Thai Reflections

Well now that a few months have passed and I have gained a bit of time off and some travel stories I think it is high time for a travel update.

Upon receiving news that I had a week of pending leave that had to be used up, I simultaneously got an email from Kristen Wurtele declaring her arrival onto the peninsula. She and Patty were hanging in Tonsai, Krabi, Thailand for a climbing vacation. I bought my Ticket and flew out right away to join them. They were in amazing shape after climbing for a weeks already and even training a bit back in Canadia. I however had a bit of a tough time catching up to them but still managed to break through a couple personal bests. I kranked out a couple of the stiff leads rating in at 6c/7a in the French system which is a 5.11b/c By YDS standards. I was sooo stoked, and in great shape when I came back to Thailand. Some of us were doing better than others...

Kristin somehow managed to crank up a 7a "onsite" which means she climbed it clean, on the fist try. Her climbing blew both me and Pat away. She went into everything saying "Unnnhhhhh. I don't think I can do that one" and then climbed them clean again and again.

Patty had a bit of a fever for most of the time I was there. It didn't seem to get in the way much of his climbing too much but sometimes when you are down the world likes to just keep throwing low blows at you. Which can be pretty funny when you aren't the person it is happening to, but it is especially when we are talking about Patty who can make you laugh until you are sore with his self deprecation and his tales of bad luck. While belaying K up a pretty tough climb he managed to pick up a hitchhiker that tagged along all the way up with him to the top of the climb. Pat finished setting up the top anchor and got ready to lower. All at once he started screaming and yelling, "S#!t, F#@K, Lemme Down! Lemme Down!" While he punched his leg and convulsed. "S#!t,S#!t,S#!t" K was on the Catch and dropped him super fast, he scraped against the rock and bounced off it a couple times then hit the ground with a thud. Immediately upon hitting the ground he pulled off his harness and pants. He looked on the ground and found the little bastard that climbed into his pants and started stinging him when he sat down in his harness at the top of the climb. We took pictures of the scorpion for identification sake but it is too blurry to post. (sorry)

The next day we sat in at a table at a bar on the beach that a week prior, a man was seated there had a large snake fall out of a tree onto him. Patty predicted the future a bit when he said, "If a snake fall today, it will land on me. That type of shit always happens to me." Only a few moments into our pineapple chicken salad a big Scorpion crawled out of his salad and onto his plate. "Scorpion!" he states matter of factley as if he knew all along it was going to happen. "See?"

The next night, I walked out into the forest for a funny Photo-op of K Posing on a toilet and I stepped on a nice rusty old nail. Thought of Tetanus and gangrene quickly came front of mind. Patty with his E.M.T. experience and his rapid bandaging and cleaning skills, managed to get me doctored up and ready to climb after only one rest day. It poured blood and was super gross.

A couple of days later while in the bathroom I found a little gecko. They are remarkably quick and not so easy to catch. I did my best but was still only able to catch it's tail. Their tails by the way come off as an defense mechanism something like a distraction. The tail keeps twitching after it falls off. No need to worry though. The tail grows back in a couple weeks. We showed this video to the local Thai guys and they told us that they eat them listing the regenerative properties in the tail as a good source of the magic juice of life that keeps people looking young. I have no idea if they were just pulling our chains or not but I got the impression that people really did eat them.