Three months in India and Thailand.
The evening sky on the way to the Indahara Pass in Himachal Pradesh, northern India.We stayed at a camp called Triund on our first night and walked up to a small shepherd’s cave for the second and third nights of our trek, sleeping on straw under a large overhung boulder with stone walls built around it.
A storm cloud on the way to the Indahara Pass.Despite the unstable sky, the weather was kind to us for the whole four days.
Kate, Rupert, Ravinder and Raju on top of the Indahara Pass.Kate and I met Rupert on the bus journey from Delhi to McLeod Ganj – a great coincidence since I know Rupert from Bristol and we had no idea he was in India.
Walking back to Dharamkot from the pass. Please don’t expect this level of customer service every day!Rupert went on to walk the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, whilst Kate and I stayed in Dharamkot, just up the road from McLeod Ganj. We enjoyed four weeks of yoga at The Himalayan Iyengar Yoga Centre, practicing for five hours a day, five days a week.
The sunset from McLeod Ganj.We left McLeod Ganj for Delhi and made a brief trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal…
Then we flew to Bangkok, caught the bus to Krabi, took a taxi to Ao Nang and rode a long-tail into Tonsai…
Tonsai Bay taken from Fire Wall.
We stayed on Tonsai for four weeks and enjoyed some great climbing on steep rock with big holds and a beautiful setting. I met Michael and Eva watching the sunset at Freedom Bar. Michael was looking for someone to climb with and we got straight on a route called Cowabungalow. It’s got a small stalactite like a cow’s udder that you need give a good squeeze on your way to the top. The next day we met up for a morning climb before the sun hit Tyrolean Wall…
Getting back on Missing Snow was like saying ‘Hi’ to an old friend. I tried it on my first day of climbing in Tonsai, back in November 2000. It was way out of my league at the time but, after several attempts, I pulled a clean ascent out of the bag on the last day of the trip. It’s really enjoyable climbing: steep and sustained with good hand holds and a short, cruxy sequence just after half way.
Tim flew out to join us for a few weeks at the start of his long climbing trip around South-East Asia. Living the life of Riley!
We joined Wee and Elka on a beautiful deep-water-soloing trip to Koh Poda and Chicken Island, about 6 km off-shore from Tonsai…
This beach on Chicken Island is cut off at high tide, slowly revealing it’s link to the island as the water recedes. We had a BBQ here and watched the sunset. Every night, at dusk, a procession of thousands of giant fruit bats fly out of a cave in the island and flap their way over to the mainland.
We spent a few hours on the beach after dark…
Eagle Wall is a brilliant crag at the nothern end of Tonsai Bay, set in a beautiful section of jungle it has the biggest piece of flowstone I have ever seen outside a cave – a huge pillar of rock completely separate from the cliff behind it. The low-tide walk to the crag often results in a very soggy return trip – wading chest deep with your rucksack held high above your head, slipping on rocks and dodging the waves that bounce back at you as hit the rock.
- Amazing trees on the way to Eagle Wall.
The Lion King is probably the most difficult route I’ve ever climbed without falling off on my first attempt. That was back in 2004. This time I wasn’t as climbing fit…
We headed south for a week on Lao Liang – a small, beautiful and quiet island with nothing to do but eat, sleep, climb, snorkel, kayak and relax on the beach.
S’Maan wowed us all with an impressive display of barefoot climbing, awesome flexibility and brilliant technique. This guy is only five feet tall and he’s on a 7b…
These fellas provided some entertainment too…
