Walking Mountain Range

Got up early and grabbed some toast for breakfast, as I didn’t have a ton of time before getting picked up for rock climbing. Headed to the reception area and waited for my ride. And waited. And waited. The girl at the desk called and there was no answer. She apologized and suggested that I could go in the afternoon. I arranged that and then tried to figure out what to do with half a day in Krabi. The girl at reception offered me the use of her scooter, but I really couldn’t think of where to go – plus I’m afraid I’ll end up with a broken head.

Headed to the park first, and finished my book. Then I needed another book, so I roamed the streets checking out any shop that sold books. A surprising number actually had English language books. I ran into Eveline’s German friends and talked to them briefly, then headed back to the hostel to make sure I hadn’t missed any bookshops. She told me I had hit the important ones, so I headed back to the biggest one and traded my book in for John Cheever’s short story collection.

At one, I headed back to reception, and waited for my ride to climbing. The owner of the climbing company picked me up and drove me to Ao Nang, where I met up with four Malaysians who would be climbing with me. We took a longtail from Ao Nang to Railay, and met up with our guide for the day. He suited us up with harness and shoes, and we headed to the climbing spot.

There were a few different groups doing some climbs, but there were plenty of routes up the mountain, so it wasn’t so bad. I was reluctant to go first, and one of the Malaysians was eager, so he headed up first on Climb 1. He struggled a bit, but made it to the top. We met another guide, and he took me and one of the Malaysians to climb 2, just a few feet over. The other guy went first, and really struggled, but pushed his way to the top. I was next, and scaled the wall really quick. Was at the top before I knew it.

I did Climb 1 next, and thought it was really easy too. Apparently I’m a natural at scaling rock formations. Who knew?  The Malaysians struggled with the other climbs as well. At climb 3, I got ready to climb, and realized that one of the girls from the other group had planned on doing the climb.

Only me and two others from the full day group were allowed to do climb 4, and it was really the only challenge of the day. It was 30 metres high, and the first 27 metres were pretty easy, but the last 3 were rather problematic. The guide holding my rope below told me to “just go straight”, but I didn’t see anything to grab on to. I pondered for a bit then took a stab at what I thought might be the right way, and managed to make it to the top. There was a little cave that the guide yelled for me to check out, so I hopped in. Really nice view of Railay beach from up there, but my camera was down below.

Headed back to Krabi, and got a pleasant surprise. Jolina and Robin had arrived from Ko Lanta and were waiting for me to get back from climbing. Chatted with them for a bit, and then went to see if Eveline had shown up. I was supposed to meet her at 6, but because I was doing the afternoon climbing, I wasn’t back till 7. I had texted her earlier, but wasn’t sure if she got the message. Thankfully she did, and all her stuff was in the room – but she was nowhere to be seen. As I headed back to see Robin and Jolina, she showed up.

I had a quick shower, and the four of us headed to the night market for a much needed (by me at least) dinner. Had some liver and other stuff on rice, and a banana milk shake, which quieted my stomach.  Looked at some nice handicraft stuff at a store on the main road, then headed back to the guesthouse. Robin and Jolina are staying down the street, so we made plans to meet in the morning.