17 Dec Leaving Never Never Land

I left Never Never Land today. Can’t say I didn’t tear up just a bit. I had a nice quiet goodbye. Breakfast with Lei and Micka, a big hug and possible future travel plans with Kelwin, and Lei walked me to the boat station. I even got a hug from Jay at Sabai (the others were all passed out), and goodbyes from Mama at Tiew Khao bungalow. I am currently en route to Koh Tao to meet the amazing Gina to do our scuba diving course!

Oh, Tonsai, the way you make me feel…

I had only planned on staying there a few days, but I just checked the calendar. It seems I spent exactly three weeks in this heaven on earth. So what if I’ve been in Thailand a month and hardly moved? What are plans, anyways? Distractions. Psht.

Unfortunate Events

I love Tonsai, and I know I’ve been raving about it, but it isn’t all sunshine and orchids. I had several small skin infections, one deep infection on my finger I eventually had to clean out 😬, a bit of traveler’s diarrhea. Then a nice bout of strep throat and ‘Tonsai tummy’, both of which kept me hunkered down in my bungalow closed off from the world for a couple of days. During the strep throat I had to fend for myself, but I’m pretty sure my beautiful friend Susana saved my life when she brought me water and electrolytes during Tonsai tummy time. My first bottled water of the trip!

Let me tell you…One can’t feel much lower after sitting huddled vomiting or otherwise 💩 over a non-flushing toilet in the middle of the night with a headlamp in the dark because the power has already been turned off at 2am (deep breath for the rest of this run-on sentence) surrounded by cockroaches and being swarmed by enormous mosquitos and not having the will or energy to swat them away. Not to mention that every time you need to get back up you need to untuck and re-tuck your mosquito net back in around the bed. Whew. I’m glad it’s over, but it is all just part of life. A part of travel. Tonsai is not the most sanitary place and had a definite lack of infrastructure. It’s part of the charm.

So it goes.Beach Party

I was still getting over my strep throat, but I wanted to celebrate Sam and Graham’s last night with everyone. We had planned on a beach bonfire, but since it was raining we stopped at our usual hangout – Sabai Sabai Bar! Once everyone was good and inebriated we headed to the beach anyways.

It had stopped raining and we wandered around until we found a good area to sit so the boy scouts could get the fire going. Martina had brought a ukulele and she led us in some verses. She sang in a sweet, high voice that echoed through the jungle and evaporated over the waves with the crackling wood keeping time.

People came and went, but we sang rounds and camp songs…all sweet melodies of loving life and the world and the people in it. Graham juggled hot coals, we swam in the ocean and danced on the sand, made shapes in the air with embered ends of small logs…it was an intense and wonderful night that brings a smile to my face every time I think on it.

Ao Nang

I decided to spend a day or two in Ao Nang to do some shopping (things are much cheaper there) and to visit my new friend Kris, who offered to take me hiking. We took his motorbike on a beautiful ride to Khao Nhon Nak NP.

I saw my first elephants on the way! But my shrill cries of excitement soon turned to sullen silence as I saw they all carried giant seating platforms on their backs. There wasn’t even anybody there! They just stand like that all day! 🤬 I’ll rant about that more when I get to my own elephant adventures in another month.

Anyways, the park was free, which is always awesome, and we hiked a very steep 4 km to some lookout points. I must say, this is one of, if not the most, amazing view I’ve ever seen in my life. So green, so verdant, with mountains and oceans and jungle. I was stopping every time we passed a break in the trees! Sigh 😍

I then met up with Hannah and Kaden because they were getting ready to travel onwards and were also staying in Ao Nang for the night. We split a hotel room, and guess who else was there?? Sam and Graham! And Leo came back from Bangkok! It was awesome to have the group back together again, though we kept things pretty low key after the beach party the night before.

I spent one more night with Hannah after that to get all of my ‘errands’ done, and decided that even though my new friends were leaving I just wasn’t quite done with Tonsai yet. So back I went and got an upgraded bungalow at Tiew Khao.

Monkey Life

The monkeys around Tonsai generally keep to themselves. Unless you have something that looks really interesting while walking past Monkey Wall or by the boat dock. They’ll hop on your shoulder, steal your chips, then scream at you. Otherwise they are super cute, chewing on power lines and leaping from tree to tree.

The locals have a… functional way of dealing with the little guys.

I was eating breakfast at Mama Chicken (a very popular restaurant in Tonsai, for good reason), when a monkey came down from the roof and stole a banana. He looked around as he popped it into his mouth and grabbed another one. Meanwhile we are all yelling Ling! Linglingling Ling! (Monkey! Monkey!) and Mama comes running out from the kitchen looking around frantically for the culprit.

A slightly overweight, round-faced woman with a charismatic and lopsided grin, this is a new side of her I haven’t seen. Mama sees the monkey and with focus and a strong, steady arm pulls a small slingshot armed with a rock back and lets loose. The monkeys are well aware of what the slingshot means. It scampers along the roof as she runs around the restaurant searching for her next shot. We all keep track of the clambering above and run around pointing the monkey’s current location out to her.

She takes a final shot and walks back in as if nothing happened. I ask if she got him, and she gives me a curt nod – as if to say ‘of course’ – and breaks out in her familiar half-toothed grin.

The rocks do little but sting the monkeys, but it seems to be the only thing that keeps them away from the tempting fruit at the more outlying restaurants like Mama’s and Legacy. I guess you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

Lucky

Another quintessential Tonsai spot is Lucky’s ‘Sweet Monkey Bakery’. Lucky is a sweet, happy, all around wonderful woman who loves to get to know new people, smoke a lot of weed, and bake delicious goodies. Her English is very good and she will question you about who you are and what you like or enjoy in life. She has an unmistakeable laugh. Every once in a while she makes coconut ice cream, which is apparently to die for. It’s also the only ice cream on this beach, unless you cross to Railay!

She does dinners as well. If you let her know one day ahead you can attend one of her famous Italian meals (of all things!) like lasagna or pesto pasta. I didn’t make it to any of those, but Kelwin had a grand idea to use her kitchen for a big Mexican dinner. He spent an entire day shopping in Ao Nang with Lucky and trucking it all back in a boat to Tonsai, then packing it all into a motorcycle taxi in multiple loads, then pushing the motorcycles on the sandy beach and up the steep hill to Lucky’s place on the edge of town.

Several of us met early the next day to help with food prep. It was an enormous meal which huge bowls of salsa and guacamole, two kinds of meat, rice, and cheese! It was incredible. And the company wasn’t bad either. We had friends from all over the world. Austria, Estonia, Portugal, USA…It was a fabulous time.

Climbing

I did a bit more climbing in my last week as well. Not as much as I would have liked, due to illness, but I still accomplished some great things! I was afraid of not meeting new partners, but as soon as I sat down to dinner a young Chinese woman walked up to my table, sighed, and plopped down in the chair across from me. She acted as though we had already met and then seemed to realize and asked if she could sit.

Of course I didn’t mind, but I thought the introduction rather comical. This was Lei – everyone’s personal photographer (5 baht! Haha) and a super spunky girl. We chatted a bit and soon other friends she had made joined us and though she doesn’t climb (yet), I suddenly found some new partners.

Jason, Ivon, Kevin, Skiy, Susana, Lei, and I all spent an amazing day on the rock teaching Lei and Susana more about climbing and belaying and egging them on up the wall. They were incredible! It was a blast.

Skiy, Jason, and I made plans to go up a multi pitch called Humanality on the beach, which was an incredible experience. Challenging for me, given the harder grades over a sustained period of time and being really high up (scarryyyyyy), but WOW! What a view! What great rock! What amazing people! And my first Tonsai multi pitch! It was a trip.

At one point we heard a huge *crack!* and realized some guys were BASE jumping from a spot above us. They opened just above eye level, and I watched one guy go into a line twist. His face was tense and scared and I could see it all from where I was standing locked into the wall at an anchor. He kicked out of it and veered away from the wall to land safely on the beach.

We took a break for lunch and Jason and I met with Kadry and Jürgen to do a second multi pitch called Beauty and Beast. Jason was a boss and led every route that day (I am still a lead wimp). All four of us leaned from the wall at the top, hooked into the anchor. Cramped and hot and sweaty. Friends from below shot monkey cat-calls at us and we hollered them back. Kadry climbed the last pitch without enough gear and was using single carabiners and her ATC to clip the rope until we noticed and lowered her a final draw.

All in all – one hell of a day

There were other great things, too. My first 6c, only one fall! Lily and I watching some friends crush the high line. Seeing Moritz, Sam, and Micka sending 7bs and 7cs on the beach. What a glorious place.

The Leaving Part

I have mixed feelings about my departure. More friends have already left, and I have tentative plans to see others down the road. On the one hand it feels good and exciting to be back out exploring new places and seeing other parts of the country. On the other, I’m leaving behind a magical place that feels strangely familiar – as if I’ve been there for much longer. Maybe in another lifetime. A few hours out and I already miss Skiy and Lei, and the Sabai boys, and the regular calls of ‘Sawatdee kha’, ‘morning-morning’, and Sin’s cat-calls ‘where you go-o-o-oo! Why you go?’

One thing is sure. We shall meet again, Tonsai. My body has left, but a piece of my heart will always be there with you.

Cost of one month in Thailand

Wooowwww I wait too long and my posts are so long! Honestly, if I wrote more frequently they would probably be just as long but more detailed. There is a ton I’ve left out, including amazing people I’ve met. But I’ve been here one full month so let’s do a new expense report!

Transport: 100B ($3.05)

Lodging: 2,180B ($66.40)

Food: 3,665B ($111.64)

Alcohol: 1,095B ($33.35)

Water/Electrolytes: 130B ($3.96)

Laundry: 124B ($3.78)

Clothes: 350B ($10.66)

Misc (postcards and bug spray): 250B ($7.62)

=7,894B ($240.45)

All Together Now! 28 Days:

Transport: 2,020B ($61.53)

Lodging: 6,436B ($196.04)

Food: 7,846B ($238.99)

Alcohol: 2,895B ($88.18)

Water/Electrolytes: 130B ($3.96)

Laundry: 284B ($8.65)

Clothes: 350B ($10.66)

Massage: 550B ($16.75)

Activities: 2,300B ($70.06)

SIM card: 600B ($18.28)

Misc (postage, toiletries, etc): 1,019B ($31.04)

=24,430B or $744.14

I have a few more baht than that, so it seems I documented something or other incorrectly, but hot damn! One month on less than 750 American dollars! I should splurge more! Or travel for longer…hmm 🤔

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