Greetings from Ton Sai beach

Last couple of days have been about rock climbing and I have to say that once you get the idea, it is a lot of fun - and also good exercise. Ton Sai and Railay West/East and Pranang beaches are just a short boatride out of Krabi, Ton Sai is basically the climbers beach as the the rest serve more of a typical sun lover kind of tourism. The atmosphere is relaxed and nice - nothing like the overcrowded and very expensive Phuket. I can recommend this - accomodation goes from 0 to 5 star and activities are easy to find and book, price level is reasonable and food is good. Today I hiked to the view point and lagoon at the southern end of the Krabi - guidebook said that viewpoint can be reached by anyone but to get to the lagoon you would have to be spidermans' nephew. Well, I did not quite believe that, but now I can say that easy it was not. I don't blame the people turning back because if you don't feel fit enough to do some rock climbing and rope hanging, then it is not possible to get to the lagoon. After struggling my way there I was kind of disappointed of the goal though. Not as dreamy as I expected, but a good workout again..
Tomorrow back with actual climbing and after that I'll decide whether I extend the course by couple of days to learn some more advanced stuff.
Less than two weeks to go - time flies.
One medal in the Olympics?! Hopefully the upcoming days bring more light to the finnish winter sports.

-Ville

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Year of the Tiger

Cong Xi Fa Cai from Malacca.

I took a bus from Singapore to Malacca couple of days ago. The Chinese new year started basically at that same moment as I got here - as I was getting a ticket this kind of revealed to me since I was able to get the last seat out of the 17 buses going to Malacca that day.
Well then I was waiting for a local bus at Melaka Sentral and met this guy who was a visiting vet here at the Malacca zoo. He introduced me to a couple of people here and one of them (thanks to Jeffrey, Susan and especially to Pang and her family) took me to spend a Chinese new year with her family.
So last night I was celebrating the new year with 50-60 members of a Chinese family. We fins don't really have this kind of reunions in our culture - well, maybe Christmas in some parts is comparable to this. Anyway, I had a good time and I'll definately remember celebrating new year in the middle of February while the temperature at the night time is still around +30.
Yes, it is insanely hot here - +35 in shadow, so sweating is very much the deal.

Two days here and then I'm of to Thailand.

-Ville

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Surfing at Padang padang

Hello from Bali - I have been trying to learn to surf for the last five days but it is not so easy... And the sun sun is absolutely something out of this world here; SPF 50 was like paper, white men need to get the zinc paste or burn. I did both. First the burning and then the zinc. Well, I've catched a couple of waves and I even have some proof, thanks to photographer here in the surf camp. Surf camp itself has probably the best facilities I have visited in SouthEastAsia - the management, however, is a little bit of a questionmark. Some white lies here and there plus some inconsistency in the service that makes a scandinavian think whether everything is ok or not.
Other thing that bothers me is the price level which is getting higher and really fast - two years ago I felt that Indonesia was really cheap, I won't say that anymore.
Tomorrow we are planning to do a little drive to north at Ubud and see some countryside. On sunday morning me and my burned calves continue to Singapore for some city living.

From hot hot Jimbaran,
-Ville

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