivation was quite low most of the time, I had aches
in my body and oh, did I already mention motivation? Anyway, Tonsai is a nice
place to relax… At least I will remember the New Year of 2011/2012 – we were at
the top of a multipitch when the year changed and looked at the fireworks from
above.
Me and Ben left Tonsai on the 8th of February and
crossed the border to Laos on the 10th (Ben accidentally overstayed
his visa for one day – I had had to go to Malaysia for a visa run so I had
still days left; oh yeah, so I did spend a full day and two night in Penang and
eating myself fat). We had a horrendous 18-hour busride from Krabi to Bangkok,
spent a day there, took a night train to Udonthani, and a bus to Nakhom Phanom
(a little city at the border of Thailand and Laos) and crossed the border to
Laos to a town called Tha Khek by an “International Thailand-Laos bus”.
We have just finished our 2-3 weeks of climbing in Tha Khek
with Joseph, Ashley and Joe’s sister and her boyfriend Phil. I think from
GreenClimbers website you can get a pretty good general idea how the climbing is
like in Thakhek. I might write more about it next time, but now it’s time to
sleep – early wake up call tomorrow!!!
