Bangkok

So  finally I was in BK, a huge teeming city, with market after market, tuk tuk drivers shouting you down every few mins if you want a lift, food stall holder offering all manner of food, from pad thai to deep fried scorpion.

before arriving I had been warned about tuk tuk drivers trying to scam me, so I thought I would be OK, however they very nealry caught me out!

I was doing my usual wandering around a new place to get my bearings when I came to an government tourist box, where I got a map.  As I headed out I was studying the map as walking, after a few mins I was about to fold the map away, when I was approached by a bloke who was walking alongside me.  "

"where would you like to go?"

So followed a  brief  conversation where he told me which of the best temples, when to go, and how to get there.  He even told me today was national buddha day (should have rung alarm bells, but this guy was good) so fuel was cheap so could get good deals on Tuktuks, especially government  authorised  yellow ones.  Then he carried on talking about other temples, and the first bell was when he said I should also go to the Thai Factory as they had amazing sale on as it was  Buddha day, and then he says he will get me a Tuktuk, waves the first one he see down, which happen to be yellow...  he then quickly speaks to the driver dropping a few  English words for my benefit and then says bye and walks off.  By this time I was sure it was a scam so i made my hasty retreat.

The rest of my time was made up of sight seeing and dinning on street food, which as always was pretty incredible.  After a few days I had made new plans on where to head, the old capital of Siam (Now Thailand) Ayuthaya and then the national park of Khao Yai

Journey to Bangkok & Kanchanaburi (or Bridge over the river Kwai)

I had booked my ticket through my guest house, an overnight sleeper to Bangkok should take 12 hours.  In Thailand they have a certain way they transport tourists around, pretty sure its to make them spend as much money as possible, as you get transfered from one waiting area to another all of which sell drinks and food, in total I went on 7 different buses before getting on the main bus!  This bus was slightly delayed as it was caught in a massive rubber farmer strike closing of the one and only highway!!

As soon as I got to Bangkok I made my way to the bus terminal, a massive sprawling, multi level station with markets scattered throughout and got on a bus headed to Kanachaburi teh site of the bridge made famous in the bridge over the river Kwai.

The town was a lot more gritty then anywhere I had been so far, lots of bars, lots of 40 - 70 year old male Europeans hanging around, and they didnt strike you as they where here for the memorial sites!

The bridge was quite a sight, with still bullet hole damage from when the Yank planes had strafed it.

Attached to the bridge is a museum called Jeath war museum dedicated to those that lost there lives in the construction of the Railway line (Japan, England, Australia/America, Thailand & Holland).  This museum is very strange but at the same time very Thai.  It is dedicated to those that dies a huge number being Thais, however the part dedicated to the Death Rail line is very small, in fact as you head up the stairs from the main  exhibition  hall you come to a room dedicated to the costumes worn by the Mrs Asia... strange, but as I said very thai trying to make one place a jack of all.

Inside the main chamber there was quite a  eerie collection.  A lareg casket which held the bones of those they couldn't ID, and on top two skeletons of prisoners.  As you looked at the remains of these people you couldn't help but think about the people they use to be, their lives, hopes dream and who they had left behind, and great sadness as you could only imagine that there last remain days would have been filled full of fear and pain, you can only hope that they where  surrounded by the friends they had main in camp...

On my route to here I had met two other ex service guys.  We headed out after visiting the graves to have a couple of drinks and to raise our glasses to those that had lost there lives and to the Royal Marines as it was the 28th Oct.

These two guys, really nice and very well intentioned, and we all had a good night, ending up with a group of local youngster for drinks.  Both served numerous tours of Ireland and I think it had a huge effect on there lives.  They both where now in pretty successful jobs in there 40s, but where doing full moon parties, and heavly partaking in the sex industry by the sounds pretty much every night.  But when they spoke about it, they said they didnt want to continue but some need kept them going back.

I had thought of maybe staying longer, but I was ready to head on so I jumped on the bus back to BK.

Railay & Tonsai

Railey is part of the main land of Krabi Provence, but is cut of by cliffs, so the only way to get there is by longtail boat.  These cliffs make it a climbing mecca, with 1000s of bolted routes ranging from novice to expert, towering from 10m climbs all the way up 200, 300, 400 meters!!  On the boat I caught from Krabi, there was a large group of English teachers from Hat Yai, one of them had done a bit of climbing before, me him and another German guy called Stephan said we would head of climbing the next day.  Raileys main draw as said is the climbing, but like many Thai areas it is set up for the beach bum as well, with bars, cafes, restaurants, shops and beach lodging, however this was not our final destination to get to Tonsai we now needed to catch another longtail to this beach. 

Tonsai is so new and isolated that there are no power lines yet and everything is powered of generators which means we only had power between 10pm and 6am (just for the fan at night)

 The heavy Downpour

Me and two guys who where climbing plus we picked up another bloke called John from Oz in the bar decided to head over to Railey to have a look around (you can get between the two areas when the tide is low).  As we where wondering through the shops and bars we got caught in a heavy downpour and took shelter in a bar for a quick beer or two.  However by the time the rain stopped, the tide had come back in and night had fallen :-/ Only one way back a trip across the spine of the cliffs, through the jungle... in the dark... along a route none of us knew!! All I can say is thank god for smart phones!! Torch and compass, the journey was an scramble along muddy tracks, up and down the side of the cliffs only illuminated by our phone torches, and to make matters worse Pete the English teach, flip flop snapped with in a few mins of the journey so he had to make the rest of the journey in barefoot :-/

The next morning the 4 of us got up early, hired some equipment and headed to the cliffs.  Pete had been telling us all night before how his Dad was an incredible climber and how he had taught him how to climb.  As the most experienced he did the first lead climb, however I think he may have exaggerated his experience and I don't think he had faith in his belayer as he got up relatively easy, but when it came to swap ropes so we could top rope he would not rest his weight on the harness which meant it took a considerable toll on his strength physical and mental.

 We all then went up and had a go on this climb, and then John thought he would have a go at lead climbing, and he picked a 6a climb pretty tough climb to lead for a beginner.  However in pretty quick order if not the prettiest climbing he got up to the penultimate clip in, and just couldn't quite get to it.  And he did try, taking three falls with him crashing into the cliff wall before saying he couldn't grip anymore with his hands, truly great effort!

However we had the rope still up there someone had to top rope it before we could get it down, so next Stephan stepped up, not climbed before but done a lot of bouldering!  Again he got as far as John, but the reason he had stuck to bouldering is he didn't like heights, so he came down as well.  So next my turn, I scramble up... again like John not the prettiest or technical climbing, deciding to conserve my strength for the last bit.  Doing a lead climb is quite different then top rope, if you make a mistake, you will fall 4-6 foot before the rope stops you, and you will crash into the wall.  So I could see what you needed to do, however my elvis legs where creating quite the problem.  Taking a deep breath I wedged my toe in a little toe hole, wedges my hand in a long crack a levered myself up slowly to the hook... I gingerly reached around and hooked myself in WOOHOO I was in.

 All I had to do now was tie myself on, untie the rope that had held me on the way up and loop it through.  Now I really got nervous, I had never done this before should have properly practiced more on the ground... If I got this wrong when I unlatched myself I would plummet to the ground 14 meters!!! Enough to hurt!  I did the know, double checked it, and unhooked... Pheeew! I had done it right!

What a great day!  For the evening we all headed to the Chillout bar (recommended by B from Lipi) , awesome reggae bar with live reggae band.  Half the bar chilling stoned out of there brains, the other half drinking cold beers. 



The next day time for a move again this time quick stop at Au Nang then onto Kohn Lanta...