Tonsai- OH MY BUddHA!!

Wow, what a beautiful, laid back, amazing place. I definitely want to return to this beach when I come back to Thailand in the future. As I left Tonsai beach this morning, I got an overwhelmingly accomplished and content feeling with my   entire  experience there. I felt truly sad to leave and very connected to the place, which is the first time that this has happened to me on this trip so far. It helped a lot that I was not sick anymore (traveling sick is definitely a whole different beast that I hope I don't have to come across again)! 

On the first day that I arrived to Tonsai from Krabi, I met a couple of guys on the boat who were traveling together. They wanted to check out Railey and offered to share a triple with me. As luck had it, even though this was very tempting for my pocket, I was still sick  and didn't want to keep them up coughing all night. Here we parted ways and I continued my journey to Tonsai, taking the long tail boat over. On the  long tail  I met another guy who had been there just the month before, which was perfect since he suggested a great place to stay. They were a collection of  simple but very functional bungalows a short hike from the beach. I had only been there 20 minutes and I already knew the time I was  going to have here was not going to be  enough. 

I decided to explore a bit and stopped by a sign that read "Deep water solo climbing" with a picture of a guy falling into the ocean from a large stalactite and I thought, WHY  NOT and signed  up to go the next day..having not really climbed much in my life, I didn't really know if I was prepared  for such a thing, but it was worth a try...after all,  it did say all experience levels. 

The next day I set out on my latest crazy adventure, a little nervous, but how bad could it be. Although I was definitely the least experienced of the group, it was still fun! I climbed, I jumped, and I watched others  do crazy things  that I hope to do when I return someday  with a little more experience. The  best part about the whole experience was the group of friends  that I made. Seven of us from the deep water solo-ing group decided to go climbing the next day. There  were four very experienced climbers, one semi experienced, and two with no experience (me included). 

This worked out so perfectly because I was going to sign up for a  climbing class the next day that not only would have been more expensive, but also would have not been as much fun as with this group of amazing and interesting people from many different places around the world..it is so nice how people from everywhere with different experiences and different climbing levels can hang  out and learn from each other and I feel so blessed to have been part of that. 

We rented equipment and climbed from 7:30am - 6pm.  Tired, sore, proud, and VERY impressed with the skillful climbers I not only climbed with, but saw climbing around us, we all went for our well deserved dinner and  beer! What fun, full, and amazing two days we had! 

The next  day I had a "rest day" if you can call it that. I started my morning with Vinyessa yoga..not  really a beginner friendly class so it was very hard for me, but VERY worth it in the end. I will definitely be spending  some time after Australia doing intensive yoga and I hope to continue it at home. Then a friend from the group, Veronica, and  I hiked through the jungle (no simple task) to get to Reiley west, which is the very  nice beach out  of the three. There I relaxed, snorkeled, and swam. 

My trip to Tonsai ended with a Thai massage and relaxing island music at the sunset bar by the beach. Thank you Tonsai for such a memorable, amazing time! Now....Australia!!!!!!