Now if you have ever seen the movie The Hangover, I think you can imagine how this day started. After sleeping only about 5 hours both of us were awake, feeling as you can imagine, bright eyed and bushy tailed. We drank an ungodly amount last night. It was arguably the most fun day and night id had my whole trip. Me and Hannah woke up feeling way to good, we went and got breakfast at the lounge. As always it was great, I really do love Japanese scrambled eggs on rice.
I think it was on the way back down from the lounge when we both realized we were totally still drunk from the night before. The headache I had in that moment could split a mountain. We were dying from here out, we went back to the room, called and got late check out and went back to bed. From several more hours being horizontal, we were feeling still woefully unprepared to embark on the 1.5 hour journey to the airport.
Well we did it with a little more swearing than normal, a few dry heaves and only a tiny argument. We had a wee bit of a hassle with checking our bags, as we bought these wizard robes that weighed like 2 kgs each. There was a bit of emergency rummaging, and a bunch of gratitude to past me who packed a spare plastic bag incase we needed to board with anything to make weight. We almost just wore the robes in the airport. From there we decided to get sushi, It was the last chance to stuff ourselves before flying home.
Well let me say, I never trust airport food. Ever. Its never very good and its always really expensive. Well all other airport food is not in Japan. We had arguably the best sushi of the trip in the airport, waiting for our flight. It wasn’t that expensive and it was just so bleeding good.
After our sushi we went and waited for the flight, it went off without a hitch. Hannah found us some ice cream in a pouch, that was weird, but good, but very weird. Sucking ice cream? That is just plain weird. Hannah hates flying and was asleep for most of the flight back, I on the other hand can never sleep well after I’ve been drinking. I slept for like an hour on our 8 hour flight back. We arrived at just after 9 am in Vancouver, on the same day we left. Man the past sucks, I liked going into the future.
Today I woke up at 5am to go meet James the tour guide, to ride motos, climb mountains, and check out cool temples. I’m not gonna write too much today as I have so many awesome photos and I am feeling a little under the weather. So today is gonna be a little different format than usual.
Me and James traveled from Siem Reap, to Kulen mountain today. We stopped at I think about 6 culturally significant sites on the way. The route to Kulen is about 1.5 hours long but because we were touring and James decided we should off road our Shitty motos through sandy farm roads. we Arrived at Kulen mountain 6.5 hour after we left.
When we actually got to the mountain we were greeted by some new Mine fields that weren’t there a year ago as James explained, they just keep finding new ordinance in the area. As this was a Khmer Rouge stronghold during the war.
laterite quarry, where the laterite for Angkor Wat was excavated.
So the big highlight of the day was Rappelling off of kulen mountain to the base of the sandstone cliffs lining the mountain. After rappelling though, we had to climb back up. Now as a side note here, there is no bolts or routes at all in this area. So when I say we made our own route up, we literally picked a spot and James free solo’d the the first 25 feet. from there we had anchor spots and we traversed across some sand stone ledges to a bat cave that James had found on a previous trip up to this area. It was a super cool experience.
Carvings for the king stretch all the way down the river for over a kilometer.Off roading Motos through burnt farmers fields, this was surreal.In Kulen valleyI think this temple is called banteay mu cheay, it was by far the coolest Angkorian site i’ve visited
On the way back to Siem Reap from Kulen, I had a very very near miss with a pickup truck with only one headlight. Here in Cambodia bikes and Motos are the most populous thing on the road, so one headlight means its a moto. It was dusk, it is always smoky at dusk here, and I was over taking a semi truck in the oncoming lane. When I realized the situation I was in, I slammed on my breaks. Now when your on a Moto going 90kph and you lock your breaks, the bike wants to slide out from under you. I planted both my feet to right the bike, and smashed on the throttle, still doing about 80 and swung in behind the semi truck. The pickup passed me as I was swerving into safety. It missed me by about 0.1 seconds, the drivers here don’t stop. It is the wild wild east. This is by far the closest I’ve ever come to a life ending crash ever on a bike or in a vehicle. It scared me to my core. Its the only time I’ve ever had my life flash before my eyes. After a brief minute to catch my breath on the side of the road and to check and see if there was indeed any shit in my pants. We continued the drive back to Siem Reap with no further incident.
This is a sandstone quarry where the blocks for Angkor wat were cut fromJust casually driving by a Minefield, no big deal.
Now I haven’t spoken too much about the food today or showed pictures as the food we ate today was literally nothing to write home about. I didn’t have a single meal that was notable.
Off the top of Mt KulenSandstone cliffs over KulenRappelling down Mt KulenPosing on a rock ledge, you can tell I was Laughing at myself.Trees are always in.Climbing up a chimney in the caveInside the bat cave, you can see all the lose pieces of sandstone that make up this cave
I am actually writing this in the morning of my 21st day as when I got back last night I immediately passed out. 13 hours of hard riding and constant sun will do that too you. Today I leave Cambodia and the shitty Khmer food behind to head to Bali. Who ever told me the food was better here than Thailand was full of shit.
Hanging out at Kulen mountainMe and James after successfully ascending Back on top of KulenSunset over Mt Kulen
Even After that close call this was one of my favorite days of this trip, Big shout out to James at Kingdom Climbers for showing me around on a private tour of his favorite spots.
What a friggen day!, Today started early. Even for me, purposely getting up at 5am is a chore. If your dragged out of sleep for any other numerous reasons its not such a big deal, but doing it willingly. Bleggh. Anywho I quickly did my morning routine, as I was messaging my climbing guide James.
20 minutes after our arranged meeting time, James arrived with his assistant bouhd, and the other climber who joined us last minute. Her name was Mai she’s from Japan. Originally this was going to be a private guided tour, but only because no one else was with me. So having Mai join us just saved me $80 American which is great.
I hopped in James’s truck and off we sped about 1.5 hours north west of Siem Reap to a little town that I can not remember the name of. Breakfast and lunch were included in the tour which was awesome. We stopped at a locals restaurant and all us got a Cambodian staple of fried pork and rice served with clear soup and some pickled vegetables. It was delicious.
After fueling up we headed to the first crag which was up on top of one of the small Cambodian mountains (hills). It required a short hike through some nasty thorns and very slippery dry leaves. When we got there, the crag was much smaller than I expected especially after climbing in Thailand. One of the walls we climbed in Thailand had 28 routes on it, And I believe there is only 25 bolted routes in all of northern Cambodia. The limestone here is incredibly sharp and ruins your fingers, but the climbs were very unique to the area. Which is exactly what I’m looking for as I climb across Asia.
After 4 routes we headed to town for lunch. On the way to lunch James insisted on getting fresh coconuts to drink which I was all game for having not had one on this trip yet. We went back to the same restaurant as breakfast, I had Khmer fried noodles and an omelet with a grape Fanta to wash it down. It was also delicious.
After lunch we went to a crag that not even James the guide had climbed before, usually he only does half day trips to one crag. I had requested a full day as I didn’t want to drive 3 hours and climb 3 hours, to me that made no sense. This second crag was actually right in a Buddhist temple compound, and it required us to hike up through the temple grounds to a bluff that hung above the temple. It was pretty unreal. So cool thing about climbing in Cambodia, basically no one does. We were as James put it, probably the only climbers to climb this crag in the last decade.
We were joined by a rambunctious group of monkeys who desperately wanted the bushel of bananas we brought with us. Basically to me, monkeys are the raccoons of Asia. Opportunistic, smart as hell, and an absolute pest when you have their favorite food just sitting right there. To appease our friends we did give them some bananas. And it was adorable.
After a few more climbs we packed up and drove through the Cambodian countryside, to try and catch the sunset at a viewpoint that James had told me the name of but I’ve forgotten. We ran out of time to go there and as a second option we went to the Bakar reservoir, that the Angkorians built some 1000 years ago. It is truly baffling what this ancient society was able to accomplish with the technology of their time. The reservoir is absolutely massive, and its connected to Angkor Wat and all the surrounding area by an intricate web of canals. It was an awesome way to finish todays climbing tour.
James is actually a Canadian expat who’s lived in Cambodia for the past three years, so me and him talked all day long and it was nice hanging out with a fellow countryman for the day. It truly helped easy the little bit of homesick I’ve been feeling. We tried this Cambodian fried snack that came in a bag on the drive back, that looked like churros but was crunchy. That shit is dangerous, watch out. There is no nutrition labels and its a good thing, I could live on that stuff. We got these “sesame churro crunchy cheetos” I called them in a town that James calls “Chip Town”. Aptly named such as it seemed that every single stall on both sides of the road for more then a kilometer sold chips and fried snacks. Apparently its very common for artisans of a specific type to all be in one area here in Cambodia. There is also “Statue Town” which just sells statues of all shapes and sizes. Which also was over a kilometer of just statue stalls. Such a wild concept to me.
I could write a giant book about the Angkor society, and its marvels. But alas, I am tired and having even wrote about what I had for dinner yet. Like most Asian countries I’ve visited, street food is very popular here. Tonight I had fried pork on rice with an omelet and the biggest fucking coconut I’ve ever seen. This behemoth held over a liter of coconut water. and it weighed about 6lbs. For dessert I had mixed fruit, It was all scrumptious.
Just some bones we found.
Tomorrow is Temple day 2 and I am armed with a bit more information than day 1. I am hoping to find some temples that have not been restored or cleared for tourists. James sent me some locations on maps so I am pumped. Till tomorrow.
Adjective, Climbing sensibly And realistically, In a practical manner.
Today was a very good day, I started my day with my normal routine here in Railay, of hiking down the steps and going on a 2 km walk to the beach for a swim, calling home to my friends and family, and doing a nice 30 minute stretch.
The fuzz ball that greets me every morning on my walk.
When all that was complete I went and got some breaky at the breakfast buffet, just a few “hotels” over. I met up with Natalie shortly after breakfast and we headed over to west Railay to catch a longtail boat to Ao Nang to climb the North Wall. I really don’t care for the town of Ao Nang in the slightest, it is incredibly busy and ultra touristy and the boat mafia are just annoying trying to scam you into paying more to cross on the boats every damn time.
That being said the North wall was something out of a story book. After a brisk 35 minute walk through town we got to the crag and we were all in awe. What an insanely cool piece of limestone cliff, without a doubt in my mind it is the coolest crag I have ever climbed
This route was arguably the best route I’ve ever climbed outdoor.Me climbing Natalie (6b)
The North Wall consists of 4 separate crags, we focused on an incredible section called Life of Leif. I don’t think I can stress enough just how rad of a spot this was. The creme de la creme of climbing walls, In the shade all day, super unique Tufas and giant rock curtains. Just epic.
Furry crag rocksNatalie after completing her first 6b route, funny enough this route is named Natalie.
After climbing for several hours, all of us got in a few routes. we packed up and headed into town for some lunch, as we reached the edge of town the heavens decided to open up and just started raining the fattest rain drops I have ever seen, I’m talking toonie sized raindrops. Thankfully we were only steps away from a restaurant called Papaya, little did we know that mother nature just made an excellent choice for us, as we ducked under the cover of the tin of their tin roof to escape the fury she just unleashed on the world.
Papaya is an Indian/Thai fusion restaurant and it was absolutely deadly, I ordered a chicken panang curry and a side of cheese stuffed naan bread. Maybe there is a pattern forming here as I had curry and roti last night, Anywho it was the best panang curry I’ve ever had. The combination of cheesy naan and spicy creamy panang is just delectable.
After lunch we said goodbye to Andrew and Cal as they were heading to their respective hostels and me and Natalie walked back to the beach to catch a boat. well funny enough as soon as we sat down at the dock under a big flat leafed tree, mother nature decided to try and piss all over our parade again but that tree was water proof and we stayed dry. After what felt like ages we got on the boat and headed back.
On the boat ride back one of the passengers would not shut up, singing and shouting and acting belligerent as heck, its one of the things that turns me off about this whole area. If I didn’t come here to climb I wouldn’t come, tourists suck. Especially ones that are tripping balls on mushrooms and day drunk out of their minds. After 15 aggravating minutes of convincing myself not to throw this guy off the boat we landed back at Railay.
After a big day of climbing and an unexpected rain storm I was so sticky and gross and the ocean was definitely calling to me. We quickly ditched our gear on the beach and jumped in. Now Natalie, I’m finding out is an absolute fitness addict. Apparently we had different ideas about what going for a swim meant, as soon as Natalie hit the water she took off like a rocket swimming out to the boundary buoys. Now I have an irrational fear of swimming in water where I cant see the bottom, so to me a “swim” is just fucking around in the ocean in a depth that I can see the bottom. But in a situation where you agreed to go swimming with someone lines of what’s acceptable may need to be moved, so I swam out with her. Fuck that shit scares the hell out of me. Anyways we swam the 150 meters out to the boundary and then headed back, swimming is hard. It was a pretty great experience as I haven’t swam that far in I don’t know how long and it felt great.
After our swim we said our goodbyes as she wanted to sit on the beach and watch the sunset, and I headed back to my “hotel” to drop my gear and get ready for dinner. I went to dinner at The Corner restaurant, I’ve walked past this place so many times and they always have the most delicious rotisserie chicken cooking near the street. To be honest it was not that notable and my most expensive meal to date on this trip, however I did get the protein fix I’ve been craving the last few days of intensive exercise
When I ordered cashew salad I didn’t think it would be all cashews
Today was the last day the four of us were climbing together as tomorrow Andrew is flying back to London, Natalie is flying to Hanoi Vietnam, and Cal is flying to Chiang Mai. What an incredible experience this past 4 days has been with this group of strangers I am now honored to call my friends.
This banana Oreo shake was amazingThis chicken was super tender but very under seasoned.
All in all it was a very big awesome day and I’m exhausted, tomorrow is a rest day and I am going to get a tattoo done by a local artist. I cant wait. I don’t think my feet could do another climbing day, as I am also climbing in Siem Reap in two days.
Today is day 3 of my 5 day stay here in Railay beach. There is a definite reason I came back here. The climbing and climbing community here is just incredible. I truly do love it here, with all the tourists and shitty accommodations aside. This place is fucking paradise.
I started my day with a wander down the stairs to west beach, which is a beautiful quiet 1.75 km walk early in the morning. I nice dip in the ocean really does fix a lot of ailments. After my morning routine I met up with my climbing crew, and we trekked over to Tonsai beach to sample some delights from the other side.
I have found this cat each morning on my walk to the beach lounging in some epic position, Todays was something only a cat could love. Pure contentment right there folks.
Someway somehow I have become the “leader” of this rag tag ensemble, which is not something I planned nor wanted, but I guess because i am the guy with the equipment and the climbing book the decisions of where to climb and when have fallen on me. Today like every other day this trip, I flipped through my guide and picked a random crag wall on the map.
Iguana park was the name of this particular crag, which sadly we did not see any iguanas. But it was definitely something, let me tell you the book does not accurately state exactly the approaches to these climbing walls (how to get there). Iguana park was situated up a sketchy 3m bamboo ladder, then about a 50 meter scramble up into the jungle off the beach. I cant emphasize enough how sketchy the approach was. I guess it pays to be adventurous sometimes because we were the only ones there, and it looked like nobody had been there for a while.
It was secluded away from the crowds, out of the sun all day. And it had some really unique climbs from what we have already climbed here. we climbed for several hours there and were able to tackle four routes each, which is a really good number when you have 4 climbers to one rope. As an added bit of entertainment, if you took a fall you would swing into the trees . Which had us all giggling like children. It was an awesome little wall.
This 6b route on Iquana Park was very tricky and so friggin sharp on my fingies.
At about 3pm we were all spent and hungry so we went down to Tonsai beach to the sea view club for some food, The food was great. I had a Drunken holy basil fried noodle with chicken, which has been my favorite dish of this trip. I think I’ve had it about a dozen times. From lunch I said goodbye to my friends and hiked the 3km back to my “hotel”. I’m gonna be a fair bit fitter after this portion of my trip, Hiking, climbing, and these fucking stairs are already having an effect on my body.
After a brief reprieve in my room with the ac blasting, I went to mangrove restaurant for some BBQ chicken and a curry. Sadly they were out of chicken, but the green curry paired with fried roti was absolutely to die for. I’ve never had roti of any kind before, and this was an excellent first try. Although my food was super inexpensive, and super tasty, the portion was really small. So I left kind of hungry. Off a tip from a fellow climber I did something I swore to never do in Asia, I went and got a burger.
A WESTERN BURGER, I pride myself in trying to immerse myself in the cuisine of the country I am traveling In. But sometimes exceptions have to be made, especially when you’ve already sat in a restaurant for an hour and just want something quick. The lady making the burgers was out on the path in front of her mini mart with a double burner and two frying pans. Lets just say I didn’t expect much from my beef burger with American cheese and a fried egg, which I paid 4 dollars for. Well shiver my fucking timbers, I’m sure it tasted good, because I inhaled that damn thing and almost went back for another. I am usually very skeptical of tips from other travelers as some people have absolute shit taste in food (especially Americans, no offense but its true), but this was a damn good simple as could be burger. AND she had mayo, which was impressive as its not a usual condiment here in Thailand. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm it was a great way to polish of the night.
All in all it was a great day. Tomorrow I am catching a boat to Ao nang to climb the north wall which looks absolutely insane in the guide book. It will be the last day the four of us climb together as Andrew is leaving back to London on Saturday. I am very happy to have met him as I think we are going to plan a climbing trip to Madagascar next year together, and It has just been truly effortless to hang out with him. I am going to read a bit now and go to bed. To all my my four readers I wish you a great day, as I’m pretty sure the suns about to come up in a few hours back home.
P.s The name of this post came from me starting to read “Eat Pray Love” today. Which has been great so far, you should read it.
Today I woke up realizing I may have been just a little heated to be writing my blog last night. Alas the past is past. By the way my room still sucks, but I digress. I came to Railay beach for one singular purpose, and that was to climb until my arms fell off or I died of heat stroke. And today I completed day 1 in a fabulous kind of way.
In other news, Thai tea is soooo good.
Back in Vancouver 11 days ago I met a stranger walking through the international departures waiting area with a pair of climbing shoes hanging off his bag. My spidey sense tingled a bit as I imagined the only place he’d be going to would be Thailand so as I had some hours to kill I went up and started a conversation with him. Ends up I was right on the nose. His name was Kal and he was from Toronto, flying to Thailand with no idea if there was climbing or where it was. We hit it off immediately and ended up chatting for about 40 minutes as we waited for our respective flights. I shared to him all the limited knowledge I had of the Thai climbing scene and we exchanged whatsapp info in the off chance our paths might cross in the future. Well sure as shit he happened to book a room in Krabi on my recommendation that it was the place to be for climbing here. Just a short ferry from me, in the same timeframe that I’m in Railay. he reached out the other night and we ended up connecting today and climbing a half day together. It was such a cool traveling happenstance and just another reminder that a stranger truly is just a friend you haven’t met yet.
Just stretching my legs starting the 6b+ at The Diamond Cave wall.
As I am traveling solo through SEA, I put out a bunch of feelers on multiple area specific Facebook groups when I was leaving Canada. That tree bore some fruit as a super cool gent from Poland Named Andrew sent me a DM and we also connected today. The 3 of us climbed together, which was totally epic. Andrew just happens to be in the Krabi area the exact same days as me so we are gonna climb together every day. Also he is almost the same weight as me which makes belaying much easier and safer for the both of us (its rare if I ever meet any climbers close to or the same size as me).
Andrew belaying Me.Me and my new friend Andrew after a couple post climb Mango fruit shakes.
Speaking of happenstance. I was walking to get some dinner from Family Thai restaurant tonight, and I literally bumped into Natalie. A super dope climber who I climbed with in Chiang Mai last week who is from the UK. We chatted for a bit and ended up grabbing dinner together. I seem to be collecting climbers as tomorrow is now a foursome. She is quite a bit below the level of climber the rest of us are, but that is the beauty of climbing and the climbing community. It does not matter your level its the joy of the sport that brings people together. Especially in places like Thailand where most people are who come to climb are solo travelling.
Me getting close on that 6b+ 30m route.
I ended up climbing for like 7 hours, It was a fantastic day. I made new friends, ate some pretty great food (that I took no photos of) and almost forgot how much of a rotten fish dumpster fire my room is. One thing I got to say, which was unexpected. The 122 stairs to my “hotel” are a great warm up to a day of climbing. My ass looks great. I climbed that 122 steps like 5 times today.
A monkey, He is laughing at how much of a joke my hotel is.
P.s Fuck this hotel, my room is totally infested with ants. I am going to have to cleanse all my gear and bags as I leave here and Travel to Cambodia.
A frog I decided to run after and catch like an absolute child. Whatever ok, don’t judge me. It was fun.
“when in doubt read the reviews and don’t get caught up in a shitty tourist trap, like a fucking dumbass” – Me
On my final day here in Pai, I really wanted to make the most of it. I started my day around the fire to warm up and then headed to Break The Fast for some pre hike breakfast. I had a Egg BLT as the menu said it, it was ok but was missing mayonnaise. You’d be hard pressed to find it here.
After breakfast I rode 20 minutes out of town on dirt track to the start of the Hua Chang waterfall hike. Waterfall hikes are my favorite hikes. Lots of water crossings, missing trail and always very beautiful. This one was no different. I crossed the river no less than 45 times, and lost the trail some 10 times, and it was a beautiful hike. Even if you get lost, you are not really lost. Just trudge up the creek until you find the trail again. At the falls I had a snack and sat and listened to the roar of the water.
When I came down from Hua Chang my heat rash came back with a vengeance as it was now midday, So I spent the hottest hours of the day just hanging out at the bungalows. I went back to the drugstore and got some cortisol cream which really helped with the pricklyness. My friend Kev from back home suggested I use some Tryactin. You know Tryactin like a man. Lol good one.
After the Tryactin kicked in I got on my bike and rode 40 km up to Doi Miang and Doi Thong. Two mountains overlooking Pai, to watch the sunset. The drive was great and the views were incredible. I met some cool Canadians from the Yukon at the top of Doi Thong, and I was able to video chat home to my girlfriend and too a couple friends, that was really cool.
From Doi Thong I drove straight to the walking street for my last meal of northern street fair, I was not disappointed with my “Bestseller” which is a funny bit of marketing and it worked on me, It just so happened to be the most expensive thing on the menu. That’s a baked potato, with beans, sour cream, Guacamole, and cheese. It truly was delicious.
I’m absolutely shafted writing this so if it seems sloppy its cause I’m exhausted and currently covered in fruit ants. Tomorrow I do the big drive back to Chiang Mai and then catch a flight to Krabi.
“When your in pain, remember this–bodily pain can’t harm your ruling reason. Most pains are local and limited. Let the injured part of your body voice its displeasure, but don’t let it dominate your thoughts and become the center of your attention. When imagination is added to pain, it seems infinite and everlasting.” – Marcus Aurelius
Todays Post will be pretty short, Its all in the title. I am absolutely knackered. This was my final day in Chiang Mai, one of the biggest reasons I came back to Chiang Mai was to climb The Crazy Horse Buttress and more so to climb Crisis Anxiety State Cave, This cave is something else its about a hundred feet in diameter and several hundred feet high inside.
Today I linked up with a rag tag bunch of climbers from all over the world and I got to complete the mission I had set out on to climb in this cave. we started our day at reunion wall and smashed out a couple awesome routes there as we were all getting to know each other. When the sun was reaching its peak and it was becoming uncomfortable to climb, we moved into the cave and it was spectacular I led 2 routes and they were both very fun technical climbs
As I arrived an hour before the rest of the group, I went on a little solo journey into Anxiety Crisis State Cave. I understand now the name, It was So quiet it was absolutely deafening, the complete lack of any sound was very eerie. I sat alone in the cave and contemplated life for that hour and it was surreal. After the cave we finished our climbing day at Tamarind village wall for lunch and a few more routes. My hands are starting to get used to the limestone so I’m not in nearly as much pain as the last two days. All in all it was an amazing day, I didn’t take any pictures of food or really anything for that matter I was so spent after climbing. I’m excited for tomorrow as I am driving the famous Pai highway, This will be the most dangerous day of my whole trip so wish me luck.
Don’t be swayed by how things appear. In the wake of a perceived loss, its easy to feel disappointed and discouraged. If your head is hanging low, you’ll miss the opportunities hidden in “misfortune.” But if you remain steady and unbowed, you’ll make your own fortune. For good fortune consists of a good attitude, good thoughts, and good actions. -Marcus Aurelius
What a day today has been, an expensive day, A day full of involuntary expenditures, but with so good times and good food too.
I started the day with the realization that I wasn’t having issues with my Esim, Its just that my phone was well and truly fucked, Thankfully phones are relatively inexpensive in Thailand. After a couple hours at a phone shop I now have a brand new phone fully cloned from my old one, YAY! Problem solved. No more brick of lava in my pocket that went from 100 to 0 battery in less then half a day.
I was able to find the type of scooter I needed to do the mountainey road to Pai that I will be driving in a couple days (one of the most curvy sections of highway in the world) 300 corners in 50 kilometers here I come. And I got it for a great price, much better then what I was quoted yesterday. Almost half the cost.
I was able to pop in to Kats for any early lunch as I was pretty hungry after a morning of spending most my Thailand budget, and the food did not disappoint. Who would’ve thought a fried egg salad would be one of the highlights of my day, that and the fat noodle pad Thai I had were both sublime and totally budget friendly, washed down with a sweet lemon tea and a video chat from my partner, I will definitely be back there.
After lunch I made my way up to the Crazy Horse Buttress, (The whole reason I came back to Chiang Mai) to do some climbing. The climbing partner i had arranged bailed as I was enroute so I showed up solo which to my surprise was not a problem at all as I met a small group of awesome climbers on a wall called the furnace, aptly named as it was in the sun and hot as hell. I climbed 2 routes, a 5c and a 6a, Both were super fun and flowy with lots of cool limestone features. when I attempted my third route of the day (6c+) I slipped on the crux and realized I had blown out my big toe of my left shoe. On the FIRST day of a climbing trip, You gotta be kidding me. I attempted the route a few more times but with my left shoe mangled it was not a fair fight. So I said goodbye to my new friends and went off to find a new pair of shoes. With some information from my ne friends, I was able to find my same shoe and right size for cheaper than in Canada at this awesome little climbing wall/store so that was cool. I cant wait to get back out to the Buttress tomorrow and tackle the main wall.
To Finish off my day I decided to go to a slightly fancier restaurant called Dash then id normally go to as I try to stay away from places that really cater to tourists, And I was reminded why I stay away from places like It, The food was mediocre at best, the bill was 3 times more than id pay from less touristy restaurants and all the people seated around me sucked. That’s my bad for not sticking to holes in the walls. My meal wasn’t the best BUT, THE MANGO STICKY RICE DUDE. That shit was FIRE, best I’ve ever had. most expensive I’ve ever had but Definitely the best.
Hamburger Gyoza (I don’t know what i was thinking ordering these, they sucked)Crispy pork belly salad
After the day I had today I am beat, but not beaten. Heres to hoping I’ve gotten the biggest pains out of my way for this trip and its smooth sailing from here!
“Be the stone cliff against which the waves constantly break, standing firm against the fury of the sea. Am I unhappy because of what happened to me? No. I remain happy because regardless of circumstances, I am free-neither crushed by the present nor afraid of the future. Storms befall everyone; but not everyone can stand firm against them.” – Marcus Aurelius
The Great Dopamine Rush of 2025 