Well, it's official, I am now certified ... to rock-climb that is. The once- cabbalistic terms of belaying, top-roping and multi-pitching now hold no secrets for me. It is very enjoyable and rewarding at the same time and I'm looking forward to doing a good deal more of it when I get back home (whenever that may happen to be), although I doubt I'll ever be able to do the really outrageous routes with 2-3m overhangs. I'm also glad to have done the course now because if I had waited another couple of days it would have been impossible because the western monsoon has just started and so for the past few days there has been almost non-stop heavy rain. The monsoon also caused the sea to be rather choppy, which made the ferry ride back to civilisation somewhat precarious in the incredibly unsteady long-tail boat. These boats make up the backbone of the short-haul ferry fleet here in Thailand and are an obscene mixture of old meets new: graceful wooden curves with a V6 engine (probably plundered from a rundown truck) strapped to the back. It's amazing to think though, that only 100 miles away on the eastern South China sea coast the weather is balmy and gorgeous without a hint of rain (their monsoon comes in the second half of the year). This short experience of monsoon weather, however, has already made me want to experience as little of it as possible; therefore I'll be skipping Myanmar for the moment and will hopefully get back to it when I'm on the other side in India. For the time being though, it's onwards and upwards to Bangkok.
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