A Masterpiece
One more major element was still left to build for the bathroom, the vanity unit. We envisioned it to appear as a huge floating block of granite holding the washbasin. With only granite panels to work with, we had thought over and over again of how to cleverly glue the unit so that the seams could disappear. We eventually came up with an edge profile cut that after applying the bevel on all sides would make the glued seams practically invisible, but it was truly a high precision work, exact to half a millimeter, and it would make the stone temporarily fragile in places.
After some cutting tests and creating a 3D simulation of the design we started cutting the actual pieces, laying them out around the washbasin that didn't have a single straight edge. For the profiles, we had to go three to four times over each cut, from different angles, and ended up constructing some strange setups for our machinery. Finally, without a single crack, so much feared by my brother we were ready to glue the thing together and then apply the bevel in order to see the result of our concept. It was quite beautiful and even though you can obviously see the seams from very close up, I doubt that they can be hidden any better. After all, it was not a single granite block, but as close as it could be.
All that was left then, was to install the heavy thing and fit the washbasin, that for some reason suddenly fit too snug. Better that too loose, though. I find it still amazing how unbelievable careful you have to be working with granite, such a hard, but also such a brittle material. Only after installing everything you reach the point where all edges are safe and suddenly it beomes hard to imagine how that stuff could break anywhere.
The Song Kran Festival
The days had just gone by so quickly on to the Song Kran festival. Hans, my brothers second father, had come to spend some time here and after finishing the vanity, work on the bathroom nearly stalled, so there was not a chance to get it done before the festival. I had a lot of time for myself and spent it on programming, for once getting in touch with my old profession and making some little tools for my brothers home entertainment computer. Generous as I can be sometimes I started sharing these things, and now, two months later, find them already used by more than a thousand people.
And then Song Kran was there and the first day, I was not anywhere near it. After a long night sitting and chatting with friends I slept in and didn't feel like getting wet at all. I stayed in my room until just before dark until I dared to go out and have a meal, catching only a few drops from some hardliners on the way. Having rested all day long, I went to my friend's First Step bar and found dozens of friends there having sort of a party, and there were still people coming. It was a long and fun-filled night and I managed to just not get drunk, even though I had enough drinks so I would speak quite fluent Thai, even though probably not a hundred percent correct.
The next day, I was more playful and went on a morning trip with my brother and nephew through the now busy road from the new city to the historic park. Everyone was throwing water, too many times literally ice cold, many were going around smearing white methol powder into the faces of whoever'd come in their path. Then the road was jammed, nothing moved anymore and we decided, already a bit exhausted, to turn around and go back to the house for a rest, but just after I had arrived there, a friend called me and I soon hopped into their cool open army jeep for another round. This time, we were almost unarmed and I felt like sort of a victim, especially when I passed the friends I'd been drinking with the night before on the way back into town and they just poured some buckets of ice cold water over me.
The third day of the festival, I went, in the same army jeep, to nearby Sawankhalok, again playing the victim somehow, but surrounded by 4 girls, and a very quiet driver. As the town is much more in the countryside and not used to white tourists, I really was the main victim, waterwise, but also being offered so many things: I ended up drinking a lot of different shots, being well fed, wet as hell and I got kissed by just about anyone imaginable, old, young, man, woman, and both.
Another Visa Run
Then Song Kran in Sukhothai was over just as I had enough. The next day my brother and I went to Mae Sot, as I needed a visa extension once again. Rolling into town, we were surprised by masses on the street still playing with water. Song Kran is celebrated on slightly different dates throughout the country, and here, it was just not quite over.
Moving was slow and getting the stamp the same day out of the question, but we finally got to our hotel, and for the first time in a good while I enjoyed an air-con room watching German cable TV. For the night, we met up with a Korean friend of mine, SayGin, who'd been living in town for some time. She introduced us to her friends and the night turned into a little pub crawl.
We had to spend the weekend as it turned out the immigration office was completely shut down over Song Kran and would open on Monday, exactly the date my visa ran out. We declared it an full air con weekend and spend most of the day resting and watching TV just to meet up with SayGin and her friends at night. Mae Sot is just so different with its farang volunteer subculture and the strong Burmese influence and presence, and this time we experienced it in a refreshing new way.
Tourism
After returning to Sukhothai with a fresh stamp in my passport it was time to grab my stuff, pack my climbing gear, and figure out the train schedules. It was finally time to go south to Krabi for my climbing trip. My brother Andrew and nephew Thony would come along for just a week's holiday by the sea.
We left very early morning and gave the worst class in the train a try. It was a bit crowded, hot, and not very comfy, but dirt cheap and on time. We got as far as Bangkok where our connecting train was already full, which made us switch to bus that would take us at least directly to Krabi town.
I had never gone the tourist way through Thailand and sitting on this bus filled with backpackers wouldn't become one of the good memories of the country, and that was definately not the backpackers fault. Well, maybe a bit, as they, too, belong to the people who are paying ridiculous prices for services, goods, and food, because it is still so dirt cheap, isn't it? Guess it won't be anymore, very soon.
It started when we had a rest stop at a roadside restaurant, as they are common on the big highways throughout the country. For rather average Thai food the place charged double prices, so we refused to eat at the place, especially as I had spotted a 7-11 just across the road. As we started towards it, the bus personnel tried to hold us back in a quite unfriendly way. Now, it was not the nicest tone in which my brother complained about the restaurant and demanded they let us be, but the answer to that was just as unfriendly as thugs would talk to you in a dark alley before taking your wallet and giving you a nice steel blade in exchange, not for keeping, of couse. I held my brother back, threw in a couple of sentences about some whatever we could need from there, and we took off, voices still raging behind us and threatening to leave without us. There were still 60 hungry people to feed, so that was unlikely.
As we returned, all Thais had put unfriendly faces on, and for the remainder of the trip we were treated with the utmost disrespect. Finally, after another stop where they had desperately tried to sell us a connecting ticket in an air con minibus, we reached Krabi town. But we didn't stop anywhere, until we were through town and at the bus company very own little terminal right outside of town, minibuses already waiting and another ticket counter for the former unconvinced.
We were still unconvinced, grabed our bags and started walking, fortunately not very far. Just around the corner the road was a dead end, but a nice couple in a pickup was just about to leave towards town. They agreed to give us a lift, but as more backbackers had seen us take off and followed, we ended up organizing a full trip for eight to our destination for little more than the roundtrip petrol price.
I always try to understand all sides to a story, but I excuse none. The tourist's behaviour in Asia has formed the image and stereotype about all white folks here, and that's the tourist's fault, just as judging all foreigners by their stereotype and treating them as money bags is some Thai people's fault, which in my experiences especially far from tourism centers is still the exception. Well, there was in fact "Money Bag" printed on the back window of our bus, in Thai of course, and my nephew and I might have been the only travellers on the bus knowing.
Finally Rock Climbing
We had reached the end of the road and a boat ride later we arrived in Tonsai Bay, a little rock climbing haven surrounded by spectacular limestone cliffs, making any access by land impossible. Bungalows were cheap and abundant now, thanks to low season. It meant also less crowded climbing routes and probably added to the relaxed atmosphere of the place. Only the meals were a bit over our planned budgets, as they were expensive, but also huge portions.
The first week was true holiday for the three of us, Andrew, Thony, and me. I got my nephew to try some bouldering on the walls down by the beach. Besides that we didn't climb much, but rather spent our days exploring the beautiful place. There was a hidden lagoon to trek to, along a steep and slippery path secured with ropes in many places, and there was two beautiful beaches just a short walk away. Tonsai had it's own beach, but it was rather average and completely flooded during high tide. Another day, we chartered a boat with some people and visited the surrounding little islands, whiched proved a good way to make new friends and find my new climbing partners Oli and Tuelei.
At night, there was ususally one of the handful of bars in the bay where most of the people would accumulate. Some had live music, some free barbeques, others offered fireshows, slaglines, and free pool. They were definately the single most obvious place to see how strongly the whole bay was developed to cater for western tourists, even though the mix of travellers consisted mostly of climbers with a great mixture of all ages and stood out against other backpacker destinations that I have experienced before. But here as in other tourist destinations I have seen in Thailand, there were also no local tourists, no Thais. Therefore, drinks were expensive and sold by the glass and the service did not compare to the country standards where you get used to an abundance of service personnel in well-managed businesses. One of the aquaintances that I later met on the bus back to Bangkok finally managed to provide an expression for the phenomenon I always observe with white tourists who never really make it into the country they visit. They move in tourist bubbles, never leaving them, and these are just a completely own, very westernized and customized holiday world.
My brother's budget got him through exactly one week, and he then left me to myself and me climbing that I had been looking forward to so much. I had already found some people to partner up with, so the morning my brother and nephew left I was already hanging on a rope, clinging to a wall and damning the long break I had taken from climbing. Even though I obviously didn't perform as well as I would have wanted to the first couple of days, I regained much of my skill and confidence over the next two weeks and got as far as lead climbing the even higher grades that I was able to do upon leaving Germany two years ago.
After teaming up with Oli from Manchester for the first couple of days, I then ended up climbing with two fun ladies from Canada, Erin and Carrie. While Oli was climbing just a bit better than I did, Erin and Carrie, even as able climbers as myself, had less confidence in their skills and I was able to constantly push myself with new and harder lead climbs, that they would then evaluate and usually follow or lead themselves.
Erin, the spiritual leader of our team had set up an ambitious schedule of three climbing days followed by one rest day. I was a total follower in order to make the most of my time, but after two weeks my body would feel drained and I'd have an urge for laziness. More people joined our core team on and off, so every day was different, but always filled with beautiful climbs and plenty of chatting.
The second week I took on some challenges, pushing my abilities even more, but also draining my strength. I mastered a couple of 6Cs, a 6C+ and followed on a 7A as my ultimate climbing achievement of the trip. The last day was reserved for a Tonsai must, a multi-pitch route called Humanality going up right next to the beach bars. Beforehand it had be uncertain that I'd be able to climb it with Erin, who'd been stung by a hornet while climbing and who'd then ended up having a ballon in place of a hand for a couple of days, but fortunately the swelling had gone down just in time and we completed the route on my last day. We were rewarded with a fun climb and stunning views over the bay, as well as a great abseil landing on the roof of the bar!
Next to climbing, there was another activity that caught my attention in Tonsai. The locals, living and working on tourism, would have a daily match of beach volleyball just before sunset. They would play regardless of rain or the high tide closing in and flooding the beach, and they would always welcome travellers to join them. It was also the easiest way to get in touch with them, and I made some new friends who even started giving me some discounts when I stocked up in their little shops. But playing on that beach was also treacherous, as the sand was mixed with sharp coral pieces. My first two days playing my mind had not yet realized the danger and I ended up with feet strewn with cuts.
In topical climates, bacteria thrive and even though I desinfected my cuts, my feet were swollen until after I returned to Sukhothai. Actually the first signs in the main cuts showed only after a nurse instructed me how to take care of them and another girl ceded her topical antibiotics to me that I then applied regularly. But I wasn't the only one with these sort of problems. Rather, it somehow appeared that just about everyone staying in Tonsai had some minor or major health troubles apart from normal cuts and bruises that would seem natural to climbing. There were bodies strewn with bed bug bites, swellings of various kinds, tummy troubles, notorious drowsiness, major toothaches, and all the little funny ones, like Jeff, an American I climbed some routes with who woke up one morning looking like a heavyweight boxer after loosing a 12 round fight. He seemed to be allergic to the little kitten he had played with the night before. He was also the one who found the name for the disease we all had caught and that all these symptoms could be related to: Tonsainites.
Just as I had basically cured mine, it was finally time to go home. I felt no remorse, as my body was drained and most of the people I had met had already left themselves or were about to leave, and I had become more or less reluctant to going through those intial stages of meeting someone, all the superficial introductory smalltalk, all the where-are-you-from-where-do-you-go sort of conversations. But I knew I was going to miss the climbing soon enough and I guess I already did, when I finally arrived in Sukhothai after a thirty hour ordeal.
No Rest
I had only two nights in my little room by the river and a day to clean my clothes, before I had to leave again. It was time to make a new visa and I had to go to Laos for that. It seemed more like a business trip you have to go on rather than travelling. After all, it was the third visa trip there, the fourth time to Laos, and nothing new to discover where I was going, so I actually just tried to keep the expenses low. Prices had increased even more and Vientiane just seemed unreal with its chique boutiques and fancy european restaurants that make up most of the area accessible to the walking tourist. My best friend was the television in my room, I walked every way and I still got into trouble with my budget, leaving me to live on cheese sandwiches on my last day as that was the cheapest option.
Set up with a new visa I returned to Sukhothai to settle in again and rest for a couple of days. I was seeing my friends more often now and divided my evenings between going to sleep early and hanging around with them until early morning. But there was not much time to rest, as another trip came up, that promised to offer another activity that I had not been able to follow up on for some time.
Off The Road
A friend had invited me to a weekend camping out in the mountains, going with a group of people in old army jeeps. She actually came up with the idea of taking the Datsun and driving myself, but it was only until the day before that my brother decided to join and we agreed to take the car, even though there was some trouble of putting it into reverse. We would leave early Friday morning and return a day or two later, depending on how we'd feel.
We were all packed and ready to go by six thirty on Friday, when I had another look at the gearshift. I was hoping of finding an easy fix, but rather discovered, that the whole engine was not hanging correctly in place. One of the rubber mountings was broken and the engine ready to drop on the roadbed. There was no way we would take that car off the road!
At seven we were at the garage, that would usually open only at eight, but the doors were already open and as we knew the owner we got attention to our problem quite soon. He agreed to fix us up as quickly as possible and I managed my friend on the telephone so the group would wait for us somewhere on the way to our destination and we'd be able to catch up.
We were only a bit more than an hour late, when we joined the convoi of army jeeps in Phitsanulok around ten that morning and compared to the severity of the problem we were quite proud of having been able to fix it on such short notice and now be on our way.
The first stop was a waterfall and a track that lead right through the river on top of it. Instead of crossing the river quickly, all vehicles had to stop right in the middle for an extensive foto shoot. It was the main reason for the crossing, as well as crossing back right after, as the track we were going on was a couple of kilometers down the tar. But the falls provided a nice place for a picknik before finally going offroad.
Even though being only two-wheel-driven, the Datsun had no troubles with the tracks. They were not very difficult, but still fun and we went deeper into the hinterland until we ended up on a mountain top forest that would be our campsite. We had a beautiful view over the valley below and a nice cool wind blowing for a change. In camp, we were finally able to really meet all the people and were warmly welcomed to the group, then sat and chatted with them until well after dark.
The next morning a we visited a little waterfall nearby. This time, we left the Datsun behind and hopped into the back of a proper 4WD going down a very steep track, even though coming back up later would be the actual challenge. We said our goodbyes to the group later, as we hit the tar again and went back to Sukhothai. Another day offroad was over our gas bill budget, as the group would venture even further away from home.
Finally Rest?
Then, finally, there was time, enough time to rest, so it seemed for a moment. And then again, urgent matters were pressing, such as sorting all the pictures, meeting up with friends, and writing this blog. But I had finally returned to the every day life and my brother and I have even made some tiny progress in the bathroom, even though I reckon that finishing it will have to wait until he will return from his two-week trip to Germany, that starts in a week. And during that time, I might come up with plans of my own and go travelling once again.
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