I reached up to another hold on the steep rock face. I had left the shade lower down and was now fully exposed to the brutal sun. Sweat poured down my face and into my eyes, stinging and making it difficult to see. The rock, baked in the sun, was almost too hot to touch. I only had a few more meters of climbing before reaching the anchor when suddenly Emma called up from below.
“Do you hear that? What’s going on up there?”
I broke from my intense focus and noticed a low, buzzing hum that was quickly getting louder. It sounded like a big fan that was getting closer by the second. That’s when it dawned on me. Bees.
I frantically started looking around and saw a cloud of bees about 15m away coming straight at me. Thousands upon thousands of giant Asian honey bees, Apis Dorsata, had left their nest and were swarming my way. I jumped off the rock and yelled down
“Down down down down!!! Lower me as fast as possible NOW!”
Zipping down the wall at breakneck speed, I landed beside Emma and desperately untied my knot to detach myself from the cliff while staring at the bees above us. Back on the ground, it didn’t seem like the bees had followed me and for now anyway, we felt safe’ish (emphasize on the “ish”). Above us, with a terrifying, surreal noise, the bees kept buzzing along until the swarm was out of sight.
Halfway through our trip, we had arrived in the Mae On district of the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai. A friend back home had given us a tip that the climbing here was quiet but spectacular. The crag was located in the countryside where huge, limestone walls lay hidden throughout the jungle of a nearby hill, the Crazy Horse Buttress.
Our stay in Mae On was simply perfect. A short scooter ride would bring us to the crag where we’d climb rocks and explore caves all day. When the sun set, we would drive by the evening market to share fresh fruit, papaya salad, sticky rice and some kind of delicious local dish. Another 2 minute ride would bring us home to wind down on our room’s deck with a bottle of Chang soda water, listening to the sounds of the jungle around us.
The climbing was like nothing I had experienced before. The first thing that grabbed your attention was the amazing textures, shapes, and construction of the rock. The wall was plastered with an infinite number of unique holds from tiny, fossilized remnants to perfectly formed rock handles big enough to swallow your arm. Immense stalactites seemed to grow out in all directions and would ring out like cast iron bells when climbed on.
The next thing you quickly realized is that these cliffs were teeming with life. Every nook and cranny contained something alive and it was wise to peer into a hole before putting your hand in it. Industrial ant trains crisscrossed the wall looking for food, giant venomous centipedes hid from the sun in rock pockets, and meter long snake skins hung like drapes off key holds you needed to grab. My favorite critters were the stingless bees, Trigona Collina. They would emerge from their small narrow, tubelike hives and, attracted to our sweat, would land on you to lick it up. There was no escaping from these harmless little buddies but it did take some practice to not constantly swat them away. Then, there was Apis Dorsata.
Apis Dorsata, or the giant honey bee, liked to live in gigantic hives under rock roofs and overhangs. Unlike other bees, they would shield the hive by forming a dense mass of bees that completely encased a single, beach ball sized comb. Get too close, and the bees would shimmer their torso in synchronicity, creating a wavelike ripple effect. Unlike the friendly Trigona, these bees were extremely defensive and wouldn’t think twice about mangling your day.
Apis Dorsata hives under the rock roof.
But it wasn’t just the rock above ground that blew us away. After a week of climbing, we donned headlamps, crawled through a tight squeeze in the rock, and discovered a wealth of climbing underground! We spent two days exploring absolutely mind bending crags in the biggest caves I had ever seen, culminating with a 150ft long multipitch climb in a subterranean chamber big enough to hold an apartment building.
Inevitably, we did have to move on and leave Mae On. Climbing into the back of a pickup truck, we bumped along for 4 hours towards the border for the final leg of our adventure, Laos. But Thailand had one more surprise for us and before we could leave, we were going to experience Loy Krathong.
