Rappel on

For those who don't know I have now spent my fair share of time scaling various forms of rock. Most notably I hiked and abseiled Table Mountain on our first weekend in Cape Town, which you can read about here since today was very similar to that: http://natinafrica.blogspot.com/2011/07/shanghai-wedgie.html

Then I went caving in Swaziland, which was WAY more intense. Today was more just exploring caves and getting a geology lesson. If you're so inclined I documented caving/spelunking here: http://natinafrica.blogspot.com/2011/08/thursfri-horseback-safari-and-caving-in.html

We had an early start today, up and out by 8 and boy was I happy that I didn't go out the night before. I heard they didn't get crazy, just bowled a few games with Ava and her British boyfriend, but we were still crashed out by 10 or 11. We took an easy 45 minute ride out into the mountains to a place called Crazy Horse Buttress. There the guides did a few ice breakers with us, like teaching us different handshakes and animal noises to do with partners and then making us re-find out partners. I need to write them down to play with my class of freshmen in the fall. Then they split us randomly into 2 groups of 10 and my group started in the caves.

Like I said the caves were basically a geology lesson (read booooring), not even any cool bats. But then they had us walk through one cave to a ledge where we learned how to abseil (or repel). As mentioned I have abseiled before, and I really do recommend reading about it above, it was a terrifying experience in the most entertaining way. After that I knew I didn't enjoy it or heights really for that matter. The same held true today. Our practice abseil was only 5 meters down (15 ft), and from there they brought us to another cave. They had us climb up to a ledge where we were double clipped onto a safety line and would wait for our turn on the Tyrolean traverse and abseil. Though I wasn't nervous about it after zip lining, as soon as I reached the ledge that all changed and I knew why we had a safety line...

I ended up towards the back of the line with the most nervous girl, simply because I had been one of the first to practice abseil. Ultimately this helped and hurt because I had lots of time to get more and more nervous, but also watched how everyone else did it fine. But  we were universally scared once we looked down. I couldn't even see the bottom until I reached the traverse line, which ran from our side of the cave to the opposite wall. From there a guide was hanging and waiting to unclip us from the line and put us on the abseiling line straight down. It's hard to explain, I didn't understand it until I saw it.

Mae went first, then everyone else went before me, and they all took some fantastic pictures for me and the others. In the end I abseiled 40 meters down (120 feet), hanging free with no rock to even walk down. I can't even tell you how terrified I was, I did my absolute best not to look down. I just stared straight at the rocks around the cave until I was about half way. At one point I yelled down below "get some good pictures cause I'm not doing this again." I was so worried about not being able to hold the rope tight enough to stop me falling, but it was a double rope so I essentially had to feed it through to move down. Once I got the hang of that it was almost fun. And the pictures turned out incredible, I hope they help give you an idea of the set up.

On the ledge about to traverse across

Made it across, now getting switched over from traverse to abseiling  ropes

Down we go. Terrified...

I'm the little speck dangling way up high

Really dangling...

Almost down!

After we had all gone down we hiked back to the base camp for lunch. My group was completely jazzed from all the adrenaline but we decided not to tell the other group what it was like. We thought they should see it all for themselves like we did. But it would have been the perfect opportunity to psych them out...

We finished the day with basic rock climbing while the other group caved/traversed/abseiled. I think I did one climb then called it a day, all adrenalined out. Now we're all freshly showered and about to meet up for dinner and a night out. I believe we're checking out a Mexican restaurant (so pumped for some tacos!) then a few bars.

...

My asking every Thai we knew what bars to check out on a Saturday night paid off big. After a giant dinner of Mexican food--I got the equivalent of chicken tostidos which were filled with chicken and mashed sweet potatoes, go figure--most of us took trucks back to the hotel. From there we went straight to our favorite bar with live music that we went to the first night. Today we'd found out that one of our rock climbing instructors was the drummer there. We all said hi to him and had a couple drinks, then I led the way to a bar/club called Zoe in Yellow which was recommended by a few Thais.

Don't worry, I scraped most of the sour cream-like yogurt off. Still delicious

When I say 'led the way' I mean I truly led the way. I have always been proud of my sense of direction, but this was a whole new level. The trucks had made a stop there before heading to our hotel, and it was up to me to memorize their route and the landmarks so we could get there later. Originally I thought only 3 girls would be walking with me, but ultimately 10+ girls followed me to Zoe in Yellow. I gave them all a disclaimer that I was only 95% sure of the route, but thankfully I was right. I'm still proud we found it without problems, especially since you can't read/pronounce the street names here so directions are difficult.

Zoe in Yellow was completely worth the walk, it reminded me of an outdoors bar mixed with a frat party. The DJ was amazing and the place was packed--packed with falong! It was literally like being in the states but better. Eventually everyone ended up there and we all had massive dance parties for hours. A few hours in I needed a dance break and went outside with a some of our girls to where the tables are. I ended up talking to a Spaniard named Andres about the impossibility of finding a job in Spain right now. Yes, this then led to a discussion of the crisis in Europe. Nerd alert. Then, the best part, I told him I study Italian and he informed me that he had done Erasmus for a year in Bari. We then spoke in Italian for a good half hour, it was glorious. I love finding Italian speakers.

Finally, on the walk home we were all waiting to cross a street and as Molly stepped off the curb she rolled her ankle on the uneven pavement. I kind of laughed like "well Molly's drunk," then I stepped down and rolled my own ankle. Like a serious roll. I was holding Megan's hand and pulled on her for support as she was stepping down too, but she fell to the ground too. I'm pretty sure she also rolled her ankle but not as badly as mine. It was excruciating but I was laughing that 3 of us were on the ground at once right as we had an opportunity to walk. The rest were yelling "get up we need to cross!" and Claudia extended her hand, and all I could say was "give me a second" while the pain subsided. Then using her support I limped across the street and down 2 blocks home. I iced it and took some advil but it's still hard to walk on, hopefully a bad sprain. But I keep thinking back to when mom broke her foot on the step. This with a tour of Chiang Mai tomorrow followed by a 2 day hiking trek to the hill tribes.

I guess this morning I'll skip the tour and go to a clinic to get it checked. Right now I wouldn't be too bummed to miss the hill tribe trek (2 days hike in the jungle, humidity, and sun, bleh)  but I'll be damned if I miss the white water rafting that happens during the trek down the hill towards home on the 2nd day. Here's hoping its fine and they give me some pills and a wrap.