Climbing in Railay

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Limestone cliffs shooting several hundred feet straight out of the sea, everyone has seen those pictures right? What better fun could be had than climbing them instead of tanning under them. Southwest of Krabi town sits several shores, Tonsai, Railay east and west and the gorgeous Phra Ngam beach. Even better though are the over 700 bolted sport routes scattered through out the area reaching out to every ability level. Here you can safely start climbing, a small population of Jamaican, dreadlocked Thai climbers expertly teach climbing techniques and roll joints in the evening. You had better like Jack Johnson and Bob Marley with your Chang and sore muscles though. In my first few days here I took a half day course to remind myself with Michael whom I'd travelled here from Khao Sok with. We stayed in Tonsai, the one beach in the area that still bears scars from the tsunami, the easy going Thai attitude served them well in recovering. After a few nights I moved to Railay east and the resort you see in the photos, the nicest place I've crashed so far.

Railay east has a lively nightlife, everyday the bars seem to trade off on who will have the next 'party' passing out flyers advertising such. The Skunk bar was a favorite, a Robinson Cursoe type house where the owners slept on the top and played music on the bottom. As Songkran (Thai New Year) got under way we attended the second annual Skunk Reggae Festival. During a set power would sometimes cut out leaving the whole crowd in the dark under the stars. The band expertly shifted into a percussion jam until 'Greasey,' a nickname for the Thai owner that always had to fix the generator, could get the power going again. The Songkran celebration involves a lot of water, anyone could get drenched, on new years day there was a water fight inside of two bars electrical equipment be damned.

As in Ko Tao I met a group of people that I was fortunate to hang out with for more than a week. Nikoli a Danish guy that had only been climbing for a month and was leading 6b+ routes, Marcus a kiwi that is cool as can be even when taking a 4 meter fall while trying to clean up a super hard route, Hannah and Erika two Swedish girls that just learned how to climb and were quite good at it and Stine a Norwegian girl that has one of those personalities making it impossible to not be happy when you are around her. Sandra and Natalie even made it down, I had spent a few great days in Bangkok with them earlier in the month. So far in my trip I've been very lucky with the quality of people I've been around.

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Photos

Sport Climbing
The French Rating system is used in Thailand. My most difficult climb was a 6b+ that compares to a 5.10d in the states.

Nice digs
Its pretty hard to leave here.

Job 2 Do
For the Thai new year, there was a two night Reggae festival at the Snunk bar. Bob and the King are held quite high here.

The water begins
This is still early in the night, I had to put the camera away because the water festival means you will get drenched at any time and any place.

View from Chicken Island
Along with day trips to Phi Phi you can visit several island for snorkeling and bumming around

View of Ton Sai and Rai Ley West
This view is at a climbing site, there are over 700 sport routes from 5a to 8c, the limestone is amazing to climb on.

On the way home..
After climbing in Ton Sai; Stine, Marcus, Nikoli and I took a night tour of Diamond Cave, you couldn't see anything unless you took a picture.

A slow night
The buckets you see on the table are a mixture of Thai rum; Sang Som, a version of red bull and coke. Yes the bucket ruins mornings all across Thailand.

Comments

[anonymous]

good climbs
The cliffs look amazing, you'll return home a seasoned climber! - Heatha'