Ton sai

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Krabi consist of a number of sectors. The city proper is on the east side of the large peninsula. There's a river delta. The (night) market is here. As well as the piers where the ships dock, the center and most hostels.

Half an hours drive to the west is Ao nang. (ao=beach). It is the name of the beach, but also of that part of Krabi. It is described as 'very busy/touristy' despite the fact the beach is not too interesting, by Thai standards. Longtail boats fill part of it and there's a small section cordoned of, for swimming, presumably. There seem to be only party hostels, travel agencies, bars and western food companies.

To the south of all this, a smaller peninsula, only reachable by boat (on account of the high cliffs) gives place to a separate community: Railay (Rai leh). And it's little brother, ton Sai. They're connected via a 30m hike trough the jungle or a 10m walk trough the sea/sharp rocks at low tide.

What will you find here? I'll let the travel guide do the talking:


"The local community consists mainly of resort workers and rock-climbing instructors, resulting in a rather strange dynamic. Partying gap-year Americans; flirtatious Krabi boatmen; extreme sports enthusiasts; national park officials; package Chinese tour groups; grass-smoking hippies; chubby Euro day trippers; super-rich holidaymakers; low-wage Burmese labourers and middle-class Thais who make it a point to visit Phra Nang, the local fertility goddess — all of them rub shoulders on Railay."

More: https://www.travelfish.org/location/thailand/southern_thailand/krabi/railay_beach

I'm at ton Sai, which is divided in a few parts: Beach to the southwest, a resort on the east side, a street with some hostels and shops more inland and the middle part, on the beach has been taken over by a land developer, who has bribed local officials and caused all the bars and hostels to move 300m inland. A wall has been build, but no resort yet. There's a little Berlin thing going on: lots of graffiti on the wall and also a lot of ladders at some point, with texts saying to just climb the wall.. (to get to the beach)

The village itself is more of a rasta/hippie/rasta place. Lots of pot, raggae, 'chill' and 'no worries'. Case in point, I had an arrangement with a guy from the climbing gear rental place. Because of all the rain, we wanted to make an early start and climb 'the nest'. The area is a bit harder than my normal climbing grades, but the overhanging rock provides some refuge from the torrents from the sky. [note to *some people*: this refers to rain, not downloads 😊

The arrangement was that we could pick up a rope and harness (bought new shoes here and my climbing friends have quickdraws, carabiners, atc and grigri) at 20:00, so we could have an early start at 7:00, before the masses moved in.
At that time, the owner (with the key) was nowhere to be found anymore. Earlier that day, I wanted my room-key-deposit back and found the shop closed too. Another backpacker I met earlier told me that he'd seen them in the 'pirate bar'. I was able to track him down and get my stuff, but he was already stoned quite a bit. It's a bit like the afrojack song: 'I was gonna do X, but then I got high'. Anyway, I found one of the other people from the shop, but he had no key. Told me to just try at 7:00. There was another group that wanted to rent gear at that time..

Long story short, no one there at 7 either. 'luckily' one of our group of 4 didn't feel so good, so borrowed his harness. Climbing with 3 people required only one rope, so we were good for the day. Oh and we did not have to be this early. Despite the perfect location, we werebt joined by other people until 10:00 or so..

Speaking about climbing, it's fun and challenging! I wished I had a bit higher level. There's not a lot of routes in the grade-5 area and doing 6's all the time is quite tiring.. But the rock is nice. Mostly smoothish, with a hint of friction. There's holes every now and then. I think the limestone used to be a sort of coral structure thousands of years ago. But there's also evidence of stalactite forming. It's quite something 😊

I haven't been able to get someone with free hands to make a photo of me yet, so I'll just show you those I made 😊. See the previous post for some more photos of the area

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