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The reason I didn't get to ski until the end of January- Thailand

Kimmyt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
This was a big year for me, in October my fiancee and I got married. We took some time after the wedding to recuperate, and then went on our honeymoon over the Christmas holiday.

Generally our vacations are filled with one of our hobbies, and there was no reason to do it differently on our honeymoon.

So we decided to travel 1/2 way across the world (literally!) and spend 3 weeks rock climbing in Thailand. Unfortunately this meant delaying our start to the skiing season, as usually we would take the holiday week to do our first ski trip. But, it was worth it!

In the end, 3 weeks turned into 2 weeks and 5 days because we missed the first 2 days of the trip due to the snowstorm that walloped the Philadelphia area.But we got there eventually.

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We started off in Bangkok before heading to the coast. Above is the Golden Chedi at the Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok.

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One of my favorite pictures of tiled rooves at the Wat Phra Kaew complex in Bangkok.

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After Bangkok we headed directly to Ton Sai, a small climber/backpacker beach near Railay on the Andaman coast. The above photo is of the ubiquitous longtail boats, like the water taxis of SE asia.

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View of Ton Sai beach from the top of a climb.

After spending a few days on Ton Sai we headed to a small island called Koh Lao Liang with a 'luxury' resort on it that consisted of tents and really good food. It was worth the extra money, to feel like you had your own private island. Plus, the climbing was less than a stone's throw away, and you could just leave your gear at the base of the climbs.

We ended up staying there longer than we had planned, mostly because it was so freaking awesome.

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The view from the beach of ocean and coral, only about 30 feet from our tent.

I am not a beach person, but island life was not so bad.
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A snapshot of me that The Boy took from the top of the first pitch of a climb. It was low tide and while he rappelled I was hunting for hermit crabs.

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Shot of a boatman taking us off the island to the ferry.

After that we headed to the famous island of Koh Phi Phi. If you've ever seen the beach, this is where that was shot, so it is a huge tourist destination. It also has good easy climbing so we decided to give it a try.

After climbing the first day I got food poisoning and was out of commission for a day. The next day I felt mildly better and along with some other Americans we met, we hired a longtail to take us snorkeling.

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Me, snorkeling in the brilliant waters around Phi Phi.

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The next day I felt much better so we climbed again. Me rappelling a multipitch route with a view of Phi Phi behind us. This area was hit very badly by the Tsunami and is completely rebuilt, in fact there are probably more buildings there now than before the wave hit.

After Phi Phi we went back to Ton Sai for the rest of the trip.

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Picture from our longtail boat after a day of deep water soloing, the light turned really nice out so I was taking mad photos.

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Picture of us on the longtail.

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Sunset from a beach at the end of the trip.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
First Congratulations!!!!!!!

And WOW. Guess I need to add another place to that lottery winning list!
 

Kimmyt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks for the congrats!

The nice thing about SE asia is that it is very budget friendly. Thailand, especially where we were, happens to be more touristy so the prices are a little bit higher.

That said, the most expensive part of the trip was the flight. We stayed in very budget accomodations for at around 30-50 USD a night. The 50 dollar one was a splurge, with a.c. The cheapest place we stayed was a shack that cost 12 USD, and keep in mind when we were there it was High High season so prices were even higher.

If you stick to the north, or go to a less travelled country like Malaysia, you can probably spend much less. But still, we did not spend too much... spending 2 USD for a dinner is pretty typical.

If you want to stay at a luxury resort, you can find them for around 100USD, which is pretty cheap considering!
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
Congrats! And thanks for the pics, too - the one of you rapelling makes my hands sweat.
 

Kimmyt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Ack, i just realized I went over the 10 pic limit! I can't figure out how to edit the post, so Ski Diva if you see this, can you help me remove a few pics so it's within the size limits!?
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Ack, i just realized I went over the 10 pic limit! I can't figure out how to edit the post, so Ski Diva if you see this, can you help me remove a few pics so it's within the size limits!?

New forum + new rule = confusion

I'm leaving it alone.
 

Severine

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Simply amazing! Congrats on the nuptials! What an awesome way to celebrate!!!!

The nice thing about SE asia is that it is very budget friendly. Thailand, especially where we were, happens to be more touristy so the prices are a little bit higher.

That said, the most expensive part of the trip was the flight. We stayed in very budget accomodations for at around 30-50 USD a night. The 50 dollar one was a splurge, with a.c. The cheapest place we stayed was a shack that cost 12 USD, and keep in mind when we were there it was High High season so prices were even higher.

If you stick to the north, or go to a less travelled country like Malaysia, you can probably spend much less. But still, we did not spend too much... spending 2 USD for a dinner is pretty typical.

If you want to stay at a luxury resort, you can find them for around 100USD, which is pretty cheap considering!
I was reading Eat, Pray, Love for one of my classes and she mentions the same thing. She spent 4 months in Indonesia (Bali, to be more specific) and said that accommodations are super cheap there... However (because we did decide to go on vacation this year so I checked), flights are phenomenally expensive. Granted, you are flying halfway around the world... but that made it cost-prohibitive for us, even though lodging would have been very budget-friendly.

Someday... meanwhile, I'll live vicariously through your amazing shots! :thumbsup:
 

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