In the interest of actually posting something before I am off to the next country I'll attempt to be brief and actually finish this. I am sure there will be plenty of nice stuff I am leaving out, but as they say the perfect is the enemy of the good - or maybe posting something ok is better than posting nothing better.
We flew into BKK the 23rd and met up with Tee (a friend from Sam and Raquel's previous trip here). He kindly allowed us to stay in his condo in Bangkok which was very handy - thanks Tee. In Bangkok we climbed at the gym (fun but hot), did some acrobatic training, played in pools, ate delicious food and caught up and laughed with friends, and packed for Chiang Mai.
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| Tee met us in BKK and supported us in many ways |
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| playing with underwater acro lets Raquel base head to hand |
We took the train up to Chiang Mai partly because of all the stuff we were taking. There we climbed at Crazy Horse (fun but hot overhanging tufa limestone climbing - we were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day). We also played at a park where we (and others) had slacklines up and did acro and juggling. We were also joined by Matt and Kristin who will be joining us for the rest of the YogaSlackersTAO tour (Tour of Asia and Oceania).
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| fun steep climbing at Crazy Horse - I think this was rated 6c |
Next up was the 2nd Annual YogaSlackers Thailand Retreat. This passed in a blur of yoga, slacklining, acroyoga, conditioning, therapeutics, talking, eating, photography, photoprocessing and uploading, fun, and not nearly enough sleep. I was a little frustrated by my injured wrist but it only really stopped me from a few things. It was a great group of amazing and talented individuals and I think we all improved our skills.
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| fisheye group pic from a tree |
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| fisheye fun |
There are heaps more pics available from the retreat. I'll try to get the link for them here at some point.
After the retreat we had another day of climbing at Crazy Horse - less steep tufa stuff but we did a better job of staying out of the worst of the heat. Then there was a scooter excursion to a waterfall and more play in the park, delicious and fun dinners and prep for Koh Lanta.
After the retreat last year most people wanted more time to play, so this year it was actually organized and 16 people from the retreat plus one from last year and another we recruited in Chiang Mai came down for a week of fun. But first we had to get there. We packed up the night before carefully weighing our bags. Then we had to get up before 4 am to get to the airport on time and no coffee places were open - so we weren't firing on all cylinders. In any case we were wrong about our carefully planned baggage allowance and checked the bag we should have taken as a carry on through first. An expensive mistake. Meanwhile I remembered to pack my pocket knife in the checked bag but not my leatherman. DOH. They let me take it back out of security in the hopes I could get someone else from our group to check it but I was too late. I stashed it in a flowerpot and took pics.
Later I was able to send a mission to reclaim it to Nalumon who came the next day. YAY.
In Koh Lanta we recovered from our early morning before assembling at the beach for some play (there was enough surf for some SUP surfing fun) as well as the sunset. The water was wonderfully warm so it wasn't traumatic to get in at all. I kept bracing for cold water but it was like getting into a mild bath. Cool enough to be refreshing when you got out but warm enough to stay in as long as you wanted without getting chilled.
This week too passed in a blur of sun, water, slacklines, sunsets, photos, climbing, laughter, food, boats, scooters, and only barely more sleep.
Almost every day had some sort of excursion. We started out with a longline on Secret (I think) beach. This was the full 270 feet of enlightenment line we had and was rigged high to try to keep Eric from grounding out in the middle (which still failed). I think it was about 10 feet at the anchor. I scooted a bit before I started and managed to walk a fair portion of it (maybe 1/3 my best go). It was a lot of work for not very much distance. That night we were soaked by a rainstorm.
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| Matt on the longline |
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| Eric captures the magic too early in the morning |
The next excursion was a long-tailed boat ride to some islands where we used a good portion of our toys - 2 packrafts, slacklines, the inflatable SUP, snorkel gear, pfds, etc. The water wasn't all that clear but there were lots of fish. I didn't do particularly well on the waterlines but it was fun to try. We wanted to set up another longer waterline but decided to bail partway into the operation so we would have time for another location. This was an island that had a cave leading into a central opening. Luckily the tide was out so we had plenty of clearance. I wished I could have had my good camera with the fisheye inside for pics but I didn't bring it. We marveled at the scenery and took a bunch of acro group pics before swimming back through. When we got out it was pouring rain. At this point the seawater felt warmer than the air. At some point on the ride back we got a bit cold, but that didn't last.
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| we used most of our toys - packrafts, SUP, slacklines, snorkel gear... |
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| heading back in the rain |
We followed this trip up with a speedboat trip to Koh Ha for snorkeling. The water was clearer but not super clear. There were plenty of fishes and some tridacnids (giant clams). Sadly I didn't see the school of squid that others did or the swimming eel, but I saw another moray and lots of stonefish and other cool stuff. I was having a hard time equalizing my ears though so diving down was painful if I didn't pinch my nose and blow and sometimes that didn't work. Normally if I stick out my jaw and wiggle my ears it does the trick so this was new and annoying. The park service boat showed up and shook us down for the admission fee. Evidently you are supposed to pay this but it is sporadic enough that nobody collects it ahead of time. At least we had enough cash between us all to pay it.
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| Sam snorkels with his Tilley hat |
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| Nalumon floats in the sea |
We were delayed a bit on our trip back by an engine not starting - mai pen rai. There was a nice low rainbow over the beach as we returned.
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| it was windy in the front of the speedboat |
The next day was more restful with a morning of catching up with media followed by a slackline/beach afternoon with another gorgeous sunset.
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| a heap of peeps at the YogaSlackers Koh Lanta adventure |
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| Tash and the boot base Raquel |
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| Nalumon walks the mid-line |
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| SUP acro action |
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| Matt and Kristin with SUP sunset acro |
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| and falling in - nice splash |
Next up was a painfully early morning start to Ao Nang and a long-tailed boat ride past Railay/Tonsai (where I spent a good bit of time in 2010 and 2002) to Poda Island for deep water soloing. I was a bit worried about how this would go with my glasses, but I wore my old rose tinted sunglasses that I am not as concerned about losing or destroying and covered my face when I splashed down. In any case it was a lot more fun than I expected. I opted to wear my nice Evolv shoes rather than the provided blown out old shoes. They worked quite well despite repeated soakings. I started out dry which was nice, although the holds were wet from others. First a lowish traverse before I headed up. I opted to jump off from 20 or 25 feet rather than go higher. That wasn't so bad so the next time I went up a good bit higher - maybe up to 60 feet? I don't know, some Thai guy jumped from there. I downclimbed a bit before plummeting but it was still very high and I hit the water hard. I mostly went into mental free-soloing mode once I got high and only had a few uncontrolled falls mostly quite low. There was some fun steep stuff as well as easier tufa climbing. Then we had a break for lunch and to see some large monitor lizards.
After lunch we went to another nearby spot. This featured hard wet steep climbing off the water or easier but high climbing. I did one circuit around the high easy stuff but downclimbed to the bottom of a stalactite before dropping off. Then after a try on the steep stuff I did another traverse fairly high above the sea. The sun came back out and I was sweating pretty hard on some slopey holds. I managed not to fall, but it was a close thing in a few places. Others climbed more or less. The Thai guide had everything wired and jumped from way up high. IT was Caleb's first time climbing and he did quite well. Then we returned for the long trip back. I found a shower in Ao Nang and was able to shower and rinse my shoes before the shuttle bus back to Koh Lanta.
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| Tash watches us climb about |
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| this is about as high as I went - Caleb rocking it below me |
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| dangling from the stalactite before... |
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| ...dropping into the sea |
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| traversing across while Brent looks on |
We had one more full lazy day in Koh Lanta and then a day to pack up and travel to Bangkok for the Bankok Acro Convention.
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| what we really do - catching up on the internets |
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| taking the shuttle bus to the airport |
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| there is never enough ketchup with this crew |
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| Krabi airport acro conditioning |
At the Bangkok Acro Convention I met a bunch of cool acro peeps and learned a bunch of new skills and refined some things I had learned before. We also saw Star Wars episode 7 in 4d - that means 3d glasses plus the seats shook and bumped you as well as wind, wind puffs in your ears (mostly synched with blaster fire), smoke, strobes, and I think smell too although I didn't really notice it.
Then we had another day of hanging out, packing, playing in the pool, and saying goodbye to various people that we had been having fun with for the previous 3 weeks or so. Finally we got everything packed and headed to BKK for the next leg - on to New Caledonia.
