My day two started like any other day. Not wanting to wake up or do anything... But was soon rectified once i realized i was not in the States with nothing to do, I was in Thailand! I woke up with a jolt at the thought of that and nearly ran out of my bungalow. I had spent my first official night in Thailand and i wanted to share it with the world! Every last detail, the oscillating fan, the mosquito net, the humidity and stickiness you wake up with and everything else. I made some coffee at the gathering house and waited for Laura and James to get up. We had an amazing breakfast of fresh mango's and coffee and set out to plane our day. Shortly there after i borrowed a scooter from the bungalow and we bolted down the road to the northern end of the island to Paradise Beach where there is some amazing climbing.
Shooting down dirt and mud roads on scooter, going fast than i probably should, only coming close to loosing it once going around a corner; I couldn't help but compare everything to Cameroon. The smell of burning garbage, the huts, the trash, the jungle, minus the locals for all i knew i could've been in Africa all over again. When we finally arrived at our destination there was little more than a shack with a handful of scooters under it and a prestine beach, to the south was the paridise resort and to the north was the trail that led us to our climbing spots. A brief hike maybe no more than a half mile and we came to a clearing in the jungle at the base of a massive wall probably 300+ feet tall. James assures me that there are numerous 3 and 4 pitch climbs, most of the one we would be doing had a second pitch to them but we were only working on the bottoms. They (Laura and James) both lead climb so they ran each route before me and for that matter i only did two of the routes they did. Turns out not climbing for six months and then hopping on an outside wall is harder than it seems. None the less this must go down as the highest climb i've done, considering most of my climbing consists of indoor walls. The view from the top was amazing and i carried my camera on my back to capture some pictures but they dont do justice to the view. The glassy water went out for as far as i could see with islands just popping up out of everywhere. They pointed out islands for me to look for and told me which ones they had kayaked too and camped at before.
After spending most of the day climbing we returned to our bikes, saddled up and took off back down the road towards the bungalows. We blew past them and made out way to a beach to eat fresh Papaya salad, enjoy once more the 2 local beers of Thailand and watch the sunset over the islands. Papaya salad is not what you would expect, it's young papaya, un-sweet like a ripe one, with spices and mini shrimp and carrots and tons of other veggies all kinda almost in a soup that comes with sticky rice. You use the sticky rice to "sop" up the extra sauce and fill your stomach with something. We eventually went back to the bungalows ordered more insanely delicious Thai food from the kitchen and built a fire to sit around and watch the stars rise over the islands.
Thus ends day two for me in Thailand and at this point Laura and James are trying to convince me not to go to Korea at all and to just stay in Thailand with them and teach and share in their adventures. Something tells me i'm really going to enjoy the next few years of my life. Altough i would be lying if i said i wasn't envious of them for having each other to share all these experiences with. By no means does that mean that the ones i'll have will be any less but it just seems nice to have someone to remember and experience things with. Needless to say...
-Life is what you make it and Life is good
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