Oh and the fact that on our first stop in Bangkok it was Songkran, which is effectively one giant water fight which everyone joins in on. Basically you cruise along whether it be on foot, Tuk Tuk, bus and even 80 year old ladies throw buckets of ice cold water over you and rub your face with chalk/flour whilst wishing you happy new year! Absolutely mad but also hilarious;
Right onto the good stuff. We basically went to this place to chill on the beach for 2 weeks but as I am incapable of doing that I steered us to Railay as it is the number 1 spot in South East Asia for climbing. In a nutshell amazing and I managed to tick off my first 6c+!!! So close to 7a but don't have the minerals yet! Most of the climbs are straight off the beach on lovely white sand and the bath like ocean is only metres away. So it is also the nuts for bouldering.
Best climb of the week was "Make A Way" 6B, 27M. Some of the most amazing dripping limesone features you have ever seen finishing with a crux on pockets on a fairly blank headwall. I struggled to climb a lot of the stuff without a rest as it was so hot but I really wanted this one clean, onsight so I charged it and was well chuffed when I topped out just as the sun was going down! Itzi wasn't so pleased as she was stood at vthe bottom getting eating alive by mosquitos!!!!
We did a couple of quality treks as well on Railay;
One leaves the main trail to Pranang beach and goes up steep rocky and muddy hillside with the assistance of fixed ropes to a viewpoint and a lagoon. Pretty cool;
The other climbed up the Bamboo ladder at the far end of the climbs at Escher World and went through a couple of caves (with the assistance of my trusty torch!!) and then more bamboo ladders before you pop out a hole looking out of Thaiwand wall and over the whole peninsula. You then have to set up and abseil back down into the jungle and then trek back to the beach. Very cool.
We also had loads of really cool day trips, speedboats out to Ko Phi Phi, snorkelling with plankton at sunset, and on the day before the last we took a sailing boat out for a day of Deep Water Soloing. We met some really cool people on this trip and had a great day. Very chilled out cruising in the boat and then some quality climbing. It turns out I got the fear big time soloing above about 10m which I have never got before!!! Must be getting old!! Or maybe it was just climbing roofs with big heel and toe hook moves by your earholes that freaked me out!!!
Amazing
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