Tonsai Beach

Today we were up before the sunrise which was obscured by left over clouds from yesterday's thunderstorms.  It was also windy today which helped keep the mosquitos off us as we climbed at the Diamond Cave wall up in the rain forest.  We still got some bug bites though as the conditions are ripe for them in the jungle.  After our morning session of climbing my body was feeling the fatigue and soreness from three days of hard climbing.  So to the beach we went.  Today we visited three beaches.  Phranang, Railey West and then Tonsai.  That is where we saw two climbers base jump off the cliff after doing a multiple pitch climb.  That looked cool!!  At Tonsai the scene is much different than here on Railey.  Lots of dirt bag climbers, hippies, backpackers and dread locked characters hanging out smoking and drinking.  There are definitely some really good rock climbers from all over the world climbing some very hard routes up the cliffs around Tonsai.  Deb and I felt out of place over there.  First of all we are a little old for that crowd, and believe it or not, I don't climb that hard (at least not onsight) and then we are too well groomed, clean and willing to pay a little extra for a nice room.  Still a very interesting atmosphere and if I were 20 years old again, I could see myself hanging out over there and climbing hard and dirt bagging it in the jungle bungalows. I also stopped in at a massage hut off the walking path and had an hour long massage for 10 dollars.  We did a lot of walking today and for the first day since we arrived it didn't rain.