An Education from the End of My Rope

Our final installation for today.

There is a lot of talk about the difference between a traveler and a tourist. Most travelers consider themselves independent of tourist, higher on the food chain of intelligent and genuine travel so to speak. The odd thing is that ‘tourists’ don’t care about this distinction and everyone else from family members, friends, locals and tourism agents see the two as identical. So it is actually a distinction that is found only in the individual ‘travelers’ minds. And even when you take a survey of this distinction among travelers it is vague, varying and inconsistent. Some travelers define their status based on length of stay, others on the purpose of the trip, and still others on the budget or the accommodations or the modes of transport used. The variation might account for the lack of any set definition or distinction of a ‘traveler.’
I’ve met both travelers and tourist on this trip and based on my own personal definition, I have been both as well. My definition – whose validity is as concrete and permanent as my current address (which is to say non-existent) - is based on three criteria: what you leave behind, what you forego, and what you give up.
According to me, a tourist leaves behind very little, foregoes very little in the way of comfort or normalcy and gives up only on a short-term basis. A tourist does not leave behind a job or any important events because they plan their trip as to avoid leaving anything that they can’t return to immediately and without disturbing much of their day-to-day routine. The tourist – because of their length of stay and the promise of continued income upon return – can afford to partake in many attractions and activities that a traveler must forego. Anything that a tourist gives up be it tap water for drinking, consistent hot showers or other western comforts, is only a short-term issue.
A traveler does all these things – leaving behind, foregoing, and giving up – in excess and with a greater degree of permanence than does a tourist. They do leave behind jobs and opportunities and family events. The traveler often foregoes the attractions labeled as ‘touristy’ based on principle or budget. And the travel frequently – if not continually – gives up western comforts and normalcy opting instead for the cheaper route which is often referred to as being more ‘genuine’ though that is debatable.
But, as I mentioned earlier, I have been both on this trip which suggests a degree of flexibility in both definitions. It’s more of a sliding scale with TOURIST on one end and TRAVELER on the other and a mixture of characteristics in between.
And that was a very long introduction to the following topics which at first glance seem unrelated to the topic of tourist versus traveler.
The following stories are about the activities we did while in Thailand. Three activities actually: rock climbing, scuba diving, and our visit to the elephant park. On the surface, these activities seem very touristy indeed as they are the reason many people come to Thailand for vacation. What I would like to show you, though, is how these activities are experienced in the context of a traveler.
Rock climbing might seem like the least ‘touristy’ of the activities as it requires perhaps a little more adventuresome nature and a prior disposition towards the “edge of the cliff” mentality but upon arrival in world-renown rock climbing area of Krabi we were immediately bombarded by advertisements for guided rock climbing lessons. The monetary demons of tourism were tied securely to this rock climbing haven. The three of us are far from experts so the temptation to hire a guide was strong. Had it not been for a fortunate twist of fate we might have done just that.
We had already scoped out and priced the various schools and, despite being very expensive, had decided to pay for a lesson. Before signing the dotted line we took a walk around and discovered an excellent bouldering wall on the far shore.
There were a couple of guys standing around while one lean guy attempted to climb one of the limestone stalactites hanging from the wall. It was taking some difficult maneuvers and a crowd was gathering. After repeated attempts and some very impressive heel-holds and reaches he finally managed to climb up. Everyone congratulated him and we found out that he and his buddy were from the US. Blue and Pete were everything we weren’t – experienced, equipped and willing to lead rope routes. Desirae, Lisa and I are top-ropers only which basically means we follow a route that has been lead-roped previously which allows us much more room for error without the serious consequences involved in lead-roping.
After a little chatting we arranged to meet them the following day to climb. Now we were able to forego the expense of a guided lesson and spend a fraction of that money on renting a rope, belaying device, and another pair of shoes. The boys only required that we buy them a few beers that night.
The tourist in me wants to tell you the facts and figures – how much, how high, names of routes and their difficulties. And these are definitely part of the experience. Climbing four routes whose difficulties matched or exceeded our prior climbs is definitely worth mentioning. Having done that in the rock climbing mecca of Krabi, Thailand is certainly memorable. But travel to the traveler is more about the experience and the way that experience shapes not only your outlook of that activity or location but your overall outlook on life in general. It’s about the permanence of a lesson learned on the road.
Rock climbing is full of lessons that apply to life. There are the obvious lessons of trust and confidence and pushing your limits. Every route is a unique challenge and in order to ‘conquer’ that route you have to ignore the overall difficulty and divide the problem into manageable quantities – two feet at a time, find the next handhold, footwork, etc. Several times I’ve reached up to suddenly find myself at the top of the route and been completely surprised by this. I was so focused on the present, the here and now, that I had momentarily forgotten about the future. It wasn’t that I was ignoring my end goal – the top – but that I was so confident that every decision I was making was moving me towards that goal that I no longer needed to measure my progress based on anything other than my immediate efforts. How’s that for a lesson which should be applied to day-to-day life?
Rock climbing for me is an ideal activity because it allows me to push my ability, my limits and confidence in myself while simultaneously developing my trust in my companions. Both Lisa and Desirae have been my anchor and safety while climbing and I have held that rope for them as well. I knew I trusted them prior to rock climbing but it put that trust in prospective when I was hanging from the cliff face. A persons reactions, triumphs, and angry outbursts are on display when climbing and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not proud of how I handled every disappointment on the rock. It’s a bit of a wake up call on your reactions and personality really.
So, yes, I have climbed in the world famous Krabi, Thailand and I found it remarkable and exciting and all those other similarly expected terms. The tourist in me loved the fresh fish at in the restaurants at night and the hot shower in our room. The traveler in me can’t forget clearing my first route which requires taking town the hardware (i.e. carabiners) and transferring the rope to the equipment on the cliff – which sounds vague and uncomplicated but actually required more skill than I thought I had at the time. Turns out I was wrong which proved to me that with the right amount of faith in ones self and encouragement and instructions from your friends, you can reach heights that were previously unthought-of.

I'll continue this basic ideal of activity from the eyes of a traveler in the next two blogs as well but those remain as of yet unwritten. I would hope that I can finish up this section about Thailand and Southeast Asian travel in general before I head back but I promise to post the rest of my tales even after I return home.

Right now we are enjoying the sun and beautiful ocean views here in Sihanoukvill, Cambodia. Who knew Cambodia had such a beautiful coastline? We will leave tomorrow for Siem Reap the location of the famous Angkor Wat where we will meet our friend, Garrett from San Antonio.

Time is flying and soon I''ll be telling stories face to face with many of you. I hope that you are enjoying the blogs because I am enjoying writing them. Take care and God bless.

Love from the road...