Mexican Tidbits

Posted on August 18, 2014 by admin

Food, culture and climbing, my experiences of Mexico are all here, read on!

Fold it yourself Taco!

Everyone knows Mexico is the land of Taco’s, or is it Burrito’s or Tortillas? What is the difference? I asked the same thing. Tortilla is the wrap itself. As for Taco or Burrito, it would seem size is what matters. Anyway the big surprise is that no one wraps them for you. They are served flat on the plate and need to somehow be folded and shoved into the mouth. This was fun because I like eating with my hands but much harder than you might think!

Lemony beer!

In general I could only deal with the ‘not spicy’ food which was obviously spicy! Most of the dishes were tasty but what even I found disgusting was a favorite dish here called ‘Chicharron’– pig skin! I noticed that if you want to do it like a Mexican you better squeeze some fresh lime on top of it, Taco’s, salad, soup, even beer, basically whatever you put in your mouth! My veterinarian friend claims it helps kill some of the bacteria. He also fed me with anti-worm pills he claimed will save my stomach, and wouldn’t let me eat almost anything because I have a gringo stomach!

Sweet version of avocado

The good news was I found new tasty fruit I hadn’t yet seen on any of my travels!

The clocks in the metro. Is this why Mexicans are late? The actual time was 17:46

Moving out of the food department, it seems time has little importance here in Mexico. Every time I met up with a local they were late, on average about 25 minutes late. Maybe this has to do with the terrible traffic or just the laid back attitude. It also seemed the culture was not as Christian dominated as Colombia. I base this analysis on the people selling stuff in the metro trains (thankfully not on the buses like South America!) they never evoke Jesus when trying to sell you some candy.

Glad I survived.

Except for eating and failing to surf, I did some climbing around Mexico City. Nature is beautiful and the climbers are super nice. The only qualm I have would be safety issues. Much like the laid back attitude towards time, climbers tend to be laid back when it comes to safety. I found myself climbing on a rout which has a well-known massive slab that shakes! I shook as much as the slab when I climbed that part. For cleaning routs people tend to use just one quick draw from the anchor for a safety and the belaying is too relaxed for my liking. It seems to work for them, as climbers here are at a very good level (not much of anything to climb below 6b) but for me it was an added fear factor (as if I need reasons to be afraid when I climb!). All in all it was great fun and I’m glad I survived!

Desert Storm

Posted on April 30, 2014 by admin

A climbing camp to Jordan was a great excuse for me to escape the stifling Jewish holiday of Passover. If my ancestors supposedly spent 40 years in the desert after escaping captivity in Egypt then spending a week in the desert to commemorate that, makes much more sense than obsessively cleaning the house from bread crumbs and starving for a week (although actual history probably has little to do with this fairy tale). Anyway, read on!

Go Pro Pic by Kfir Amir

Passing the border was a long and tedious affair on both sides. The Israelis want you to pay 100 NIS to leave the country and the Jordanians want you to be registered with a ‘guide’. Luckily the organizers of the camp had everything under control so after standing on lines in the heat for a few hours we were on our way.

The small Bedouin village in the Wadi Ram desert seemed to have gone through a zombie apocalypse of sorts. One story half destroyed houses covered with graffiti and littered with junk, spread out in the middle of nowhere. Women clad all in black, only their eyes peeking behind their veil, darted around in the background, quickly disappearing whenever someone saw them. An occasional man on a camel or jeep could be seen passing through.

Some boys playing soccer in a makeshift playground proved that there was some life in this seemingly dead village. A few young girls, still unveiled, were playing in the dirt at the outskirts of the playground. They waved to me and smiled. I did the same hoping that perhaps seeing a grown ‘free woman’ will help them change their future even though I know it won’t.

A few moments before we nearly flipped over.
Go pro pic by Kfir Amir

On the way to the local store I got a marriage offer from one of the young men. No, I didn’t asked how many camels I was worth. The store itself was pretty basic but did have snickers chocolate bars which are turning out to be the one constant food source I’m encountering everywhere I go!

The rock cliffs and canyons are massive and beautiful but the sand stone is crumbly and some holds literally fall to pieces in your hand or under your feet so it’s not for the faint of heart. It is also only Trad climbing and I couldn’t really find people to climb with so I only went climbing for one day and spent the rest of the time bouldering or hiking.

The most popular thing to do in the area is Jeep trips and a few days into the camp we took a jeep into the middle of the desert to camp out there for the night.

The jeep driver was probably 70+ and seemed half blind and deaf. He almost flipped the jeep over trying to reverse down a steep sand dune. Some of us managed to jump out and he just kept driving without noticing he’d left us behind! The rest of the group banging on his window was the only thing that saved us from being stranded there.

The desert seemed endless and empty but actually walking for only a few minutes brought me in contact with other groups or jeeps jumping traversing through the area.

The next day I awoke to a sand storm, rain and an upset stomach, so I cut my trip short by a day and hitchhiked from the Israeli border in Eilat back to Jerusalem which is always a great way to travel.

I Met Kfir and some other High lingers so I have these cool pics that he took.

I Met Kfir Amir and some other High liners so I have these cool pics that he took.

Islands of Surprise

Posted on February 10, 2014 by admin

I knew nothing of the Philippines before arriving here and I’m happy to report I discovered many pleasant surprises. The biggest one would be everyone speaks English. Ok, maybe not everyone, but even in small villages most locals can more or less communicate in English. They all learn English from kindergarten but my guess is it’s probably because TV and movies are in English and not dubbed. Even those that don’t are helpful and nice to me for no apparent reason. What a difference from China!!!

One of the colorful jeepney’s

Manila reminded me of Tel Aviv but once you leave it, it’s a different country and definitely a third world one. Getting around is quite difficult, there are no real bus schedules and the king of the roads are the Jeepney’s, which actually have their own wiki. They started out as old U.S jeeps but today some have progressed to modern small trucks. They are decorated with colorful art and sometimes come with massive loud speakers and really lousy music.

Some tricycles, not yet crammed with people.

Their little brother is the tricycle, the local adaptation of a tuk tuk, but here it’s simply a motorbike (or bicycle) which has a cart attached to its side. I was crammed in the tiny cart with 4 other people and two others were siting on the back of the motorbike, one of the sitting on a folded wooden chair attached to the back!

A nude sculptor of Maria Magdalena in Manila university.

Christianity is also a very big thing here and there seem to be more churches than McDonalds. I have to be quite careful not to blurt “Jesus Christ” every time I see something strange, which happens quite a lot. But it is a strange brand of Christianity, one that doesn’t seem to try and dress women’s bodies, maybe it’s just too hot for that?

Right now I’m in Contanbaco, a small village which has a nice climbing crag 5 minutes from the village center. I’m the only foreigner in the village right now but I still feel surprisingly comfortable. I was happy to discover that there are local climbers here that come climbing every weekend and even happier to discover quite a few women amongst them.

One of the women lead climbed a hard 5.12!

If you do plan on coming climbing bring your own gear as unfortunately the gear some of the locals use is not up to safety standards.

Local climbers showing true professionalism bringing a Coffee maker and a hammock to the crag!

Almost

Posted on January 6, 2014 by admin

As I am almost leaving China I feel I can almost understand this place. Or at least whenever I see something that makes no sense I’ve learnt to mutter “China” and keep walking, for instance the opening hours of the shops and restaurants that don’t seem to follow any order, or people driving on the wrong side of the street

Almost beautiful

I have a theory that a lot of the mess and the shouting that goes around is because the Chinese don’t understand themselves. There are too many tones, too many dialects too much miscommunication even between themselves so understanding me, a foreigner, is almost impossible.

An almost sign to the climbing crag.

Almost seems to be the key word for my past week of traveling and climbing in Yangshuo China.

You see, the nature here is almost beautiful but there are always some power lines, abandoned building or dump sites to ruin the view.

The city is almost nice if it weren’t for the air pollution, the massive renovations, and the terrible traffic.

The climbing is almost great, if you didn’t have to endanger your life by biking around to get to the crags that are a little out of the city.

The food is almost delicious but there is always some over-fried ingredient or some chemical after-taste.

People are almost nice except they stare at you and spit on the ground when you smile at them.

Coconut wood tortoise cream?

Almost chocolate

You can buy almost chocolate and order almost coffee from an almost English menu and eat in almost clean dishes that have been wrapped in nylon but should still preferably be washed with some tea. You can almost enjoy yourself but Thailand would be better 🙂

I found only two places in Yangshou that have made it past the Almost faze.

The first is “climbers inn”, run by an amazing women named Lily who started to climb 5 years ago and will do everything she can to help her guests. She even let me leave my climbing gear there when I wasn’t staying at the place.

Climbers Inn!

The second is the DMZ bar and book store. It reminded me of the Uganda bar in Jerusalem, a hangout place for those who don’t have a warm living room. Such a fun and outgoing environment it almost didn’t feel like China. Next stop Hong Kong!

Vang Vieng

Posted on November 16, 2013 by admin

Laos does not have an ocean but some genius managed to market Vang Vieng and the river that flows through it as a must go place for “tubing” and parties. Read on for my experience…

How exciting… Not! Well the view is nice

I don’t know if they had a really weak winter or if this is the norm but the tubing was so boring and slow. I was cooking in the sun trying to paddle to get it over with. Along the river there are bars that will try to fish you towards them and offer free welcome shots. Rumor has it that some of them have closed because of people drowning. To drown in this river you would definitely have to be very very drunk!

“With gods help, the food was a son of a bitch” is by far the best hebrew saying on this wall!

The parties were just as disappointing. I really am too old to suffer through dozens of young drunken teens trying too hard to have a good time.

Obviously it wasn’t the tubing or parties that brought me to the town, it was the climbing. I was warned ahead of time that some of the places have really bad anchors and it’s dangerous to climb so I went to an area called the “sleeping wall” were I was told it was safe. The anchors have definitely seen better days but they were acceptable. The climbing itself was so so. No nice views at sleeping wall, and slightly dirty and sharp.

What wasn’t acceptable was the way to the sleeping wall. Instead of simply taking a small boat we were directed by the locals to pass a tiny makeshift bridge for which the locals asked 5000 kip (less than a dollar and the same price for a boat). We than got completely lost in agricultural fields and had to climb over fences and escape cows? locals pointing to this way or that or just completely ignoring us.

Playing catch the hot air balloon?

I can only say two good things about Vang Vien, the accommodation was super cheap 4 euro for a clean private room with a fan and hot water! And the French baguette! After 4 months in Asia with noodles and rice some high quality bread was great.

Strangely enough, even though we only met 2 other Israeli’s the whole place is covered with Hebrew signs and almost every restaurant serves Israeli food. I had one of the best Shakshuka’s at a place called Victor’s. Another strange experience was watching a hot air balloon land almost on top of a local farm house. It was obvious the ten or so people driving like crazy in the truck and then running into the field had little control over where the balloon would land. Talk about globalization 🙂

Green Climbers Home

Posted on November 4, 2013 by admin

A few years ago Tanja and Uli, a climbing couple from Germany, decided that if they didn’t try to create a unique climbers’ campground in Laos they would never know if it would work or not. The result of their hard work is Green climbers home.

The campground, slack line and badminton court included!

Failing to climb the “classic”
6c Mon General… will try again before I leave

Way out in the middle of nowhere 12 km from the closest town of Thakhek is where I’ve been spending the last few days. There are around 20 of us there right now but the place can host up to 60 people in bungalows, dormitory rooms and tents, all of which are brand new since a tragic fire burned the place down last year. The place even has hot water and 24 hour electricity which I could only dream of in Tonsai.

You can start the climbing almost from the roof of the bungalows which is really convenient. After weeks of climbing in Tonsai I was hoping my fingers would be tough but the sharp “virgin” rock began tearing through them right from the first climb.

The “KneeBar”

The evenings are pretty relaxed as people eat in the camp ground restaurant, drink beer, play card and read books, going to bed quite early. What I seem to strangely miss is the ability to cook my own food. I hate cooking but it’s been a month since I’ve even made myself cereal for breakfast. And although their camp ground restaurant is probably the more lucrative business I think a place like this should have some cooking facilities.

Anyway you are welcome to spread the word among climbers and laidback travelers but the owners refused a mention in “lonely planet” because they want to keep the place unique and fun for them to run. So don’t invite the “regular” tourists, the truth is they won’t appreciate it anyway.

Paradise Lost

Posted on October 22, 2013 by admin

I know I’ve disappeared a little in the last few days. I’ve made it out to Tonsai, a remote beach in Thiland, dominated by climbers. It’s where the ghost of Bob Marley has come to live and smells of ganja mixed with tiger balm, sweat and magnesium. Such beautiful people on a beautiful beach that I find myself contemplating ‘what I have done to deserve this?’

Beautiful beach beautiful people

The uniqueness of Tonsai starts with the remoteness. It’s not an island but there is no way to get to it over land. Getting to the “modern” Reily beach is done by treking through the jungle or crossing over slippery stones at low tide. This means there is no law enforcement around, and “sex, drugs and Bob Marley” rule the island. But that’s only the beginning of the story, there are many such remote beautiful places that have been taken over by big resorts and hotels. Tonsai is different. Locals own all the small bungalows and restaurants. The reason for that seems to be due to Tonsai’s one major imperfection. Its beach doesn’t have enough sand. At low tide the water front moves far out and a stone field takes over making it almost impossible to get into the ocean while at high tide the water covers the entire beach and you have to wade through the waves to go from one bar to the other.

Climbing with monkeys!

This is not the only imperfection that keeps the main stream crowd away. There is no electricity in Tonsai during the day and no hot water anywhere on the beach. When it rains the paths become one big mudslide, evil mosquitoes are always buzzing around and sometimes you literally do get ants in your pants!!!

Pink Floyd reggae style with a violin… Nuff said!

Most everyone that comes to Tonsai comes to climb the beautiful cliffs. Even those that didn’t come for that get sucked into the sport/art. Climbers don’t usually just pass through, they come for longer periods, which allows for a real comradery to develop between climbers from all over the world. I’ve already written about the sharing and support I’ve found in climbing culture and Tonsai is no different, only more international and the night life is more active. With fire shows, drinking, some really good local bands and some terrible open mic nights and obviously the weed (some mushrooms and LSD too).

Locals playing a crazy game that combines Soccer and Volleyball

There is also a very interesting symbiosis between the locals and the climbers. I’m hoping that it’s not just the money that the climbers bring in that makes the locals who have ‘seen it all’ so laid back and ok with it all.

Anyway, I’ll probably be here for a while more…. It is my version of paradise after all.

Viet Climbing

Posted on July 24, 2013 by admin

Viet Climbing

One of the best aspects of climbing is that it takes you to the most beautiful places; in that respect the climbing trip to Huu Long was no different, though other things were… read on.

Mud on the way to the crag

I don’t usually join ‘group’ trips but climbing isn’t that popular here so rocking up to some crag and hoping to find people with equipment wasn’t really an option. Also foreigners have to rent a car with a driver and the roads are crazy! For these reasons I thought it best to join Viet Climb, the local climbing gym’s, organized trip. There were around 12 of us, mostly from France and the U.S. There were only two Vietnamese, one of them works for the gym. When I asked why there were so few locals I was told that Vietnamese like soccer and swimming but climbing is very new and not popular here.

Anyway, the trip started with a two and a half hour drive in a mini bus, luckily the air con broke down only a few minutes from the crag! The whole way there (at least the points were I was awake) seemed to be filled with houses along the highway and the same small stores you see everywhere.

No hands rest point

The crag itself is situated in the back yard of some farm lands which probably don’t know it but seem to be practicing Permaculture. To get to the crag we had to walk through a mud pool but it was really close to the road so it wasn’t too bad. The heat and humidity were another thing entirely. I really doubted my ability to climb in this weather. My shirt was drenched even before I touched the rock! For those of you who know my aversion to using chalk and are thinking that now I would see its usefulness, sorry I’m going to have to disappoint you. The sweatiness was way beyond what any little bit of white powder can deal with.

I started by leading a really well bolted 5C and flashed it feeling dizzy from the heat when I came down. The rest of the day I top roped some 6a-6b+ but had to rest once or twice on each route. The routes were really fun with big side poles and strange overhanging features with very good jugy hand hold, and a lot of interesting no hands resting places.

Food!

Tired!

We had a great lunch break eating local dishes a local family cooked for us. Getting back to climb after that was a very hard feat indeed. Luckily it cooled down. Unluckily heavy monsoon raining started shortly after. Somehow some sections of the rock managed to stay relatively dry so I kept on climbing in pouring rain and almost slipped on a wet jug. Coming back down from the crag when everything had turned to one big mud slide was a mission of itself but eventually we got back.

We were soaked filthy and all scratched up but all complaining aside it was a good day.

Tricks of the Trad

Posted on April 29, 2013 by admin

I’ve spent the last 10 days learning how to build anchors, place gear correctly and tie knots. No I haven’t gone into the building business, I’ve been Trad climbing in Arapiles! read on…

Pic by Murry.

Trad climbing is a tricky occupation, nothing is what it seems like! It’s like building a puzzle without seeing the big picture your aiming for and in my case knowing what pieces you have. In Trad it all revolves around safety. Unlike other forms of climbing, in Trad, climbers are the ones placing equipment, or ‘friends’, inside the rock that will protect them in case of a fall. But even among the most safety conscience climbers once they have ascended a climb, safety is forgotten as they start down climbing slippery slopes or walking over thin ledges over a 100 meter high just to get back to the ground.

The sky is falling? This huge rock came off the wall when Sam tried to hold on to it.

Another example of the trickiness is the Trad lingo, telling someone ‘I like you rack’ or ‘you have a nice pair of nuts’, is not a sexual harassment, it’s just a compliment about their gear.
These tricks happen with the direction of climbing too. It seems you should be climbing up but actually climbers play a game I’ve coined ‘Snakes and Ladders’. They climb up a little, try to place safety gear, fail, and then slink back down to the last point they felt relatively safe. They repeat this process over and over until success.

Having a ‘Goldilocks’ moment, but at least I have a ‘knee bar’ allowing me to use both hands and preventing me from playing ‘snakes and ladders’.

Because Trad climbing is a slow process there’s also quit a lot of standing around, especially for the person ‘belaying’ the climber, giving or taking rope as needed. This gave me some time to name all of all the variations of Murphy’s law that exist in Trad climbing. There is the ‘Goldilocks’ effect, which means the gear you try to place will always be too big and then too small before it actually fits. That’s still better than the ‘Ugly sisters’, which means nothing you have fits or the ‘Aladdin’ which means you actually have the piece you need but you left it on the ground or already used it. Everyone is obviously hoping for a ‘Cinderella’, a perfect fit, but you really do need a fairy godmother to be looking out for you to get some of those.
Anyway, standing around is still way better then literally ‘hanging around’, which happens when you have to belay your partner while painfully dangling from your harness in midair.

My fingers, or what’s left of them after 10 days!

The first climber might take most of the danger upon their self, but the second climber, who ‘cleans’, still has to have some tricks up their sleeve. They have to remove the gear the first climber left in the rock, sometime banging away at it for a good long while, while occasionally banging some of their own fingers in the process. They are also forced to climb in the direction of the first climber even if they found a much easier way to climb.

Where’s the treasure? Pic by Sam

A special note should be made about the trickiness of the guide book. It is like a treasure map, meaning you are quite likely to get lost, wander in the busses and be surrounded by evil kangaroos before you actually get to the climb you are looking for. Finding your way is important in sports climbing too but in Trad, because there are no bolts connected to the rock to show you the way, my lack of map reading skilled caused me to make an easy climb much more difficult.

And the prize you get for actually getting to the top of a climb? Sorting out all the tangled gear! It’s worse than tiding your room!

Too much stuff!!!

Not Connected?

My next adventure will be heading out to the Australian outback in a Walkabout that is trying to stop uranium mining. “‘Walkatjurra Walkabout – Walking for Country’ is a celebration of Wangkatja country, a testament to the strength of the community who have fought to stop uranium mining at Yeelirrie for over forty years,” Check it out!

Life of a Climber

Posted on February 28, 2013 by admin

Climbing has been one of my hobbies ever since I was a kid and I’ve been trying to get back into shape since I began traveling. That’s why, in the past 2 weeks, I jumped on the opportunity to literally ‘hang’ with some of the best climbers I’ve ever encountered. For these people, climbing is much more than a hobby, it’s an obsession, an addiction and a whole way of life.

Bouldering in the beautiful area of Castle Hill

My journey began in a climbers camp ground called hang dog, climbing in Paynes Ford and continued with a road trip to castle hill bouldering site near Christchruch. I used my time with the climbers, not only to better my climbing, but also to learn as much I could about the life of a climber, this is what I learnt.

Camp Humor at Hang Dog

How to Recognize an Addicted Climber?

Rock the world – Climbers have been all over the world but when you ask them ‘how was Thialand/South America/France….?’ Their replay will be something like ‘The rock is solid but the bolting is sketchy. Has great multi pitch climbs.’ Touristic attraction? Night life? Maybe when they absolutely have to take a day to recuperate.

Some Marshmallows after another feast at Hang Dog.

Climbers Stomach – What little room that is left in a climber’s mind that isn’t filled with climbing is taken up with thoughts of food. They eat big breakfasts, healthy snacks all day and plan and prepare a feast every evening.

Shadow Climbing – the more addicted the climber the more likely they are to pantomime climbing moves in the air even when they aren’t climbing. This might be accompanied with some commentary from a climb they did today or 5 years ago. ‘I pinched with the left, then hooked my heel to the right and reached for the big sloper…’

Pantomiming success in Castle hill.

Mission Impossible – Experienced climbers tend to start giving themselves missions to spice up their climbing. In can be a really hard climb that they decide to work on or some overhanging cliff they do ‘tricks’ on or something stranger. Two of the climbers I met decided to climb 500 points in one day (a hard climb in new Zealand standers is 20 points so they each had to climb, on average, 25 of these in one day!!!)

Crazy Missions!

The pain – Each physical activity comes complete with its set of pain and injuries. For climbers this starts from the fingers and tendons of the hands which swell and tear, on to the shoulders and neck which tighten and stiffen down to the lower back, hip and legs. Also the feet that are cramped up in tiny climbing shoes all day start changing in shape and the skin becomes chafed and abraded and in NZ eaten by sand flies! And if I’ve forgot any body part I’m pretty sure it gets used and abused by climbers. Needless to say after two weeks of this everything hurts me!!!

Beautiful water hole near Hang Dog

Why Swim or relax in the water when you can climb over it?

Don’t Panic – Despite the pain and danger involved in climbing, or perhaps because of it, climbers are the most relaxed people I have ever met. This extends beyond scary climbs and terrifying falls. Not one of the climbers I was with even beat an eyelash when we discovered someone tried to hot wire the car we rented leaving us stranded in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone reception and no water. A quick jog to the nearest farm, setting up camp in the parking lot and all was ready for going climbing the next day!

Yep there’s a couch to chill on in Pohara!

One for all and all for one – I think this is the one thing that I most admire about climbers as a group. Never have I seen a bunch of strangers look out for each other, help each other, cooperate and share resources like climbers do. Professional instructors were teaching beginners, equipment was loaned out and shared as was food and transportation. When someone was climbing a hard root people would encourage and cheer from the bottom. There was no competition and no hidden ego wars. Everyone was trying to be as considerate as they could towards others, asking instead of assuming even if it was something as simple like asking if they could have the last bite of some dish. It was astounding to see how each individual fit into the group almost seamlessly and how the group accepted anyone wishing to be part of it, no matter their nationality, sex or level of climbing. If only the world were so perfect.

A collaborative effort!

Sharing knowledge even if it’s hard work!

Still In The Trees

anthropological experiences from the fringe frontier

Category Archives: climbing

Mexican Tidbits

Desert Storm

Islands of Surprise

Almost

Vang Vieng

Green Climbers Home

Paradise Lost

Viet Climbing

Tricks of the Trad

Life of a Climber

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