Thailand-Phi Phi-Ton Sai Tower (Day 30)

Anja had a conference call in the morning and Dov had to work in the afternoon so I took Dov out to climb the multipitch route Anja and I had done in 2007.

It was supposed to be 4 pitches and I remembered Anja and I had managed to do the route before the 2:30 pm ferry so figure Dov and I would be ok.

Dov pulling the last steep moves of pitch 1.  As we were working on the belay swap Anja came running up to the base of the route and said can I play too?  I dropped an end of the rope and she climbed up to us.  Since we were set in the belay she took the next lead.

It was a steep move off the belay but had a nice bolt right above.  She charged up the 6b and 6a+ pitches.  Communication got really bad so I followed and then sent her back down to give Dov the end of the rope to follow.  It was a little of a mess but we got it worked out.

Lots of monkeys were running around on the base.  Dov had even watched one open Anja’s bag, pull out a 7-11 plastic water bottle, bite into it, drink a few drinks and then toss it aside.

There was a funky lizard thing too.

The monkeys seemed to be watching us rappel.

Phi Phi Don from Pai Noon Mai January 2007.  Since we had done this route before it was interesting to compare and contrast the differences in the views from 2007 and 2011.  When we had come in 2007 it was not that long after the tsunami and many people had discuraged us from coming then saying there was sewage running down the beach and other such stories.  Compared to 2011 there seemed to be 1000 times more people this trip.  These photos were taken I think at exactly the same spot.  Notice the number of boats in the photo and even how the trees are vegetated.

Phi Phi Don from Pai Noon Mai February 2011