Doing what I came here to do

View of the ocean from one of the lounging bars

To say that life has shipped either Jackie or me in the direction that we imagined it would is an out right lie.

I had imagined that I would be living it up in Thailand with a stunning and intelligent girl friend as I crushed souls online for maybe 30 hours a week and divided the remainder of my time between scuba diving, rock climbing and creative writing.

It feels like I had stepped up to homeplate aiming for the fences, and then got a signal from the third-base coach (or the man up stairs) to bunt. After two big swings and misses it looks like I finally gave up trying to send one over the fences for this at bat. Instead I just laid a little dribbling bunt down the third-base line to advance the runners.

Currently, I'm eeking by on about half the money that I expected to be making from poker as an editor and putting in about twice the amount of hours. Nonetheless I love my new job, and with Father's Day (The King's birthday on December 5th) and one holiday all ready in the bank Jackie and I were able to slide out of Phuket for a glimpse of the dream I once had . . . deep water soloing (DWS) in Krabi.

Towering islands just beyond Ton Sai's beach as the tide heads out.

Ton Sai, name ring a bell? Yes, after Jackie returned from her stunning trip with her good friend Michelle and told me that it was a climber's paradise, I had no choice but to ship off to those seemingly mythical shores at my first opportunity. It wasn't until the day before we left that Jackie confirmed that she would be joining me on the adventure

With two Cuban cigars, a bottle of decent dark rum and all my climbing gear packed away I was stoked out of my mind for the trip.

The cork of the rum broke off into the bottle so we had to bag -- jankest bottle ever.

Going deep water soloing has been one of my lifetime climbing goals. I think I was originally inspired by youtube videos of rope-free climbers hanging onto cave ceilings above stunningly beautiful water. Or it could have been the poster in Hoosier Heights with some climber beasting it between two stalactites in Vietnam -- either way I was hooked on the dream from the start.

There was a certain pleasure of being able to lean on Jackie for the logistics of the trip, as she'd already made the trip once. (Very rarely do I have the opportunity of having someone show me around.)

The long-tail boat dropped us off right along the small beach of Ton Sai. It was a pirates cove with only a handful of bars poking out onto the beach from the jungle. An enormous cliff face on the south side of the beach was crawling with climbers as they beasted through the steep overhung routes.

Further down the beach the wall became more vertical. Silver bolts sunk into the stunning rock glimmered. Slowly my eyes followed the bolts up and up connecting the dots imagining what "line" to take from clip to clip.

Krabi's famous beach climbing

Stellar climbing, right on the beach, is only minutes away from a cold beer at one of the chill bars

The dirt road, also known as the main drag, was really just a wide hiking path that snaked into the heavy -green foliage of the jungle. After a short trek several unobtrusive buildings came into view, all were well below the forest's canopy. The place felt a little deserted, not what we had expected from high season, but then again it was midday and no doubt most climbers were either on a wall or nursing a hangover.

The "main drag" at night

Bits of rubbish swept off into the jungle, the wooden buildings and rasta style of the place made the entire "town" feel post-apocalyptic. You could imagine that this was a small settlement strapped together by the last survivors.

We booked a small bamboo hut on stilts a little ways up the hill for a good price. The floor boards had gaps big enough for mice to stroll through, not to mention mosquitoes, so we were both thankful for the ample amount of mosquito netting hanging over the bed.

After dinner we booked a DWS trip.

An eleven o'clock departure time left us with a lazy morning, plenty of time for Jackie to clip her nails long-beautiful nails and for us to have coconut shakes on the beach front.

Jackie show's off her beautiful nails before going rock climbing.

When the time came around a load of us scrampled into a long-tail boat with our guide and headed out towards one of the many towering island-skyscrapers dotting the landscape. Jackie and I were both a little nervous about the prospects for the day.

The rock around Ton Sai is breath taking. I should have studied geology, or at least finished my minor in it. My curiosity about the rock formations that decorated the rock walls like prehistoric ornamental hung  by the Titans was insatiable.

I had already been told that the majority of the rock cliffs were limestone, perhaps an ancient coral reef raised out of the ocean over time, but there were so many aspects of the rock formations that didn't seem to fit the simple picture of limestone cave formation. In all honest the walls exposed to the sea really did seem like cross section of enormous cave cathedrals. So there were plenty of stalactites, and flow stone formations, but there were also veins of red that seemed to have cut through the rock and flows of stone that seemed to have burst through the cliff walls leaving smooth tunnels behind them. It looked like a wild assortment of calcite deposits and lava flows.

It was almost painful to pick up the rocks and look at the formation and to know that if I had been able to stick it out through my petrology class I would be able to give names and shape to the history that was written in the rocks. As it was I had to be satisfied with my grossly misinformed hypothesis and was forced to simply remain awestruck by the majestic nature of it all.

Not even the tip of the mineral iceberg, when it comes to rock formations.

The DWSing trip unfortunately seemed to be skewed towards the cliff jumping opportunities rather than more serious rock climbing ones. None the less Jackie and I both got to confront some fears.

The next day we rented a kayak and embarked on our own DWS trip. Good climbing areas were usually marked by ropes that were tied off on a rock formation and hung in the water.

We paddled up to one overhung route at a time. Tenatively I was stand up in the kayak and reach up to the rock or rope. One, two three and I was up. Jackie paddled the kayak out of danger and got out the camera. Even with dry hands I didn't have the strength to make more then a couple bouldering moves before pealing off and splashing out.

It was a thrill, left me aching, and made it clear that if I was serious about climbing a trip to these tough walls a couple times a month (at the very best) just wasn't going to be enough.

Well, shoot is almost looks like I'm a climber as I move away from a series of stalactites around the arete about 8 meters above the water. 

                                                 Going up  . . . . . . . . . . . . one move later . . . . . . . . . . . . . coming down.                                     

The rocks edges were sharper then I realized. I didn't know how many places I was bleeding from until I climbed back in the boat.

Jackie peaking out from behind an enormous stalactite.

Jackie laying out at Freedom Bar.  Jackie flashes the ace of spades while shuffling.

Waiting for coconut shakes at Freedom Bar.

That's Ton Sai for you.

For those closely following the time line this was all before Christmas and New Year's Eve!