Deep Water Solo

For those of you who don’t know, deep water solo is climbing over water without ropes. You don’t need a rope because if/when you fall, you fall into deep water that should easily break your fall. We were excited about doing deep water solo because it’s hard to find where we live (though we did try to do some at Devil’s Washtub in the UP this summer). And well, falling or jumping into water off a climb sounds fun. We also needed something fun to get us past our ant fiasco.

The deep water solo trips from Tonsai seem like a great deal. For 700 baht (less than $20 USD) per person you get a 5 or 6 hour (depending on tide) climbing trip with longboat ride, lunch on a beach, water, snorkel gear, and climbing shoes included. We were ready to test out the day and see if it really was a great deal.

In the morning our group of nine looked through a pile of old climbing shoes to find a good fit for the day. You don’t want to use your normal, nice climbing shoes for deep water solo. Climbing shoes aren’t meant for water and don’t dry well in the humid, hot climate. Brandon grabbed a pair that was small enough for my small feet. When I tried them on, I was surprised to find a toad hanging out in the toe of one of the shoes. After I shook it out, the shoe fit just fine. Brandon managed to find a reasonable pair as well.

Brandon tired from the ants, but ready to leave for deep water solo

We walked to the longboat with our climbing shoes in hand and rode to our first island climbing area. We had two guides with us. One managed the longboat and the other commandeered a kayak to ferry us from the longboat to the rock wall. This was nice because the drier you are the easier it is to climb. After falling in the first time though most of us just swam back to the start and climbed up again.

Sitting in the longboat getting ready to climb

Kayaking out to the climb

Brandon heading to the rock with the guide

There was a rope ladder hanging down from the climbing area at the start of the climbs. After getting up the ladder and onto the rock there were a few routes to choose from varying in difficulty from 6a (5.10a supposedly but felt like a 5.9) to 7c (5.12d). Brandon and I quickly conquered a few of the routes and moved on to harder ones. Our confidence for doing land routes was increased by actually trying out the rating system and figuring out where our skill level was. My favorite route was a long 6b (5.10c) traverse route where some of the moves required some creative problem solving.

Making it up the ladder

Brandon, Ellen, and Sarah climbing

Traversing

Getting higher

Traversing

Climbing further up

No hands

Chilling in a rest spot

Trickier part of the traverse

Using those long arms and legs

If the route was easier and we didn’t fall off we jumped down into the water from a height of anywhere from 3 to 8 meters. You do need some technique with jumping/falling, especially from higher heights. You want your feet first and your arms at your sides or all the way above your head. Essentially, turn yourself into a pencil. If you don’t, you’ll have some nasty bruises on the undersides of your arms; we’ve seen a few people walking around Tonsai with these colorful souvenirs. We managed to avoid this and had a great time!

Katie cliff jumping

Brandon cliff jumping

After climbing, jumping, and swimming for a few hours the longboat took us to a beach on the island where we had a delicious lunch of chicken fried rice and watermelon. We took an hour break where we ate, snorkeled, and enjoyed the sandy beach. One of the guides attracted tons of beautiful yellow and blue fish in the water with a piece of watermelon. Brandon and I were able to swim and snorkel around them as well as see some crabs and other fish. It was wonderful.

Chicken fried rice for lunch

Eating and resting

Watermelon eating fish

When the hour was up, we all piled back into the longboat and went to a second climbing area. This island had a really cool giant stalactite feature and much higher, more intimidating climbing. Brandon was the brave soul who volunteered to climb first. He climbed up at least 20 meters making everyone except the well-seasoned guides nervous. He enjoyed the view and then down-climbed a little to about 15 meters up before taking a spectacular jump off. A few more people were inspired by Brandon’s performance and climbed. The guide even helped one guy make it to the stalactite. I managed to make it up the ladder and onto the rock. The ladder climbing was more difficult than the rock climbing. Though I was more nervous than Brandon and didn’t jump from as high up, I was still the only girl to jump from the rock. That’s my small bragging right from the day.

Brave Brandon being the first to climb the very, very tall cliff

Climbing the ladder was the most physically demanding part of the climb

Scaling the rock face

So high up! Fearless.

Brandon's gigantic jump off the cliff

Katie reaching the top of the ladder and the rock

Tentatively moving away from the ladder to find a good place to jump off

Katie jumping off. Not as high as Brandon, but still the only girl to do it!

Second area we climbed. It's a lot higher and more intimidating than it looks.

After those who wanted to tried the more intimidating rock climb, the group consensus was to head back to the first climbing area and do those climbs a few more times. It was a good way to end the trip before returning to Tonsai. We arrived back in Tonsai feeling very pleased with our deep water solo investment and wondering if they took trips to other areas so we could do it again. It was truly an awesome experience.

The trip was also a great way to meet some fun people and quiz them on their experiences in Tonsai thus far. As you can imagine we asked just about everyone about their accommodation. One couple was happy staying in a nice cement and tiled bungalow near the paved road for 350 baht per night and was kind enough to let us look at it. It sounded like they had electricity longer than we did on the hill as well. On the way we looked at a few bungalows ranging from 150 to 300 baht per night. Then we checked out a few more after seeing the couple’s bungalow. They all seemed nicer than ours. We ended up choosing a bungalow nearly twice the size of our old one with a queen and twin bed, two fans (!!!), and a better shower and real sink for 300 baht (less than $9 USD) per night. And, most importantly no sign of ant or other critter infestation. We picked up our bags and moved out of our bungalow without reservation. I’m happy to say that so far the extra investment has been well worth it!