Nam Pha Pay Ai

I spent a week at rural Nam Pha Pay Ai camp, in the middle of jungle forests and high cliffs. It was very sympathetic and relaxed; cute little tents for sleeping, hammocks for quiet resting, slacklines and fingerboards for training. The centre of the camp was an open-air lounge, where people gathered for tasty homemade meals and evening hang-arounds. My favorite time there was weekdays, when it was less than ten of us. Everyone got to know each other and the atmosphere was family-like.

Ben, the French founder of the camp, has good ideology. Instead of trying to grow his camp into a commercial money-making source, he prefers to keep it a down-to-earth place for like minded people. Volunteers work in the garden to grow food and help to build and repair things. One morning we opened up a new path through the dense jungle to get to the top of a nearby peak. Ben also gives good thought to climbing route naming, since he hopes that the politically stating names make people to consider issues.

Machete kills

Ben's carefully balanced kern

Quite quickly we climbers developed a set day program. Right after breakfast we took a zip line across a big river to the main crags, where we climbed until lunch. In the afternoons we either returned to climbing or took it easy with slacklining, reading and napping. After it got dark we sat down together to play different card games, which all were named 'Asshole'.

Cool approach to crags

Bat cave

Climbing wise I was left with mixed feelings. Before my departure I had done lots of indoor lead fall practice to get mentally stronger, and it somehow helped also outdoors, where bolts are further apart and wall structures sometimes make falling dangerous. I led all 6As out there and my best climb was a 6A+ onsight. Still I did not dare to climb even near my real skill limit, leaving lots of room for improvement both grade and braveness wise.

I also climbed  a tree!

After having teamed up with the camp people, I felt a bit sad to leave it behind. But that is traveling; you see places and meet people for a while, and then say goodbye in order to go for yet new experiences. I anticipate I will get tired of it at some point, but right now I enjoy it. At home I always do the same things, whereas by traveling I can get as much change as I wish. I know that I will never meet again with most of these people, but I will have learnt different life lessons from them. I believe that spending just a few days in the company of a person with whom you really clique with can be more fruitful than spending months with people you have little in common with. Then in the end, the most significant path-crossings will stay in my memories for a long time.