Huangshan

From Shanghai I took a bus, which would took around 7h to Tankou, which is a small city or village located directly next to Huangshan (link) national park.

The time when I visited Huangshan was perfect, as in November still all peaks are open to climb (in December some of them will be closed), and the crowds are not so bad than in summer time.

You can climb the mountains by cable car or by foot, if you do it by foot, and you really want to see everything, I recommend to stay one night inside the park.

I don't write too many words about this amazing scenery, just enjoy it!

Inside the park all goods are carried by the porters to the hotels, located inside the park.

Shanghai

As I have been already many times to Shanghai (link) and to be honest I did not like the city at all so far, I only stayed two nights there.

So basically beside hanging out in bars with friends living there, I had only one day to take some pictures.

Here you can see the probably most capitalized pedestrian street all over the world "Eastern Nanjing Lu" - you can find there everything from the big expensive brands, to faked products and dozens of people enjoying that. As I was in the morning there, you could not the the big crowds on the pictures.

Elderly people are using the big space of Nanjing Lu every morning for practicing Tai Chi, which could sometimes look a bit funny for us - but I really appreciate what they are doing.

 

The scenery from Bund side of the river towards Pudong - where you can see the pearl tower and all the other famous buildings.

Pearl Tower from Shanghai Financial District.

Yammi Yammi... that lady is guiding here breakfast around.

A tea house in the Ancient City of Shanghai - but don't expect too much there... Even the buildings are looking old, most of them are just looking old. So it is a Disneyland to attract foreigners. Most of the old buildings were teared down and after showing that tourism pays off, build up again with Starbucks in it...

But  to be honest, this time, I enjoyed Shanghai much more than the times before, maybe, cause I just took more time to look at the different spots. But to be honest, I still don't understand why so many foreigners are in love with this city?!

Summary Thailand

As I was so far not able to connect to my blogger account from China, you did not see any posts the last weeks.

Thx Manuel for offering me the VPN Information, so that I could continue blogging.

After the wonderful stay in the climbing paradise Tonsai, where really everything was perfect (not too hot, no traffic at all, wonderful activities and wonderful people) I went a bit further South to Koh Lanta, where I wanted to dive some days.

Diving was quite nice. I went one day to Shark Point and one day to Koh Haa. In Koh Haa I was quite lucky as I saw a turtle from only 2 meters distance. And Shark Point was also amazing, as the reef was really cool and not crowded at all.

I went with http://www.diveandrelax.com/ to these places. They were cheaper than other diving companies, but very professional and friendly.=> But don't expect to dive for free... I was a bit shocked about the high prices, around 100 € for one day diving (incl transfer, food + drinks and two dives)

But now to the summary of Thailand. I am personally not amazed by Thailand, which most of the tourists are. Except Tonsai and Railey, where a lot of active activities were to do, I had somehow the impression, that most Tourists especially like the fact, that due the heat they could not do much there. So if you just wanna hang out at the beaches, drive with a scooter from one end of the island to the other end and back - (next day again) and have some drinks in the evening, you will probably love it... 

But the Thai people are amazing, very nice and friendly and I am really impressed by them!

Two very cool songs from Mr Wilson (live)

Some facts about lady boys

In Thailand you can find a big community of transsexual people who are more than in any other society able to live more or less the way they want. Even not all people (especially Thai men) agree in the fact they are showing in the public, they are widely accepted.

Emmi, who recognized with the age of 6 years that she does not want to be a boy - was one of them.

Here in Railay I hang quite often at her tourist information shop and made fun about tourists, had a lot of discussion with her about life in terms what people make really happy - the fact that baring down social conventions could be really hard and needs a lot of courage.

So even we might think their behaviour seems gay or unnatural and a lot of people might be afraid of being raped by them - which is ridiculous, I can only recommend to face them in a open way and you will be surprised if you listen to them what you can learn from them, cause they are much more open minded and free than we are...

Thx Emmi!

Camera fu... again *only sometimes*

I am sorry not being able to provide you further pictures,

One one hand side I am too busy climbing and on the other hand side these outdoor cameras seem not really provide what they should do.

As soon this problem is fixed I will share more with you

Yesterday the camera had from time to time some bright moments, where it allowed me to take at least some pictures.

Here you can see Megan and Bryan - with whom I climbed so far after having breakfast at Tonsai beach.

We've been on the way to a 7a in the firewall section at Tonsai beach.

 

For those who really love music...

 

Ao Nang / Tonsai & Railey Beach

It's hard to describe how it feels like being here around Ao Nang in the climbing paradises Tonsai- and Railey Beach (link).

If you gonna ask one of the locals or foreigners who are living and working here, they will tell you, that they found their peace here at these places - which is really true. On each day you could discover so many nice things around here, that you really got every evening the feeling, what an amazing, outstanding day you have had.

I was really lucky to meet up the first day when I arrived here with Jess and Robin, whom I've been able to joining for climbing.

So basically this is the main reason why I am here, but the scenery and the beaches are still very impressive even they were not in the focus.

So here we go, one nice picture from Railey East taken on low tide.

Jess doing a route in 1,2,3 section on Railey beach.

Pranang beach with its overhanging walls and the so called "penis cave" where people are donating when they wanna have children...

Railey East at dawn.

Tonsai beach.

Railey West in the "Taiwan Wall" section.

At Taiwan wall, there is a pretty easy interesting climb, which gives you the opportunity to walk through Prenang Cave and come out at the other side of the island. The following three pictures are showing this nice hidden cave.

Me climbing at the Diamond Cave section, being secured by Robin.

Again Diamond Cave, Jess preparing herself to do a 6a+.

One day the ladies decided to do deep water soloing and some snorkeling which was real fun, the following pictures are showing some of the climbs, jumps we did and at the end some pictures from the snorkeling.