Holiday in Thailand

We spent the first day in Bangkok doing the tourist thing and admiring various Buddhas located in very elaborate temples, but the noise, crowds, pollution and traffic was too in your face and so we escaped the following day to Ao Nang. Ao Nang was still a bit hectic but nothing compared to Bangkok. We spent the first day in Ao Nang recovering by the pool and then we went to take a look at a nearby National Park, complete with somewhat misleading signs and overgrown tracks – my but was it hot and humid!

My highlight of the stay in Ao Nang had to be the elephants. “Trekking” reminded me of walking the dog as she regards any walk as an excuse to consume everything remotely edible. Well the elephants regard trekking in the same way, and then there’s always the snack of 30kg of cucumbers when they get back. Getting to feed them and watch one take a bath in the same river that a guy was bathing in earlier was pretty neat.

We met up with Vinnie and Judith (pleasant surprise) in Railay East and spent a couple of days climbing and one day sailing on a Chinese junk with friends of Vinnie and Judith’s. Then it was off to a rather more remote island off the coast near Trang. We spent four days and three nights there climbing and relaxing.

The highlight of this part of the holiday had to be the multipitch climbing. Vinnie and Trevor led Frank and I up a couple of climbs that were next to one another. Toughest thing I’ve ever got to the top of. I won’t say climbed because I had to rest on the rope more than a few times in order to get there. The humidity and the accompanying mosquitoes didn’t help any, but Trevor did, both with verbal and physical encouragement. I think Vinnie’s encouragement consisted of “Hurry up Frank. The fish are biting!”. But the climbs were great and the view was awesome.


We went back to Railay (west this time) and spent a couple more days climbing – well Frank did most of the climbing as I had a tummy bug so couldn’t climb one day. Frank’s climbing continues to improve while I struggle to try and maintain a degree of fitness.

Well we had a wonderful holiday and it was great to spend so much time with Frank, and to make new friends and climb amid that terrific scenery. On the downside now I am back here in Halls Gap and Frank is in Williamstown I realize yet again how much I miss him. Roll on the weekend :-)