Mt. Siguniang (四姑娘山) 2019

This trip was quite the adventure, even if just a short one cushioned with plenty of traveling time. We spent 11-16 Jan in the Sichuan Province with the ultimate aim of scaling Mt. Siguniang. It was a great trip all round! Especially now that I think back about it in relatively comfortable settings.

My travel buddies were HY and JY, both great friends and great photographers. As I'll be relying heavily on their shots to tell this story, I'd like to give large credit and thanks to both of them! They are the reason I actually appear in many of the photos here and also how I ended the trip with a trove of potential profile pics to choose from haha.

But really, those breathtaking views under the vast blue sky were worth the bitter cold and equally breathtaking climb. Truly the kind of experience worth having, and hiking is pretty fun after all!

Planning and Preparations

To rewind a little, Mt Siguniang, literally "four sisters mountain" has four corresponding peaks. We'd planned to summit Dafeng peak (大峰), the "eldest sister" which at about 5025m is the shortest and easiest one. [The "youngest sister" had one heck of a growth spurt to 6250m, so I guess seniority has nothing to do with height hurhur.] Base camp stands at an elevation of 4300m. But the whopper came midway through planning when we found out that temperatures would reach as low as -21 deg C on the mountain.

So of course I was slightly concerned about all this. Physical fitness wasn't a problem, but I couldn't really see how to train for the altitude and that kind of cold. The highest elevation I'd ever been before this trip was something like 500m. As for coldest... well there was that one climbing trip on exchange which included camping at -5 deg C. Even though I distinctly remember that trip being "way too cold to be fun", it at least provided some basis for extrapolation. Training-wise, there was nothing much to do other than go up and down my block with a weighted pack over Dec 2018. That period was also spent cobbling together my best protection for extreme cold and getting really hyped up for the trip. In no time, 2019 swept in and it was time for some climbing of a different sort.

Prologue

After an uneventful flight and first night in Chengdu, the adventure really began.

Ok la, not totally uneventful. We had the fortune of sitting on the right (left) side to capture a great sunset along the way.

We took a ~4h bus journey out of Chengdu and got our first taste of altitude shortly after arriving in Siguniangshan Town (aka. Rilong Town), situated at an elevation of about 3200m. That simple stair climb to our room at the hostel's 4th floor somehow managed to feel like a trip to Bukit Timah. But I guess this was to be expected, and I was glad to have been dutifully taking the AMS pills...

Nice, welcoming exterior.

Strings of Tibetan prayer flags just outside the entrance.

We stayed in Tea & Panda Hostel (茶语熊猫) except when up the mountain. Great choice! Because aside from the private bathroom, our room came with HEATED floors and HEATED blankets. Trust me, these are the loveliest things in the world after showering in a draughty bathroom in the middle of winter. The sheer helpfulness and hospitality of the hostel staff also made it really easy to get things done, including arranging for a guide to get us up the mountain. I guess, no matter how broken or strangely-accented, it helped that we could actually speak Mandarin (and help with translations for some ang mohs). But first we intended to go on an acclimatisation walk, so all it took was a phone call from the reception and a car showed up to take us to Shuangqiao Valley (双桥沟).

Not that we got much done that day as it was pretty late by the time we got out of the hostel. We ended up on a sort of bus tour around valley as it wouldn't have been possible to walk even part way (the trail is 30km long), with pit stops for taking photos and getting a taste of the climate.

My first time seeing a frozen lake, and everyone walked onto it blatantly ignoring the "湖面冰薄，禁止玩耍" sign.

With photogs around you get lots of random shots like this. With friends like mine you get lots of other photog-taking-photog shots too.

Dinner was a typical hotpot meal although we committed some drastic over-ordering. That night, the guide also  came to do a pre-hike briefing-inspection. We managed to convey our intentions to summit Dafeng peak and he proceeded to approve or disprove our individual pieces of clothing. Our tent and sleeping bags got the pass, thankfully. In case anyone is interested, since we've already taken the effort to find out through the use of Mandarin, the climbing permit is obtained at a sort of ticket hall at the foot of the mountain (CNY150 per pax) and we paid CNY500 for the guide and CNY500 for the horse.

Yes, the horse. The horse is important.

The Hike

The guide picked us up from the hostel at 9.30am the next day and helped with getting the permit. And then hike started with... stairs--a gentle but longgg stretch.

Terrain 1: Stairs. Useful for some last-minute acclimatisation.

Terrain 2: Snowy slopes. Pretty shady, and the transition to the next terrain was a bit of a surprise.

The stairs ended at a ticket barrier, beyond which lay a sort of snow globe scene which was how I imagined most of the hike would look. Nope. After a relatively short, crunchy climb we emerged onto wide open meadows worthy of LOTR orc hunting. But as much as I could imagine Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli racing past, I think we all weren't in much of a mood for running. Remember that we started at an elevation of 3200m at the town. So even though the gradient was kind for most of the approach, probably not steep enough to break a sweat if done at sea level, the gentlest of slopes were enough to get the heart working. At this point, the other two decided to let go of their packs--and here's where the horse comes in again.

The sun-soaked start of the rest of the way!

The horse (which turned out to be two horses, collectively known as 白龙 as it wasn't clear which one the guide was referring to) which cost CNY500 to rent was an essential feature of our hike. Without them I think our chances of success would've been below zero because we'd have collapsed on the starting stairs. We began the hike with only our personal packs as the tent, sleeping bags, tripods and other assorted gear had already been packed into a neat 17kg pack for one horse to take up the mountain for us. The second horse came with a saddle (hmm...) and had a bit of load added to it at the start of the meadows (I kept my pack on as I had no heavy camera gear to manage, so it was pretty ok). And thus, with a sudden surge of energy, we carried on.

白龙 #1, with me for scale. The packhorses there were all of the short but sturdy-looking kind.

I didn't actually have much hiking experience before this trip, other than day trips around some hilly areas in Malaysia and the UK. So I decided to be cautious as I didn't know where the point of no recovery was and wanted to avoid it completely. Hence I settled for slightly heavy breathing or a safe ~120 bpm heart rate as the limit, especially on sustained slopes. Flat stretches were always welcome for recovery but not so much the down slopes (all my hard-earned elevation! D:<).

Terrain 3: Meadows. Comes with a generous helping of sunlight and elevation.

The landscape changed as we went, morphing between wide open meadows and grassy dirt corridors shaded by trees. The views were always a great excuse to slow down and take a break anyway, especially on open stretches with 360 deg unobscured view of mountains and valley. It's worth mentioning that the weather was fantastic, with clear blue skies and such generous sunlight that it hardly felt like winter at all on the lower sections. It got hot as we climbed, so all my extra layers went back into the pack.

Soundtracks of the ascent: Go the Distance from Disney's Hercules and Elevate by DJ Khalil.

Terrain 4: Tree-tunnels and compacted mud. Alternates with Terrain 3.

A short note on wildlife. No orcs on these plains but yak were plentiful, and they stared if we passed by slowly enough. Also, the wild birds and this one cat at the lunch stop were legit round. Like balls/beans on legs. It's probably the climate that causes them to store a healthy amount of fat under a comfy outer layer of fur/feathers, but still pretty amusing and cute to see.

After the lunch stop, the grassy dirt slopes gave way to rocky paths with random icy patches/streams every here and there. The gradient also gradually got steeper, and conditions became windier and colder.

Terrain 5: Scrubby hillside paths. Also out in the open, but much wilder than the meadows and with harsher wind. Back on came the thick purple jacket.

Ice and snow started to reappear, and someone wanted to slide down the stream.

The final section of the approach was the hardest for me. When we caught up with our guide at the last meeting point before base camp, he told us that we were at about 3700m with 2km to go. The math wasn't very encouraging but we trudged on. By then, I had gotten very hungry twice in a very short time (which is very unusual). I don't know how long that final bit took--it was just rocky step after rocky step--but I was pretty jelly-legged when we finally sighted something that looked like a rock hut at the top of a steep hill...

Terrain 6: Rocky slopes and is... is that..?

We knew that there would be rock huts at the base camp, but it must be emphasised how determinedly we were trying to temper our expectations. I.e. MUST NOT let ourselves believe that that's the end. Thankfully, the final steep climb really led us to base camp and the end of the approach hike. It would've been much less of a disappointment than some kind of deep despair if that hadn't been the case. All in all, it took us a a decent 7h to get to base camp (10am-5pm) and by the time we took a break (stoning on a rock) and pitched the tent in rising winds, night had fallen.

Base camp at last and the view from it!

Another shot of base camp, featuring stone huts that we opted not to stay in and our very reliable tent which withstood monstrous winds at night, keeping us warm and toasty.

Now how do I explain how bloody cold -20 deg C really is. Let's start with clothing from inside out: 2 thermal tops + t-shirt + fleece + cashmere sweater + thick windproof jacket, 2 thermal leggings + waterproof pants, 2 socks + waterproof boots, thick gloves and beanie. Nothing more, nothing less than the entire wardrobe, especially for making a trip to the outhouse in the dead of the night under a sky full of stars. [Very unfortunate that we have no photos of this amazing sight--not even from the pros coz it was "warm and toasty" in the tent. It took a lot of willpower to stay out of the tent and simply look at the sky.] Another indicator was that noodles straight out of a boiling pot took about 5 seconds to go cold.

One final photo taken before the morning. While sifting through the collection, I found a couple of photos of dinner but blurred as though the photographer was shivering violently through the shot.

In the end, I didn't attempt to summit. My internal decision-making mechanism, which had been constantly re-calculating as we ascended into the cold, had put out a roughly 25% chance of a summit attempt by the time we reached base camp. From the research, I knew that we'd be covering a great deal of elevation over a much steeper incline as compared to the approach. Did I mention it was cold? And so when I got this funny, crawling feeling at the back of my throat for no apparent reason, followed shortly by a headache, that calculation went straight to 0%. I learnt two things that night. First, that the AMS medicine really works on me--after faithfully following the plan for one week, that night was the only time I'd missed a dosage (perhaps there was some overconfidence there). Second, that I'm very OK with cutting losses haha.

The back of base camp and the summit trail (the left-ish path squeezing through the rock) which was clearly a lot steeper and required some scrambling.

In fact I was already fairly satisfied with getting to the Mt. Siguniang base camp. With this, the highest elevation I've reached in my life stands at 4300m, more than 8 times any previous high point. JY and HY both attempted the summit, leaving at about 4am in the freezing darkness. They made it to about 4600m before turning back. In the meantime, I stayed warm and toasty in the tent. There were times where in hindsight (and in more comfortable conditions) I wondered with tiny regret if I should've done it anyway. But all I have to remember is -20 deg C and I think no more. Anyway, as I'd been told by multiple colleagues (along with orders to come back in one piece), the mountain will always be there if I ever decide to go back. Though probably never again in the height of winter xD

The morning after, with us in significantly more layers than before.

Later that morning, after the other two had cocooned themselves in the sleeping bags to thaw, we struck our tent and headed down. The descent, though easy on the lungs, was no good for the knees and somehow felt every bit as long as the ascent. It also became a regular occurrence for us to express disbelief upon looking down at endless slopes, that we'd gone the opposite way just the day before. Eventually it took us about 5h to make our way down (10.30am-3.30pm).

Plenty of time and opportunity for some mountain modelling. Being obedient yields great profile pictures!

Near the end of the descent, we realised that of the three phones that followed us to China, the most important one had gone missing. It couldn't be located even after the remaining guides went searching on the mountain, so the exact time and location where it got lost remains a mystery. We did have a slight hunch, though unfortunately there wasn't much chance of going all the way back to base camp to search for it. So this was how we ended up feeling the full extent of censorship and disconnectedness of having no data roaming or VPN in China. I'd downloaded some useful Chinese apps before the trip, but somehow forgot the most important one: Wechat. The thing about getting all our apps from the Google Play store is that there is no way of downloading something new on local wifi. We tried many creative ways to no effect so dammit, things were getting inconvenient. Hotmail still works btw.

Nothing else to report from our time in Siguniangshan Town other than that we over-ordered at the hotpot place for a second time, despite almost halving our order. It's like the mountain ordeal shaved off a fair bit of our appetites. Oh and alcohol was back on the menu since we were off the AMS pills by then. (HY drinks too.)

Post-hike

On the day we headed back to Chengdu, it became quite clear how lucky we'd been in terms of weather because it had started snowing. The winding roads were iced over at some areas and the scenery, green when we arrived, had turned a dusty white. I'm very thankful that we never had to contend with any form of precipitation on the mountain, which means that we really got the best views of the season.

Whiteout outside! We'd booked seats on a private-hire car which had to go slow enough on icy patches, so I'd imagine buses would take even longer to get out of the mountainous region.

Back in the city we made buying a phone (or at least attempting to) our priority, which really put our language skills to the test. Conversational Mandarin with patchy vocabulary works in SG because English words can always be substituted into blank spaces, which is about the best I can do. So props to HY for fronting the phone-buying conversation, scrutinising the specs and all in Mandarin. Eventually the phone was not bought though, as we couldn't ascertain if phones bought in China can be used normally overseas (Google Play straight out refused to open during test downloads). I learnt that app = 软件 that day, though "A-P-P" seems to work as well.

And guess where we went, after happening to spy the vaguely familiar title on Baidu maps. The SG version is called 莱佛士城 in Chinese (I googled)--literally Raffles City, with "Raffles" translated as a name. The one in Chengdu is called 来福士广场, which reveals a lot about their priorities ahaha. It was also so structurally similar that we found all the foodstuff at the basement and ended up having some 麻辣串串 (with emphasis on 麻 and even greater emphasis on 辣), soupless dumplings operating under cover as 小笼包, 炸酱面 and some good ol' Koi/Gongcha to douse the flames.

Not too clear but the Raffles City logo can be seen at the bottom.

And thus the best of the trip ended, at least for two of us. HY and I parted ways with JY at the airport [she carried on, sans phone, for another exciting leg but that's not my story to tell] and flew to klia2 for an 8h layover before heading back to Changi >.< It was a long time, but it helped slightly to be back to normal Internet accessibility.

It was nice just to disappear into nature for a few days. Also, I now see the draw of hiking trips and sometimes find myself thinking/googling what else I could climb next... I'll be looking for opportunities, for time and space in between real life in the city, just to get out there and experience something like this trip again :)

Cheers!

Krabi 2018

One fine day not too long ago, a bunch of weekly boulderers decided that it would be a good idea to go climbing in Krabi, where the primary discipline is lead. A snappy purchase of air tickets kinda locked in the plan afterwards and with no turning back, we finally got ourselves lead verified (after procrastinating for an entire year). We've now even got some nice new rope to lead some more. Ah, the impetus of sunk cost.

For me, Krabi 2018 (17-21 Nov) came at the close of yet another crazy period and was hardly any rest, but in a way it was a great break. 'Twas lovely just to spend time with sun, sea, sand and stone. And friends too! Can't ask for much more with full strength attendance of Team Cockfosters, even if just for a few short days. [Gonna rip some photos from these same friends since I didn't use my own phone much.]

The views!

The last time I set foot on Krabi I hadn't turned 20, so suffice to say things have changed. Tonsai seems to have become much more concretised, complete with a graffiti-covered walkway where (at least in my memory) there used to be a simple dirt path. Also, none of my footwear got sucked to the depths this time, thanks to well-fitting Decathlon water shoes (a good buy!).

Over and above everything else, the rock was just as I remembered. But let's first address what made the trip as shag as it was. The main culprits were the 6.30am risers for 7am breakfast. Between this time and 9+am where we'd reach the day's designated wall, there would be lots of bashing through the undergrowth, scrambling across iffy terrain, guidebook-consulting moments and many other forms of faffing. Cobra Wall was particularly hard to get to by the inland route (imagine having to be consistently wary of toppling off the trail and straight into the sea). And then of course, there was the climbing.  

Getting to Cobra Wall--would have been a lot easier to go by the coast if the water wasn't at waist-height.

I knew from as early as August that I was screwed for this trip, climbing-wise, because climbing once a month is not the best way to prep for the outdoors. True enough, I clipped no anchors this time. I can't seem to muster enough "fight" while climbing these days, prob coz the worst consequence is only my personal disappointment. But after doing my best under prevailing conditions and having a decent amount of fun, it was good enough.

6a and 6c at Cobra Wall. I'm obviously not on the 6c.

Trying the starting moves of the 6c which was pretty much a boulder problem. Would not have dared to do this on lead.

We visited 3 areas over 3 days (Cobra Wall, 1-2-3 Wall and Tonsai Roof). I climbed a handful of 6as and 6bs (some on toprope) and had great mistrust in my ability to hold anything less than jugs. There were a great deal of ledges too, which either meant standing and admiring the view and not wanting to move on, or wasting a great deal of energy trying to get up and chickening out multiple times. Interestingly, whatever else I felt, outdoor lead seemed less scary/intimidating on this trip than all previous times I've done it. At least I experienced normal, fun climbing on two-thirds of most routes before self-doubt started to bare its teeth. Much left to be desired in terms of mental game, but compared to fearing for my life from the first or second clip, it seems like there's some sort of improvement.

Such pretty rock features!

Those few short days in Tonsai ended with frisbee by the beach/in the water/nearly beheading passing beach-goers, trying to be artistic with silhouette sunset shots and the daily tom yum (to avoid disappointment, always ask for "kung"). In the nights, mandatory codenames/bridge till incomprehensible.

Sunset shot from a point-and-shoot kind of person.

I found this shot pretty funny. Guys were all squashed in the first mario kart otw to our Ao Nang accoms because, as the drivers instructed, "this one men only, this one women only".

No rest for the weary as the adventure continued even after heading back to Ao Nang on the 2nd-last day. For the girls at least. There were two very different wefies taken that evening and let's just say the guys' set was taken in a rather more comfortable setting. We, on the other hand, were busy making our way to the top of Tiger Cave Temple. I dislike stairs but the climb was actually far easier than I thought it'd be (and water shoes + socks werks). After taking my sweet time (30 mins) I reached the top where there was no sunset to be seen. Sighs... I'd actually gotten to see decent sunsets from Tonsai Bay, but where it mattered most, the sky was all but overcast with only a vague smear of pink to remind that the sun was on its way home. Behind the clouds, somewhere. Yea looks like the curse is back.

1,237 steps later. Pro-tip: remember not to wear too-short shorts.

Far overrr the Misty Mountains coldddd~

[After-note: I happily relayed to my sister that we'd successfully followed her example (of rushing up just in time for sunset and descending in the dark) and received the biggest eye-roll ever. Apparently the idea was not to repeat her experience, which instead we took as precedence. But her tale included mobs of gangland monkeys that would glare at you from the branches. Interestingly I saw none of those... I don't think I saw any monkeys there in fact.]

A pretty sight as the lights come on.

The road home (literally, as it leads to Krabi International Airport).

Fast forward to the journey to dinner afterwards (after a shower to get out of downright gross clothes by then well-seasoned with sand, salt and sweat). So we got the resort to prepare some transport for us and a party truck showed up, complete with flashing RGB lights and techno music. Probably no party truck ever ferried a deader bunch... but we revived a bit when the music player rudely signaled its retirement with a piercing blast. Afterwards there was beer --> some supermarket shenanigans --> more beer before we finally called it a night.

And next day, I was back home with limbfuls of battle scars and a wistful longing for a hypothetical next trip in Dec 2019. This trip was much too short (5 days with really only 3 days to do anything), but it was one of the best times I've had in recent memory.

Here's presenting the people who made this possible in our one and only (out of 20 or so gopro burst shots) full group photo of the trip:

Team Cockfosters at its finest.

And of course, one for the memories:

I daresay this won't be the last we hear of this song, given that this can hardly be our last climbing trip to Thailand :)

What I've been up to

Let's take it that the plan was always to write every month bi-monthly quarterly every third half-yearly.

In any case, it's been a while. It's coz I've been consistently prioritising things other than writing during the me-time that's left once I'm done with work/climbing/whatever else I do outside. First up is sleep (yes, sleeping early stems from conscious choice). Second, and the only thing to rival sleep nowadays, is to read. [Gaming's been stripped of all priority coz there's only so much one can do before bedtime.]

Feels great to be back on a hearty diet of fiction after a depressing year of half-read non-fiction books. I was beginning to think I'd somehow stopped liking to read... until I picked up His Dark Materials earlier this year. Turns out all it takes are the right books. For me, it seems that if there's no story, I'm inclined to lose interest in whatever author intends to tell me next, let alone turn pages into the night. Current read: A Song of Ice and Fire. Was initially reluctant to start when I got my hands on them e-books coz (1) things were getting busy and (2) I feared to grapple with a highly epic but slow-moving story written in a lofty, archaic style as per LOTR. But I jumped in anyway coz (1) busy was here to stay and get worse and (2) after taking a stab at the first few pages, I found (to my surprise) that it's very easy to read. Bottom line is: I'm glad I still enjoy reading and journeying along in a good story.

In other news, I've been amassing a collection of black shirts lately from jumping at all sorts of opportunities to go monkeying around. [The exercise segment of my wardrobe makes it look like I'm preparing to join the Night's Watch.] So life's been full of obstacles lately but quite a few are 自找的, namely the Spartan Race, Battle Bay Extreme, Urban Attack. Haha, it's something else that's fun to do other than climbing, and incidentally also draws upon the climber skill sets. Things like getting over walls and cargo nets aren't difficult once you're used to holding smaller stuff and using your feet. But then there's always things to pick up, and it can sometimes be surprising to find out what comes easy and what doesn't. E.g. learning to scale a rope and actually going all the way in the same setting wasn't surprising. But I found that climbing strength =/= weightlifting strength after feeling a whole new group of muscles burn in the aftermath of the Spartan Race. Basically, the only sort of weightlifting I'd ever done before that was to carry office water refills (18kg) on no more than 20m walks. This newfound awareness helped me make some wise decisions for the BBE, where I'd certainly not be able to hoist a 25kg sandbag over my head and lob it over a wall. So I went for the "most difficult" category instead, equipped more for swinging around.

[I wish I'd some nice photos to post of all these and I really should be sleeping now.]

Also don't do these things without friends, it'll be like playing at a playground alone. Post-race day Whatsapp group muscle ache complaints are all part of the fun. I'm also now convinced that I don't care for glory if it doesn't come with an attainable reward, but I do get a kick out of maximising my gain:effort ratio. So depending on situation, I can be perfectly un-competitive ;)

Welp, nothing else to report. OH WAIT, HK solo trip post still pending and I swear the time will come when I have time to write it properly. Other than that... everything else seems to revolve around food and drink which I seem to be more willing to spend on these days. Not toooo helpful when it comes to conquering obstacles but hey the stomach's part of the body too so it also deserves to be kept happy hahaha. In fact, one of the best memories I have from within these almost-6 months was when a friend emptied her entire cup of honey wine into mine, saying "you need it". I'm sure it wasn't just my stomach that was feeling warm then :)

BKK/KK 2017

One travel post to rule them all this year, and to end it off. The first 6 days this December I spent in Thailand, more specifically Bangkok and Khon Kaen, on what was primarily a climbing trip. But that doesn't mean we didn't do other things hahaha. Thinking back, there were minimal "blank moments" and everything was pretty much packed into one smooth happening [figuratively speaking only as the rocks were anything but smooth]. I wish I could include every detail [hmm ok maybe not all of them...], but instead, here are the things I find most worth remembering :)

Prologue (1-2 Dec)

The plan was to fly into BKK, spend some hours as tourists, then get on the night train to KK and start our outdoor climbs bright and early on the second day. And then we managed to book train tix for the wrong night, even with three pairs of eyes looking at the same laptop screen. This I still find pretty funny lol. Hence, we ended up with one more day to spend as tourists in BKK.

So of course we decided to go (indoor) climbing on that extra day. [Much to the horror of some ppl I mentioned the plan to--so much for a chance to just shop and chill but nope that's not how we roll] Before that, a few other things worth mentioning coz it's BKK after all, such as this particular tom yum from The New Rot Fai Market Ratchada. But first, there was the getting there.

Now I really KNOW the importance of having "public transport with its own right of way". This pic was taken in a pretty screwed position, with every car trying to make a U-turn effectively removing one lane from an already congested road.

3 km/h is a frustrating speed to travel at under any circumstance, not to mention when one is hungry. Story goes that we decided to take a Grab since it was about 30 baht more expensive than the equivalent BTS (the BKK MRT) ride and we wouldn't have to walk 10 mins out to the station. Bad decision. I should've seen the signs, especially when the driver accepted the booking from 3 streets and "4 mins" away, only to arrive close to 30 mins later. It took an hour after that for us to cover a distance we could've walked in 30 mins. At least we learnt the lesson with no major consequence and from there, it was "trust public transport only" for getting to the train ride/flight out of BKK.

And back to the tom yum. Along with the accompanying drinks, this gets the joint title of "best thing eaten on this trip" with one other dinner to be mentioned later. It's also the kind of thing one snaps a picture of to send to friends back home who are not on holiday hehe. Just look at the picture! There's maggi hiding at the bottom, soaking up all the just-the-right-level-of-spicy goodness. On hindsight, one thing I'm not sure of is why we decided to challenge ourselves by shelling the prawns and crab legs with chopsticks, instead of our fingers (dunno is it subconsciously preserving them for the climbing days ahead or what). Anyhow, the seafood all tasted good once we coaxed them into the open. When paired with large cups of iced Thai/green milk tea... Heaven. Hmm actually, "large" isn't accurate; when J returned with the drinks it honestly looked like she was holding brightly coloured flowerpots, the genuine ceramic kind.

To give a sense of scale, the larger mussel is palm-sized.

This was followed by a good sleep and the first of 4 consecutive climbing days, but indoors instead of out. In practically an immediate reaction to our gaffe with the train tix, we'd gone to google for climbing gyms in BKK. Like plan to climb for 4 days so MUST climb for 4 days. Or prob coz none of us shop much anyway. After lazing around until we got tired of lazing (just as well, we'd be waking well before 7am on every day that followed), it was off to the first climb.

It's not common for me to get sold on anything just from online reviews, but that was exactly the case for Rock Domain Climbing Gym. I don't rmb ever being so keen on visiting any climbing gym. The best part is that the real thing exceeded expectations! 2 levels of boulder walls with varying profiles, even including a sloped/inclined area and top out zone for us to practice mantling for the next few days lolol. Routes had a slightly foreign style, but there were sooo many to satisfy all kinds of itchy fingers! Unfortunately, some restraint was necessary so as not to prematurely destroy any body part. At that point, I'd thought it'd be possible for us to come back on our final day to go all out and actually try hard on some of the fun stuff. Wellz let's see what happens...

Team Quechua, a subsidiary of Team Cockfosters.

Oh yes, we also made good use of the top-notch facilities (shower and café). Climb + chill + shower made for a very good (holi)day indeed. Thinking about it now, that was also my final hot shower of the trip... That night, we finally boarded our misbooked train and exhausted the night's supply of water over dinner, no thanks to some tongue-numbingly spicy minced chicken. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the small, cozy bunk space and actually managed to fall asleep.

What We Came For (3-5 Dec)

Fast forward to the next three consecutive climbing days in the Zoolander boulder fields! First things first, Zoolander is a new area which the friendly people of Khon Kaen Climbing Club are working hard to develop. Develop (roughly) meaning mapping out boulders in the place and finding lines (the outdoor equivalent of routes) to climb on them. There is an established bouldering area in KK with thousands of routes from years of development, but that was unfortunately made off limits to climbers just shortly before our trip (damn). It's a shame, but it made room for some new experiences. Coz in Zoolander, we got to help develop climbs on some never-before-climbed stuff which in its own right is pretty cool. One just has to take a walk through the forest to know the area's potential--something climbable every few steps.

Now on to the actual bouldering! It was more than 2 years since the last time and I'd really missed it. Interestingly, my favourite climb of the trip took the form of a V2 slab. Why is very simple... coz use less fingers xD I really enjoy climbing outdoors but my fingers could've done with a little more toughness this round (in terms of both strength and skin). As compared to all my previous outdoor experiences, the footholds here were pretty generous (with decent shoes and footwork of course). There's this common perception that natural boulders have really shitty footholds so you can't always trust your feet, and this makes things scary. I've found that to be true elsewhere but here's the opposite. [At least for me, if you ask my trip mates they might tell you different haha] What's really scary is having good feet, but being unable to trust the hands.

KK's got an elephant too! No #Deniseforscale this time but it had pretty interesting lines. Ascend the "elephant head" up the trunk for a scarily slopey top out and iffy landing or the "elephant ear", crimpy-shouldery up the right side. Squished photo coz the elephant's face is practically touching another rock.

Because these were all newly developed boulders, some even never-before-climbed, they possessed two slightly less than desirable traits. They bite, and they break. Firstly about the biting. While I do remember meeting some rough rock (e.g. grit stone in the Peak District), there hasn't been anything nearly as Sharp, with a capital S. [To my friend J though, the holds are merely "textured" so I really have to take my hat off to her and beseech my fingers to toughen up before the next trip.] Thankfully, sharp holds aren't necessarily life-threatening. What's really heart-stopping is when a handhold breaks in the middle of a climb... which did happen to me near the top of one boulder. I am generally confident in my footwork, and on this trip, much more so than my hands. As such, I also ended up not topping out on a few boulders :x If I were a purist I'd prob be really upset with myself but I can live with it hahaha, prob better not to risk a slip and breaking something on the upper half of my body.

I guess the sharp holds made a huge impression. Won't lie, the pain really got to me. When I pulled onto that first warmup V1, my mind just went, "Ouch??" But then if you ignore the sharpness and look purely at the climbs (some V1-4s attempted), they were actually pretty sleek and technical. There was this one V2 which I attempted prob too many times just to try and not chicken out at the top out. While eventually unsuccessful, the specificity of the moves was really what I enjoyed (see below). Same thing with another overhanging V3 with crimpy holds and perfectly located footholds almost like in a gym setting. Would've very much liked to try that one again without burning fingertips and breaking off a foothold at my best attempt.

Coz blogger's video function sucks, here's the starting sequence of a V2 in screenshots. Took us an exceedingly long time to even start at first, after that it was all a matter of sticking the crimpy holds and finding the holds at the slopey top out, which I failed to do.

On that note, gotta talk about that slab. We were introduced to the "Blade Rock" on the morning of the final day, where my fingers were pretty much already screaming. The boulder was so named because that's really what it looks like--a bad guy weapon. The interesting thing about this one was that it's flat, so there's no climbing over or on top of it (downclimb to get off). Not sure how it got there, but it could be that it broke from the main rock on the opposite side of the path and came to lean against the tree at the perfect slab angle.

Side + front view of the Blade Rock, about 4m tall. Squashed photo again coz I practically had to lie on the opposite rock to get most of it in frame.

There were a couple of easy lines on the extreme left of the blade and also the option of traversing the entire length from the right and up the leftmost edge for a V2. After scouting (and looking pretty much exclusively at the footholds), I knew I could flash the whole thing. No video/photo unfortunately, coz despite being fairly close to the ground, there was some areas where you couldn't really put a crashpad. So kiasu and have 2 spotters better than falling backwards. All those no-hands rests along the way were also greatly appreciated haha. Going up the left edge was pretty cool too, utilising some OK footholds and some less-OK ones, and trying not to barndoor out into oblivion. Of course, falling on this rock would've meant a cheese grating no amount of spotting could've helped, so I'm glad nothing like that happened haha.

The last experience in the boulder field involved cleaning boulders which is pretty much what it sounds like, short of scrubbing with soap. Basically, boulders in their natural state can be found sleeping under mounds of dead leaves, guarded fiercely by thorny undergrowth and the occasional spawn of Aragog. To lower the chance of nasty incidents (climbing shoes are useless against the slippery dead leaves for one) and actually climb, some of these things have to be removed. So on this trip, I added shears to my bank of experiences with farm tools. After some sweeping and snipping, there was also the matter of removing actual bits of rock. Remember how new rock breaks? It takes some climbing for the rock to stabilise, i.e. people to break more things off, leaving only the strong, truly climbable parts. Thin flakes are particularly breakable, but they're mostly harmless except for a mini heart attack. What's not harmless is a face-sized block of rock coming off and hitting one's face. As we saw then, these things do pull off, especially if one is heavy and happened to cut loose while holding onto them. So it's best to remove these things before even getting on.

Some pruning going overhead and J's not using the wrong end of the broom there, she's testing some chossy bits.

The rock we cleaned really looked soooooo good, with a nice rail going all round it like a ring around a planet. But at that point, I couldn't even bear to load on anything anymore. Think my fingers would've instigated a bloodbath, so I did not try :( Next time! But I can't be sure... now KK's returned to the end of the extremely long queue list for climbing trips, hopefully I'll be climbing long enough to come back someday.

France? UK? Malaysia?

The other mentionables include our journey up to Nam Phong National Park. It was 4 Dec where the climbing day started at 8.30am (meant leaving at 7.30am (meant getting up at 6.30am)) and by 3pm we were already faffing just a tad too much. So on a recommendation, we took a trip up to the place which housed the original bouldering areas of KK (not exactly to the boulder field though). The drive took us down winding roads that called up memories of the European countryside, and also a good way along this hugeass reservoir. The best part was that we somehow ended up at a perfect viewing point--a real viewing point--just as the sun was setting. Was a real nice touch there.

I prob used up my next 5 years worth of sunset luck on this one. Yes, that's the reservoir not the sea.

Also we did visit the zoo [after paying zoo entry fees every day coz the boulder fields were within the same huge plot of land], specially to see the "lemurs". It turned out to be one lonely lemur lounging at the bottom of its cage and my heart sank a little at the sight.

Last but definitely not the least from the KK leg: the other best dinner of the trip. Would it be strange to say that I had the best sashimi ever in KK? Yep, our hunt for dinner one night led us to one fairly up-class Japanese place which by sheer chance was offering 30% off everything on the menu. So we strolled right in in our climbing things. Three great surprises in this dinner. The first was that the wasabi served was without doubt the REAL thing I'd never before tasted. There's this viral video of a sushi chef teaching an angmoh guy to eat sushi, and he describes the wasabi as sweet. It's true. Real wasabi, unlike the powdered fair we usually get, tastes sweet and has enough kick in a droplet-sized smear to evoke the same sinus-clearing effect. Second was that sashimi. I've never had to take more than a single bite to finish a slice of raw salmon before. In this case, each thick slab took three whole bites to finish and they were the freshest, fattiest sashimi I've ever eaten. I now realise I have no picture of this, but this just goes to show how amazing it was. Last: this dinner cost S$12 per person ;)

No picture of the sashimi, but the main dinner is just as photogenic. It's called the HYPER ROLL.

Epilogue (6 Dec)

Yea, we thought we'd be going back to Rock Domain to try hard on this final day but well sometimes we think too highly of our physical capabilities. So it was shaping up to be a longgg day ahead when the train deposited us back in BKK at 6am when practically nowhere was open AND our flight was at 9pm. So what happened was that (after a futile attempt to find some hostel to crash for the morning) 3 zombies ended up hobo-ing at a Starbucks, huddled around a tablet playing Sporcle xD At 1pm, this games cafe (Throne of Games Cafe) we'd been eyeing opened for business. And then we managed to spend the following 5 hours in there before having to rush to get to the airport. All thanks to Voldemort and his cronies haha. The game was Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, a co-op deck building game which was in no way easy towards the end. Highly recommended, what with all the breath-holding and "I can heal you just whack, KILL HIM" moments. In the end, we didn't even get to defeat Voldemort properly before hightailing it out of the place. But based on our projections, he'd be dead within two rounds and that's an indication of how late we were already hahaha.

In this game, Ron (whom I played throughout) is powerful, Hermione is a money-mine, Neville is a healer and Harry is nothing special.

So that was it, the last afternoon spent in the most unexpectedly worthwhile manner. Anddd just like that, holiday was overrr. Wasn't the most restful trip ever, but we had our fun and I can't wait for the next one already :D

While we're still young :)