Much-needed catch-up post

Okay, so I've been delinquent lately, especially with posting photos. So, risking a really bulky post, here's a blow-by-blow of the last three weeks or so [photos].

Kwang's Wedding. Kwang, a guide at CMRCA, got married three weeks ago [photos]. The wedding itself was a surprisingly small part of this weekend spectacle. The company rented a van and drove south to Nakonsawang, about 6 hours away, where Kwang's wife, Boy, is from. We had a student program the day before the wedding, so we left at about 9pm. Taw drove while the rest of us drank beer in the back. We were tired, and they are Thai, so it didn't take long for things to get interesting.

We arrived at about 3am, and the wedding started roughly 4 hours later, at the auspicious hour of 7:39am. This is so it could end at 9:39am, the luckiest of all times of the day (3 is a lucky number in the Thai culture; 9, or 3 3's, is the luckiest). The wedding went roughly like this: we sat in plastic chairs under a tent. Monks and everyone important went into the house and did a bunch of things we couldn't see or really hear. Then we each gave our blessing to the new married couple by pouring fragrant water over their hands, and gave them a gift of cash in the envelope that we received our wedding invitation in. A short reception followed, but it was hot, and the late morning, we were all exhausted, and the music was uninspiring, so nothing to great went down.

However! then the fun began. We raided the reception's leftover whiskey (of which there was a LOT - that's what happens when your reception begins at 10am) and drove to a large lake nearby. The drinking began in earnest as the CMRCA group and a couple of other climbers from Bangkok and Krabi relaxed on the beach eating Som Tam. There was a lot of typical Thai (read: 12-year old) fun and shenanigans, such as throwing people into the lake, burying people in the sand (and adding Kathoey anatomy), and telling stupid jokes. It was a hell of a good time.

The next day, we made our way back to Chiang Mai, but the normally 6-hour drive took about 10, since we stopped and made quite a few detours to hit up famous shops, stands, and markets, including one that sold massive dried fish, another that was a big candy store (not that impressive), and a third that sold just Guava. Guava is widely available in Chiang Mai. I have no idea why that stop was so important (or exciting). We also drove a bit out of the way to have lunch at Pui's house in Uttaradit, which was really nice. And the whole thing was very fun, and typical of a Thai Tiow.

Climbing. I have been climbing a lot, partially because it's been amazing, and partially because I'm slowly realizing that there's not a lot else to do here. Went bouldering with some friends a few weeks ago at a beautiful spot next to a river about a third of the way up Doi Suthep, just east of Chiang Mai:

I've also been heading out to Crazy Horse quite a lot, and am starting to feel really good about the way I'm climbing. I'm on-sighting routes that I couldn't touch when I got here (6b+!), and I climbed my first multi-pitch last week.

Homestay. I've been going out to visit my Thai family about every other week, which has been fun, grounding and relaxing. Last time, I learned a game that apparently small children and drunk men alike play.

It goes like this: 1) Clap your hands on your thighs 2) Clap your hands together. 3) Simultaneously, grab your nose with your left hand and your left ear with your right hand. 4) Clap your thighs 5) Clap your hands. 6) Grab your nose with your right hand, and your right ear with your left hand. Repeat, and increase the pace. Try not to poke yourself in the eyes or grab both your ears.

It is also Kwang wrestling season (chone kwang), so the markets are all abuzz with the large beetles. Boys buy them as pets, and keep them tethered to sugar cane with yarn or locked up inside of a takeout soda cup. Men force them to wrestle, and gamble on the outcome. Here's a short video of the action, but I also took a few pretty pictures.

The Kwangs don't appear to actually get hurt during the fight... those big teeth are actually just horns that they use to scrape away sugar cane. It's incredible how much fun it can be to be in a big crowd and watch one insect try to push another off of a stick.

Work. I've been working outside a lot lately, which is fun, but also exhausting. Monday and Tuesday of this week we had a group of 16 students from Pacific Discovery. This was a really hard program to run, because it was CMRCA's first-ever two-day program, plus we set up our new Tyrolean traverse for them, and got them really muddy by taking them down into the Furnace cave. The real problem was that nobody had been in the Furnace cave in 3 months, since it's flooded during the rainy season. It's a squeezy-crawly type cave, and mud gets washed in with the rain. Plus, there were a couple of, um, bigger kids in the group. So on Sunday about five of us from CMRCA spent 5 hours in the cave, digging the passage wider where there was a lot of mud, and scooping (I think) around 2000 gallons of water out of the deepest section to drop the water level about 8 inches so it was passable. It was pretty funny watching small Thai men try to approximate the size of someone with a 48" waist, and really, really impressive to watch Taw engineer a mud dam and devise a system that allowed us to easily drain water. Crawling in a hot, wet cave and moving mud and water around is exactly as exhausting as it sounds. But also as fun as it looks:

Adventure Racing. Elena Olivi and I are signed up for the Bangkok Challenge, an adventure race just outside Thailand's capitol. There are biking, kayaking, swimming, and trail running (with obstacles!) components in the 6+ hour race. Because we are hard core (and because we didn't want to get shafted with a shorter race), we signed up for the "Extreme" division, which is for "For very fit competitors and experienced racers," instead of just the lame "Adventure" division. Currently, "very fit" and "experienced" is a less-than-accurate description of Elena and me, but I'm determined to be as "Extreme" as possible, so last week I bought a bicycle, some bike shorts, and a Lance Armstrong jersey, so I'll at least look the part (Floyd and Levi for president!).

Today I went for my first real training ride up Doi Suthep. It was really amazing - about 100 times better than I thought it could be. Hopefully more on that tomorrow.