One Fine Day

Once upon a time, I was a 20-yr old trying to figure out what to do with my life. I opened a National Geographic magazine and found an article about rock climbing in Thailand right off beautiful beaches. The ski season had just ended, which always left me feeling lost, knowing I had nothing but college classes to look forward to for the summer.
In the article, the views were stunning and

the climbing looked amazing. Well, I decided that I was going to move to Thailand and climb my life away. Unfortunately, when I called the airline (no online booking back then) to buy a ticket, it cost way more than my meager savings. So, my dream of living off the land in Thailand was put on hold. Fast forward 11 years and we find ourselves living in Singapore. A local budget airline opens up a new route to Krabi with one-way tickets costing $5 plus taxes and it's suddenly a realty. Deborah and Dustin plan a family vacation there and let me crash in their kids' hotel room (thanks Natalie for giving up your bed!). Ben spends the weekend at home with Samara and Dustin lets us take Saturday while hanging our with their kids.Deborah and I have an unbelievable day. My dream comes true.(p.s. that's Deborah and I in those pictures!!!!!!)

Samara and I have already made 12 or 13 flights together so it felt so weird to be on a plane without her. I did, however, get the emergency row exit seat with the extra legroom, which pretty much equals first class on a budget airline. I felt a little nervous when we landed and this is what the airport looked like. I arrived Friday evening (it's just a 1.5 hour flight). Fortunately, against my insisting I'd make it to the hotel on my own in a taxi, the Smiths kindly arranged for the hotel shuttle to pick me up. Russia made me a little too brave. Sometimes I forget that I don't speak Thai and not everywhere is as safe as Singapore.
Saturday, we headed to Railay Island for our climbing excursion. I have to admit I was a little nervous as I haven't really been in 10 years but it was really like riding a bike.
This is Tik, our fabulous climbing guide. He made the the day for us and planned the climbs perfectly. He had the best accent and made the day so fun. He even entertained our excessive photo taking.

We did four climbs in the morning and we all had a tough time on the 4th one so we decided to break for lunch--I was ready!

This is Collin, our new pal and the other climber in our group. He's Irish and also had a great accent. He's been traveling in the region for 3 months and had 3 more to go--lucky guy! When we got our lunch I commented how it wasn't the typical climbing fare. Deborah had just apologized to Collin for our being silly and taking so many photos (i.e., making him say cheese in the middle of a climb). He said, "yes, I'm very sick of it." Collin was referring to the food but she thought he was referring to us. Deborah looked at me and started apologizing telling him he could switch to a different team. At this point, I understood what he was referring to but I couldn't stop laughing enough to tell them both. Then he said, "wait, what do you mean? I am talking about the food. I am so sick of chicken and rice." It was hilarious.


After lunch and clearing up the misunderstanding, we walked around to the sunrise side of the island to the beautiful Phra Nang beach. We saw a very interesting sailor's fertility shrine and lots of long boats. There were several 'food stands' in the water selling all kinds of interesting snacks. This so could have been my job.
We walked to the other end of the beach, hiked up a bit and did another great climb then headed for the Khoa Luk Choee cave.
The lovely Miss Deborah, mother of 3 darling kids, RN, adventure-seeker.

The cave was huge! We had to take flashlights and climb up and down ladders. It was great. Though, when Tek started talking about the blood-sucking bats I got a bit nervous.

We rappelled down out of the cave. The first time I ever went rappelling was in YWs and I had really long hair. My hair got stuck in carabiner and my head was bent all the way down to my waist my the time I got the bottom. Thankfully, that didn't happened this time.


Deb made the day so fun!! The whole experience was just amazing. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it was sort of life changing. To be able to do something I dreamed about so long ago was so neat. It has motivated me to get in better shape and get strong so I can continue to do things I've always loved as I get older. It's helped me realize that you never have to stop living or put your life on hold for events that are out of your control. It honestly made every horrible day when we first moved to Singapore worth it. It almost makes the grocery runs and long train rides worth it too. :)
We did our last two climbs of the day on the Thaiwand wall. This is the longest climb of the day and the view from the top was STUPENDOUS!!! Honestly, it literally took my breath away. It was so much prettier from the top of the climb. The color of the water was unbelievable. It was well worth every little cramp and sore muscle.


Deborah climbed it after me, took her camera up, and got this beautiful shot.




After the long climb, we did one last climb and that's where we got most of our best shots so it was well worth pushing myself. Like I said earlier, Tik planned the day perfectly.


The four of us back at the beach. A perfect day. One I will never forget.
Ben and Dustin were such troopers to let us go off and do this and watch the kids the whole time. Don't worry though--we haven't forgotten them. They get to go on a shopping trip next Thursday together to Johor-Bahru to stock up on DVDs and chewing gum. Pretty manly.