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As I arrived onto Ton Sai beach I was instantly impressed by the surrounding cliff faces! I appreciated the return to back packer style living, like I found on Koh Chang, and enjoyed the ease of meeting people again. Surrounded by like minded people it wasn't hard to find some people who offered to take me climbing, saving me the cost of a tour guide and equipment hire. I woke the following morning and was very motivated to get some physical action going on, as it had only been a little swimming and the football game previous to that. I joined a German guy called Bernd who showed me some great climbs. We enjoyed a swim in bath temperature water between climbs and adventured through a massive cave that can only be reached by climbing up 20 metres. This cave took us through a massive rock face and onto another beach that can only be reached by a long walk or boat. It was truly an adventure as few people had made the route and it was nice to be off the tourist trail and in a cave that seemed wild, with bats and all!
The beach was a beautiful place and I had lunch from a longtail boat. My climbing buddy decided he wanted to chill out for the rest of the day and I found another group to climb with. After such a long time out of the sport, I enjoyed my confidence and technique as I made two lead climbs on 6a routes which to people not in the know… is good for your first time back. That evening I enjoyed too many beers and got to bed too late for the early start we had agreed on. After only 5 hours sleep I felt dead at 6am and few other people were out of the bed for exactly that reason. However, some local banna loaf helped and we made three climbs in the morning. My confidence wasn't so high and my energy was lacking from the previous day and night but it was great to relight my passion for the sport.
Ton Sai saved me from writing off the south of Thailand. The tourism is killing it, developments are everywhere and its full of holiday makers. It didn't help that the weather was dismal but Ton Sai's beautiful landscape and great rock climbing will have me back there for sure, a lot of climbers believed it to be the best place in the world for climbing!
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