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This morning I took a half-day Thai cooking class. It was good times and I learnt how to cook the different kinds of currys and other dishes. The class was in Ao Nang which is a town about 20 minutes by boat from Ton Sai beach. I'm going to spend the rest of the day here and check out the place, although it is not very big.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to leave Ton Sai beach for the full moon party. A bunch of other people from the beach are coming along too, so it should be fun. It is definitely low season now. The weather is not as nice as before (more cloudy and rainy, but still not too bad) and we are down to around 15 people at the beach. With around eight of us leaving tomorrow it's going to get really quiet there.

Well, I'm still at Ton Sai Beach. I really like it here. Rock climbing and relaxing. Hmmm ... not much else to say really. I'm planning to go to the full moon party on June 29th on Ko Phangan, but it's going to be tough to leave here.

I've been at Ton Sai Beach a few nights now and I really like it. I'm going to stay here until the end of the trip when I'll head to Kho Phanang for 2-3 nights to check out the full moon party. There are about 35 people staying here at the beach and every morning we all meet for breakfast. Then different groups of people split off to go kayaking, snorkeling and of course rock climbing. It's really great and everyone gets along very well. There are people from pretty much all over the world here: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Britain, Iceland, Holland, Sweden, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Singapore, Malaysia --- funny enough I am the only Canadian. The whole place just has a really awesome vibe. After a day of climbing everyone meets again for dinner and then a few drinks at the beach side bar.

I've been climbing some pretty difficult routes. The easiest routes close to the beach are 5.10a/b. Everything else quickly gets more difficult. I've seen some really amazing rock climbing around here. Since there aren't many easy routes and most of the other climbers are really good I've been pushing myself and climbed a 5.10d today. Pretty big achievement and I feel great. I've also been learning how to lead climb which still makes me pretty nervous. :-)

Tomorrow we are going deep water soloing. Basically you get in a boat and pull up next to a cliff. Then you climb as high as you can or feel comfortable doing and then just fall back into the water. It should be fun.

Also, I should say that I totally jinxed the weather with the last blog post. It rained for almost three days straight afterwards! Today it is sunny again and luckily many of the climbing walls are protected by overhangs so you can climb even when it rains.

I'm at Ton Sai beach now. It's the hangout for rock climbers and a really awesome place. Very laid back and rustic. There are a lot of little bars along the beach that put pillows and blankets out at night. Some of these places are just built out of driftwood. Then you sit on the beach, have a drink, listen to some relaxing music, and reflect on the day of rock climbing. Pretty awesome. They only have power and Internet here in the evening when they throw on the generators. Other than that there is no power. I'm staying in a nice little bungalow set back from the beach for just $3 a night.

The rock climbing here is incredible. A lot of the routes are really hard, lots of 5.12, 5.13 and higher. I've been taking it pretty slow, but tomorrow is going to be the first full day of climbing. There are some easier routes along East Railay beach which is where I'm heading tomorrow. I did complete a 5.10a/b today, so that was a good start.

Because it's low season there aren't that many people here and a lot of them are very experienced climbers. That is good for getting advice, but at first I was worried about not finding anyone to climb with. Now I did end up meeting a few other average / novice climbers, so that is who I'm going climbing with tomorrow. The rock here is really interesting to climb with many overhangs and also stalagmites that you can use for climbing.

I'm leaving today to catch the ferry to Railay beach. Everyone (including Brandie at the office) says it's supposed to be awesome. I'm probably going to stay at nearby Ton Sai beach which is where most backpackers stay. It's also the main rock climbing area, so I think I will stick around for a few days to rock climb. I've attached a couple pictures from Phi Phi to this post.

Also, it rained for the first time last night. Other than that the weather has been awesome. In fact, it hasn't rained since my last blog post where I said it rains every night. It just did that for three days in Cambodia and then stopped again. Even if it does rain it only lasts for a few hours at most. Thailand is not as hot and humid as Vietnam and Cambodia, so it's much more pleasant. Basically, I'm just not sure why it's not more busy here. It seems they could extend the high season by a few weeks with no problem. Or maybe I'm just really lucky with the weather?