A new high...

I was going to tell you about the last days on Phi Phi; The sent from heaven Thai massage for $7.50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) (which is done in a room with 6 other people laying side by side and you strip down to your scibbies, hahah think the boys were more surprised then me), the ever amazing fire shows, the $10 dinner for 4 BUT....



I must skip all of this because we arrived in Rai Lay for a true adventure and nothing else matters...



Rai Lay is a famous town for its limestone cliffs and the rock climbing that is done on them, it is only reachable by long tail boat from Krabi and the boat can not even pull all the way to shore as it is too shallow...you must walk in to shore.



Our sole purpose for being here is to take a day of rock climbing classes($50). And what a day it was.

We decided to do a full day, even though we were told it was 'strenuous'...

I think all of us were a little nervous but very excited and wondering what to expect..9 am- we meet and are taught the basics, how to tie the knots, repel etc. From there we go to our first climb. Two lines are set up and folks they are HIGH.


A couple of things we realize;

• Russ is afraid of heights


• i am wearing lulumon booty shorts (which Russ say while not practical make for good pics)


• Rod is already hurt from "free climbing" to a suntan spot in Phi Phi

I am proud to say my first rock climb was around 65 feet, straight up a mother f'n cliff!!!!! the next one was not as high but difficult due to lack of holds. It was exhilarating, exhausting, amazing, frightening all in one. In all we did 6 climbs for the day.

And, Russ despite his fear of hieghts is quick as a spider monkey (perhaps just to get it over with :-p) And, Rod despite his almost life ending suntanning wound is also spider monkey/billy goat fast.


It didn't end there though...we then walked around the island (its small maybe 3/4 mile), we weren't sure what to expect or where we were going...we were already on a total high (natural) so at this point everything was gravy for us.



We climbed a steep trail with our guides on a completely un marked path and popped out in these caves that overlooked the ocean and island. Then we proceeded to walk through these caves (lemon caves) in almost complete darkness (guide had a pencil flash light), it felt like a movie set. We climbed up ladders that looked to be out of an Indiana Jones movie, made of Bamboo and tied with rope. We used frayed rope to pull ourselves up steep inclines. We also noticed about a hundred set of eyes looking at us, yup we were in the company of many many bats! This cave adventure took about 20 minutes.



And then....we repelled blindly (40 feet ish) out of the cave into the forest below...I am not really scared of anything (besides, spiders, crunchy bugs, and snakes) but even this was for a moment was a little frightening. Once on the side of the cliff over looking the beach, I felt like all the nerves go away and only exhilaration at the prospect of lowering myself down the side of a mountain!



Ahhhhh, what a magical day.


Tonight we chill as overall Rai Lay is a veeerrry laid back stoner island, so chillin' on floor mats on the beach smokin from a hukkah (apple) is the norm and we will do it again tonight :-p


Oh but wait...I almost forgot...our guide is going to be teaching us (mainly Russ) how to fire unsafetly play with fire as well :-p Let you know how that turns out...


Truly a magical day.


Off to Koh Samui, tomorrow


Blog yas later, love to you all.