Tonsai - Moving fast (for Thai time)



Two months went by so quickly. We have been living in the dense jungle and walking the dirt tracks of Tonsai town enough days to nearly call it home now. Yet, there are parts of the Pha Nang penninsula I wouldn't want to point out if it was my home.For while I have discovered so many magical places exploring the caves and coves paradise, there is no denying the impacts continued tourist pressure brings to the shores.

The constant hum of generator mixes with the drone of unmuffled longtail engines. The limestine towers serve only to reverberant the sounds of transportation and electricity. Plumbing is a maze of pipes crisscrossing the streets and paths, freshwater barrells sit open on hillsides, the garbage pile just off our porch grows daily, otherwise we are woken by the smell of burning plastic. Talking with the early climbers in Tonsai one can easily imagine how much this place has changed in just maybe 10 years. Climbing brought people to Tonsai, but no longer do they make up the bulk of the tourist load. Everyone enjoys the warm sea water and outstanding beauty, climbing helped Tonsai rival neighboring and swanky Railey.

We were, no one is, exempt in impacting Tonsai. Wee told me 12 years ago he swam in a fresh water pool at the base on Tonsai crag. Since then the freshwater has be diverted and the pool built over with the freedom bar. He's Thai and, alongside many American climbers developing the routes here, built tonsai into a world-recognized climbing destination. I am (just as every other visiting tourist climber is) indebted and thankful of these climbers that put this place on the map, yet I am cautious just how many maps to tonsai there will be.

Without a doubt, climbing an airy corner, steming in limetsone pockets and clipping titanium staples 1000 feet above the deep green Andaman sea is a special moment for any rock climber. Words can not describe the intensity of the steep, pocketed, and often exposed climbing here. It is challengeing yet friendly, melting hot but always sheltered from the rain, through jungle and up fixed ropes. Chasing lines of bolts up asthetic featured limestone in a beachside paradise is still that (no matter what): paradise.



In the photos: The fixed lines leading from the jungle shelf to the base of Thaiwand wall. the banana spider living just outside our bungalow. Michelle surveying the setting sun from railay west, and me "chok dee" the streetside beer salesman in Aonang town.