John made it to Thailand! I was getting worried, but he pulled through with some last minute plane tickets and made it happen.

Our first night we headed out to China Town, which I was still yet to have seen. There’s not much going on there at night except neon lights. I think maybe it’s better to go earlier? The restaurants were pretty expensive and they almost all offered shark fin soup, so we decided to skip town and get some food elsewhere.

We tuk-tuk’ed over to Jack’s Bar, which is a bit expensive for Bangkok standards, but has a nice view with seating right on the riverside which was nice.

The next day we met back up with Kristina and the three of us decided to go check out Bangkachao, an island in the middle of Bangkok. We took the boat over for 10 Baht ($0.30) and rented bikes upon arrival.

This island is so much fun! It’s unbelievable that it’s in the middle of a city like Bangkok. A great escape from the hustle and bustle.

We had a bit of a treasure hunt trying to find the Tree House, a air-conditioned hangout in the back woods/swamps of the island.

From there we started to make our way back, but we had to stop at the local market on the way. John got to sample some weird shit. I’ll give it to you bud, you’re braver than me.

The highlight was probably watching John eat pig snout.

The final stop on the island was the botanical gardens. Plenty of green and plenty of fish and birds. After biking through most of the park we heard some very high tempo music coming out of a courtyard and simply had to join in. The local women do this dancercise class a couple times a week and they welcomed and encouraged us to join again!

After a few days in Bangkok we flew to Krabi and made our way back to Tonsai bay.

Did a multipitch climb called Big Wave. It was okay, but hard to follow up Ao Nang Tower.

I wanted to save the punchline for last. The day before climbing Big Wave, John and I got on Ao Nang Tower, an island rock tower with a 3-pitch climb on it, (6b+, 6c, 6c+). This climb was just spectacular. The views are incredible. And it was really fun in the end when John lost rock, paper, scissors and he had to get lowered into the water off the end of the rope!