Leaning back on the ropes, 60 meters above the shore, securely tied in to a fine, sheer limestone wall, there is a fabulous view of Reileh Beach about 500 meters away. Five meters higher yet, the other climber is working his way through some fantastic stalactite formations that dangle like shark’s teeth from an overhang. Below, the clear aqua waters against the white sand beach, framed by palm trees and dotted with tanned bathing beauties, could easily draw a belayer’s attention away from his partner above.

Of course, I wouldn’t know. I imagined all this while looking at a photo on page 89 of the Thai Airways In-flight magazine. I did look up at the climb from Reileh Beach and watched from a sea kayak. I can recommend the beach, just 6 km by boat from Krabi, on the S.W. coast of Thailand, for any of the five activities just mentioned: climbing, watching people climb, sea kayaking, tanning or watching people tan.

Our visit to this lovely spot also marked a watershed point in our travels. We had walked onto the grounds of a posh little resort thinking an aircon room would be a nice relaxing change of pace. We were dressed normally for backpacker type travelers in Thailand - worn shorts, a T shirt with the Texas state flag on it, flip flops, hadn’t shaved in a few days (ML hadn’t either, for those who are counting) a bandana around the head and a maybe wee pony tail. Pretty straight actually. You know: no dreadlocks, no tattoos (yet), no mongo joint stuck in our socks (no socks). But the manager wouldn’t let us in! $400.00 a night! For this dump? No thank you, sir! Our $10 a night bungalow will do just fine! The watershed point was that we weren’t insulted. Not only was it amusing, it was something of a backhanded compliment. I guess they won’t let us in Star Canyon now either. Oh well.

Imagine a place in Texas where so many foreigners had come to stay and set up shop or just pass a night that it didn’t even feel like being in Texas. So they built restaurants in the area to simulate Texas food and toned down the spicey food so it wouldn’t offend the foreigners’ taste and the only thing a Texan could get a job doing there was serving beer. If a