Lose a Turn

So, the next step in the saga of Tiff and John's epic continue. As John's strength returns, Tiff is on her way out with injuries. It seems we can't be climbing strong simultaneously?!?!?

All was going well, Tiff sent Tidal Wave and felt a bit of a tweak in her elbow so rested the remainder of that day. She had a massage that evening and woke up the next morning with an extremely painful back.

She was able to move enough to belay John (who got his project with only one fall and opened another 7c+ project) and lay down for the rest of the day. We then had two rest days. on the first one, Tiff's back got much better. on the second, she tweaked it again by hanging doubled over on the hammock. So she's pretty frustrated (oh, yeah, and her elbow's not better). So, Tiff's not doing a lot of climbing at the moment, and John's carrying around all the gear. Where's Mark Kelly when you need him?

But on other news, we found the Thai equivalent of the Lychee Lounge and it rocks!!! I's also run by the Thai version of Elie Moubarak, right down to the husky voice. You've got a Thai brother my brother - who calls everyone brother too. The decor is tastfully arty and the tunes are laidback soulful groove. The cocktail menu is 'interesting' and much cheaper than the Lychee (about $5 a cocktail) Sorry Moubs!

The rain is getting heavier and earlier every day. It is often raining through the night, which means that even at overhanging crags which haven't received direct rain are getting wet from water seepage. This makes climbing even more frustrating, especially since we compiled our 'To Do' list recently and there are 99 climbs on it - and approximately 40 climbing days to do them in - if the rains, food, falling objects and injury don't ruin our plans. The climbs cover almost every crag and range from 6b+ to 8b. The other thing about the rain is that everything stays damp. your clothes start to smell like cheese beacuse you sweat in them, wash them and then they take a week to dry. Your bed clothes feel dirty and smell damp because of all the water in the atmosphere. It's generally unpleasant.

We are composing poems at the moment, to try and describe our time here. We will post it when it's done (if we deem it appropriate)... We have read about ten books so far, most of them really really crap. So if anyone has any books you think we'd like to read on rainy afternoons, please give them to Janet Melius to send over in our mercy pack. Non-Thai books here are very expensive, even second hand.

With all that's happened so far and the rains coming in, we are contemplating moving onto the next leg of our trip early and possibly coming back to Thailand at a later date (hopefully starting under good stars this time). We will keep you posted though. There are people coming over that we will be meeting up with so maybe we'll stick to the original plan and hope everything works itself out.

Things we've learnt so far:
Just because paradise looks good, doesn't mean it has smells to match.
The bum gun isn't the most hygenic implement in the world (hose in the toilet to replace toilet paper).
Toilet paper is probably man's greatest invention (after sliced bread and hot water).
Turquoise water looks great but tastes and feels like diesel (from the longboats).
DEET makes your skin peel.
Mozzies don't mind DEET - go figure.
Hammocks are dangerous.
Icebreakers ROCK!!!
Climbing sucks (hang on, we knew that before - damn love hate relationships, I can quit anytime I want).
Slack sometimes means take (and vice versa) to the belayer - especially after you've just done the crux move on your project (ie. getting pulled off a route sucks).
The Thai 'Land of Smiles' means they're laughing AT you, not WITH you.
If we didn't have bad luck, we wouldn't have any luck at all.
Getting rained on here is much like getting rained on back home - you get wet, but here you smell like poo too.
Sitting in rain in Thailand, smelling like poo, makes you philosophical.
"Same Same but Different" means everything is the same here as back home but the difference is everything smells like poo.
Poo takes up a lot of your thought processes in Thailand.
Poo Happens.

Finally, the climbing here is amazing and the biggest thing we've learnt is patience, tolerance, understanding and adaptability are essential. None of these things we've been able to put into practice so far, but we're still working on those. Tomorrow is another day after all. Oh, and Vick's Vapour rub (widely available from massage stores) applied liberally under the nose helps with the poo smell.

John and Tiff
saintrinity

ps.
T: "What a depressing post!"
J: "Well it can't be peaches and cream all the time. Besides they don't have peaches here and the cream is fake. But they do have mango and taro, or some sort of soy substitute. Let's go, I have to poo now."