Recovery

If I knew how good I would have it, I would have been injured much sooner than I am now. Not really. I hate being an inconvenience, but the treatment is unreal. I have delicious food forced upon me all day while I am not allowed to even clean up after myself. I have tried repeatedly. Thai hospitality is unlike anything I have ever experience anywhere else. I am so unbelievably grateful to my Thai family.

I skyped Tyler the other day and it was fun to have him talk to Mae and Nue. Mae kept saying, "Tell your parents not to worry he is with Mae now." That's definitely true. I am being treated way better than I deserve. Things are busy at the house. They are helping with the preparations for a Chinese wedding. There are oranges, and a better part of a banana tree with each fruit having a sticker glued onto it.

Nui has the day off tomorrow. Which means she has part of a say off she still has things she has to do because she has 3 jobs and is always busy. I think Smiles and Nue are going to be around as well. I might get out a bit. Which will be nice. I feel like I am heeling up a bit. My heels are bearable I think I may have strained my Achilles and so I have slowly started to try to stretch it.

I found out that one my good friends and climbing partner is going to come out for almost 3 weeks in January. So I am glad to see some progress with my foot. Jared goes non-stop and although I am out of shape now, I doubt that it will be the case at the end of that timeframe. I am excited to see him. He was a great friend to me over the past year that I have known him and certainly someone that I look up to both personally and professionally. 

Started weighing my options from here and I already know I have to be back in S. Thailand in a couple weeks, but I might fly to Indonesia. I found tickets to Jakarta from Bangkok for less than $10. It Blows my mind.

I wouldn't have much to post in the way of pictures as I doubt people are interested in seeing the couch series. Not that it isn't a nice couch. Its been a chill day, but my feet need it. Back to some International Badminton China v. Indonesia. It is going to be Epic.

Bangkok Bound

So my trip to Krabi was cut shorter than I expected, which is sad because I was going to get dinner and massages and round two at Swensons with my friend from France. It would have meant another day in Krabi on my own or an entire day in a bus, and neither of those options made much sense. Krabi is Ok for maybe a day, but not a lot going on. It is really pretty by the river, but I didn't have my camera when we were there, and never made it back to take pictures. So at four I asked when the last sleeper bus left for Bangkok. I was told I would have leave right then and that it left at 5:30. The bus to Bangkok is a twelve hour ride. They are the least comfortable sleeper buses you could imagine. They play awful music for a chunk of it and the AC is blowing constantly. You feel like you are in a refrigeration. Also  I don't think that the chairs are made to support my slightly larger farang frame. That being said I made it. I cannot express enough gratitude to my family here in Bangkok. They are incredible. They were there when my bus got to the station and they never got a time from me on when we got there. I was going to take a taxi and get to the subway and then call from there stop, but given my state it wouldn't have been the best idea. Anyway it was 30 minutes to the bus station and I got there at 6 it was almost a 2 hour ride back. Nui has 3 jobs and is extremely hard working and busy (I saw her with two cell phones to her ears today), but she came anyway. She also spent the better part of the morning getting me to the hospital and going with me to my appointments. There was no way I could have done it myself. It was a Thai hospital for sure.

So I got off the bus and realized that I no longer had ankles. The two days of walking before and a 12 hour bus ride with my feet down low caught up to me. My ankles and feet swelled pretty significantly. Mae insisted that I got to the doctor today, and so I did, but first we went to the house. By the time I got my things unloaded there was a feast on the table. Some sort of dumpling, Muping (pork satay), rambutan(crazy fruit), watermelon, pineapple, champu(another fruit apple/pearish), and sticky rice. Problem was I was the only one eating. And eat I did. This blog might be taking a temporary move into the food blog realm because Mae's cooking is incredible, and it is really all I have to look forward too. I am a little worried that my weak feet aren't going to be able to carry all the weight I am bound to put on while I am here. I asked Mae if she would teach me to cook while I am here. She is so funny, she knows I don't understand Thai but it doesn't stop her from speaking it to me. Although she does call me Tyler all the time so maybe she does think I understand. I can usually get what she wants since she typically points an motions for me as well.

The hostpital was a bit of a racket. It was surprisingly quick for how many people there were. I go in and show him my feet which are currently pretty purple, and he starts asking about my hip an back. I explain they feel fine its my heels that are sore. He seems to understand. I am told I will need x-rays(which I expected) then am sent along. First stop was to get a shot in by butt for the pain. I thought a pill would have been fine or really would have been fine with nothing but I went with it. Then we went and got x-rays. This is were I got annoyed. They x-rayed my hips an to this time I still don't understand the logic. I went and asked the doctor why  they were xraying my hips, he told me that he didn't think my feet hurt because I jumped off of something, but rather that I had some sort of degenerative disease. Which I guess he deduced when I told his everything except my feet were fine. He also had blood work ordered. I have a feeling it were they make their money as it was about 1/3 the cost of the visit. Which by all means was quite affordable. Anyway I got 3 different anti-inflammatories. I take one 3 times a day, one twice a day, and one once a day. Seems excessive, but we'll see.

Well, I am making the couch my home. Looks like I will get to keep up on my international badminton.

 

 Bus ride

 Breakfast

 They make sure you know that you are eating Porky - Muping

 Hospital gowns

 Chicken basil with cashew. It was sooooo good.

 

I'm back

Well, I took a couple day hiatus because.... there was nothing really to write about. For three days I didn't leave my hostel room. That's miserable when the turn the AC off during the day. I have to thank Brandt who took good care of me during that time. So I bruised my heels quite badly by jumping off of something much higher than I should have. I thought that I had learned that I had limits when I almost drowned, but apparently I didn't. I may not be teachable. Maybe I have to every limit. I don't know. Maybe I should give up on trying to learn things, I am a sieve.

More importantly the return. Today was the first day leaving the hostel and it really as great. I can really still barely walk, but I can walk and even with a 40+ pound bag. Brandt and I went in different directions. I went to Krabi and he went to Koh Lanta. I am going to do some much needed  R&R with my Thai family in Bangkok. I feel so fortunate to have them. They really are so incredible and accommodating.

Today with some friends I went to Krabi and got to the hotel ok. It was quite the struggle to be honest. I felt at the beginning I could barely make it to the bathroom at the hostel how and I going to get to the pier and then the hotel. I was definitely one of those situations where we didn't have much of a choice. At any rate we got there and then went out to get some food. Had some really good street food followed up by Swensons. Its an ice cream parlor from the US that are quite popular here. That put me in the best of moods. Lots of good Swensons memories from my last trip.

We went to a white temple (nothing incredible) and headed back. So good to get out. The difficulty walking has been a challenge for sure, and it will continue to be, but it really does make me realize how great I have it.  I will end with that. I am super happy to be out..... and to know that I have a Swensons within walking distance tomorrow.

My foot yesterday

Tonsai tower on Phi Phi

Fishing Ships Koh PHI Phi

White temple. Stairs are not my friend right now.

Awesome traffic lights

Food Market

Swensons AKA the bringer of happiness

 

White Temple

White Temple

My feet today

Koh Phi Phi

So Blogging just got a bit more difficult for me. I was on the beach the other night and had my wallet and phone wrapped in my shirt and somehow my phone managed to fall out of the armhole of my shirt. I knew when it happened, but was part way in the water and despite a group effort the phone was not recovered. I was lucky I had downloaded pictures just a few days before. I did lose what I consider my journal which was just a really long note in my phone. I got a brilliant suggestion the other day, and that is to email my journal entries to myself, that way they are there to be accessed. So I guess that will be my safety moving forward. This Blog is a bit of a godsend since it is close to a journal and So all my thoughts and experiences weren't lost.


 We made it to Koh Phi Phi and is an absolutely beautiful island. I can't believe how crowded it is though. I was here just over a year ago and I would have to say there is two or three times as many people. The weather has been hit or miss. We have gotten a fair amount of rain. The streets tend to fill up if there are heavy rains. I think the development has really come a bit quicker than infrastructure to support it has allowed. Its a cool island though. No cars on the island. Just Bikes and carts.

So the night life here is pretty crazy, especially out on the beach. Loud music, strobing lights, and of course the ocean right there behind you. There are a couple different are on the beach. Anything from real laid back to night club type of atmosphere. They also do a lot of stuff with fire. I wish my camera weren't in the ocean because I got some picture, but we did the limbo under a pole that was on fire, we jumped and flipped through a flaming ring, and jump roped a flaming rope. Brandt even jumped over the limbo pole. Pretty impressive. You have to try that stuff right? I mean when is the net time I will get a chance to play with fire like that. There are performers who walk a line while twirling fire.  Lots of fun to be had.

There are a lot of tours that go out of the island, but I did them the last time I was here, and Brandt did one that took him to most of the spots around here with his Dad so we haven't really felt the need to do a tour. Which means there is shopping and food. Not really in the market to pick up random junk so I have really just been focusing on the food, and of course the beach when the weather permitted.

The traveling world is pretty small and we have ben running into people we met in other areas of Thailand non stop. The other night we met a couple Lads from Ireland and girls from Germany that we hung out with. We listened to Christmas music and went out that evening.  The Irish guys were pretty hilarious, which honestly all the Irish people I have met on this trip have had really great senses of humor. Their jokes may not have been blog appropriate, but they were a lot of fun to hang out with.  Going out with a group is always fun, but somehow we always manage to lose one or two people and spend a lot of the night trying to find out where they are.

I will try to get some pictures of the island before I go. I will miss the convenience of using my phone to blog.

Ao Nang

So we stayed at our first hostel in Thailand last night and we had a lot of fun. Met more people from all over. Some from South Africa who were really excited that we had just come from there. A couple Germans an Irish guy and some other Americans. A bunch of us headed out and bounced around Ao Nang. At one point we had to get a taxi type thing. It's a motorbike with a metal attachment where people sit. We crammed these thing full of people and it still took 3 of them to get us where we needed to go. 

The guy who owns the hostel is pretty interesting. Really cool guy named Edmund.  He was the guitarist for the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and made a bunch of money. Got sick of the lifestyle left the band. He lost most his money when his place Production company got sued. He started an import company in China. He has ran a few businesses in Thailand. He lectures at business seminars and I guess is going to do a Ted talk at some point. Cool guy. Crazy story. He ended playing at the one of the bars we visited that night. It was kind of funny to think about the crowds there versus what he had seen in the past. People's stories are cool and most everyone is pretty open to telling there's. 

Edmund the the Mexican joint we went to. 

Today has been pretty relaxed. Just hung out and ate food mostly. We set up our travels to the phi phi islands tomorrow morning. Excited to go back. It's a pretty island. A couple days will do us well. 

The extent of Christmas we have seen so far. 

New form of transportation

So we rented motorbikes and set out sites on a national park about an hour away from where we were staying. The only bikes they has were called scoopys and they,according to our friend at the hostel, are the bikes that old Thai ladies ride. We didn't care. My bike is pink with really awesome decals all over it.

So we started in the right direction and then we got lost and decided to just adventure around. We just followed signs that sounded interesting to rivers bays or lookouts. It was a ton of fun and the landscape inland as incredible as the coast and islands. It's so lush  and green and has incredible cliff sides. 

We stopped at a bay where they take people kayaking and a few viewpoints. Ended up down some dirt roads and riding through the rain. It was a really fun time. 

We went back to the hostel and played some ping pong. Riding motorbikes is a really cool way to See things and get off the beaten path a bit. 

Groove tubing

Not a lot to report today. We switched hotels and went to the beach until it started raining. We walked home in the rain which I always enjoy. Brandt isn't feeling well so we hung out at the hotel

Most the evening. I got some pictures downloaded onto my computer and updated the blog with pictures from my camera. It's been a low key day. I am waiting for my noodle soup. I did what I always do and tell them to give me what someone else ordered. I got chicken feet soup. They didn't gold back on the chicken feet either. It was really good. Chicken feet I could take or leave but the meal was great. Time to go wander. Maybe find a desert or something. 

Clean plate club 

I finally got to climb! It was fun but sad. I am not in climbing shape. My finger are killing me. My hands are too soft. I got on a couple climbs. The groove tube which is a climb with a cool tube feature. It's a pretty easy climb but was lots of fun. I also got back on a climb called Burnt Offering. It's my favorite climb ever. I probably should have gotten on it earlier in the day. Needless to say I flailed for a while. I couldn't even finish it. I will get back to it though. It comes out of a cave with tonsai in the background. 

At the base of the climbing area. The fire wall. It was so hot. 

Grove tube 

Looking down from the top

Brandt on the groove tube

Burnt offerings. Such a good climb. 

Tonsai at low tide

Taking in views from the freedom bar. 

The view

Beach climbing on tonsai. Short and overhung.

Cool sand crab creations. 

After climbing we hung out and enjoyed the scenery and then we walked over Railey beach and swam and caught the boat back to Ao Nang. Now we are getting showered up and ready for some dinner. It was such a good day. Climbing does it for me. Even if I am embarrassed with the way I climbed today. There's always another day.