Diving at Phi Phi, discoing at Ao Nang & Climbing in Yao Noi

After Railay I went to Ao Nang to meet my old high school friend Hanna, who was there for diving. She actually managed to convince me to do a test dive. Seriously, I'm a person who enjoys being as high as possible (no, not speaking about ganja here) and is lightly claustrophobic. My worst nightmare is not to be able to breath. So yes, let's go diving!!!

Originally the plan was to go diving already on Friday. But luckily we didn't coz things on Thursday got a bit out of the hand and we came back to the hotel at 4 AM. I also got to witness what's a snorkel test for new divemasters. Jeezuz...

So early Saturday morning we were heading to Phi Phi Islands with Raya Divers for 2 dives. Everything went for sure smoother than I thought. I can actually breathe through the weird mouthpiece and I don't panic when a really annoying probably blind french dude is kicking&hitting me in the deep. Yes, there were a few too many people trying out scuba diving at the same time and I was an unlucky one to be in the same group with the frenchie. Also the dive sites weren't the best possible ones as I saw more sand than corals. But at least I noticed there's nothing really to be afraid of and I might consider doing owd later on the trip. Or in the next one. And thanx to Hanna for convincing me to try it out!!!

After a quick shower we of course went for a few beers. And ended up in a loud tourist/teenie disco. We didn't last long.

On Sunday it was finally time to move on to Koh Yao Noi, a sleepy island at Phang Nga bay with excellent climbing possibilities. I met a swedish-norwegian couple when I arrived and went immediately climbing with them. Luckily they were heading to a wall with routes beginning with grade 6. The guy had been climbing for 14 years and was confident with grade 8. So I actually went climbing with professionals.

To reach the wall was a pain in the ass, 20 minutes scooter drive in a muddy gravel road and then we had to slide through a jungle path climbing up and down for another 20-30 minutes. By this time I was sweating like the king (see photo).

But it was for sure worth it!!! The wall was amazing to climb, reminded me on a few places near Argo. And not to speak about the view!!! Just the sweat running into my eyes was “a bit” disturbing. Climbing in this climate is really hard. When it's over 30 degrees and the walls sunny I just don't enjoy it as much as f. ex. I do in Italy. And I also did miss my own climbing buddies. But enough with complaining, it was for sure a pleasure and hopefully can go climbing tomorrow again.

Today I just drove around the island with a scooter cooling down & dipping into the sea every once in a while. I also had the pleasure to watch how a cockroach came out of my beauty bag which I had left in the bathroom. Oh well, there are probably also a few of them in my backpack. I hope they'll crawl out at some point.