Back in Bangkok...

Well this is the first time that I have made a post in quite a few days. We have been traveling down south in the islands this whole time and trying to find an internet connection that is a reasonable price and cheap is a hard thing to do down there. We were on the island of Koh Phi Phi like I told about in my last post and then headed over to Tonsai which is really famous for its rock climbing. Actally to be fair Railey the beach just adjacent to Tonsai is really famous and Tonsai isn't which makes it really nice cause not as many people know about it or bother to go there. From Railey you just have to take a longtail boat for about a 30 second ride around the corner and you're there, stuck in between some of the most beautiful and amazing cliffs I've ever seen. Coming from the climbers perspective this place is paradise with fantastic limestone for multi pitch, sport climbing, and deep water soloing. There is so much rock there that most of it hasn't even been explored yet for good climbing routes. We found a really cool hut back up in the jungle for a great price and threw down there for three days. The mosquitos (or mozzies as our UK counterparts call them) were a little rough back in the jungle but our bed (yes singular for Gray and I again) had a mosquito net over it to keep them off. For some reason I didn't get bit at night but Gray got torn apart...go figure. The first day I met a couple of guys who wanted to do a little deep water solo climbing with me so we got a boat to drive us around for the day and hit up some really good cliffs. Theres nothing like climbing up above the water 30-40 feet or so and then trying to go for a hold, miss it, and fall flailing back into crystal clear warm water.
The rest of the time in Tonsai we rented kayaks and explored the little islands and inlets around the area, did some more good climbing and generally just hung out in this sweet climbing community. I really love finding this little, out of the way places but I know that the more people that hear about how great they are, the more people will try to go there which would ruin the vibe. At this paticular place there had been talk of some big resort coming in cause its such a good place but hopefuly something like that wouldn't happen. I'm crossing my fingers...
After Tonsai we all headed over to Koh Samui and Koh Phangan where we hung out for the full moon. I'm not going to elaborate on this part of the trip but for those of you who want to know details check in with me later...it was a blast. To be brief, the full moon attracts about 30,000 people from all over the globe (mostly Euros and Aussies) to Koh Phangan for celebration and merriment (and thats about all I'll say).
Yesterday our group broke up a bit cause two of people traveling with us are doing some diving on Koh Tao and then going to Sinapore, (we're planning on a reunion in Vietnam) so the group is down to six. We jumped on a boat from Koh Phangan to Chumpon, which is back on the mainland, for a horrific, four hour ride. The seas were so rough that about half the boat was loosing their lunches over the side the entire ride. At one point I nearly missed being hit in the head by a wall of half eaten Pad Thai (I'm only guessing) from the deck above. Fortuneatly Gray and I have enough sea legs in us that we weren't too bothered by it and actually caught some sleep but for others it was pretty bad. Once in Chumpon we caught a bus for the ten hour ride into Bangkok, arriving at 4:30 this morning.
The plan is to be here for the next two days and then Sunday night we're taking the train up north to Chaing Mai. At this point since our plans have already changed so much (we had planned on being north about a week and a half ago) we're really playing everything by ear. When you're staying at a guesthouse or hostel you just meet people and start discussing where everyone is going. Someone might through out an idea of going here or there and if you're up for it you just go. I tend to like it that way...Well thats all for now. Hope to hear back from some of you. If anyone wants to get a hold of me personally the best way is emailing me at ian.schlieder@gmail.com. Hope everyone is doing well and just remember its about 85 degrees over here...