Climbing

In between all the things we did in Almaty, we went to Tamgaly Tas to climb there again. And this time I had my favorite birthday present with me: a custom handmade dino tail chalk bag!!! This thing is so awesome! Thanks, Racki!

The climbing felt great again. And it was interesting to climb on these rocks again. To me, it felt in a way easier and simpler than the climbing in Malaysia and Thailand. And the scenery was super nice. Especially the big birds of prey flying close to us while we were on the wall.

A lot of friends came to visit us in Tamgaly. It was very nice. For a couple of days, our friends, the Startroopies (Sarah and Wouter) joined us, and this time not only them, but Wouter’s father, sister, and brother as well.

His father celebrated his 65th birthday with us. It was very nice. And the Startroopies gifted us another special chalk bag: a yeti-style one!

And the same day, he tried sport climbing for the first time.

One day, our friends “The Gügels” visited us. Together we went for some climbing, and the boys tried to catch some fish. Together we figured out a very good option for me to get a new smartphone: asking the regular group of German expats if somebody would be flying soon from Germany to Almaty and could bring me one.

The dinosaur tail found a lot of friends, and one day, I lent it to a Kazakh climber who gifted me a dino shoe sticker for that. Dino fans!

Merel, Leon, Arni, and his dog Cleo joined us as well, and we climbed a whole lot!

Everybody had a good time, and it was so nice to see everybody continuing the climbing experience. Arni especially got really into it after trying sport climbing for the first time with us. After his first day, he immediately got climbing shoes and a whole lot of equipment. And thanks to Arni’s Starlink, which he lent us, Racki and I were able to stay for three weeks in a row in Tamgaly.

Something was different in Tamgaly than last year: our stray dog gang was missing. But one day, all of a sudden, they were all back and as crazy and cute as ever. We think that some locals had taken care of them during the harsh winter and brought them back.

We had a look at a nice mountaineering competition of a mountaineering club from Almaty.

In between, I got a new guitar: Phoebe! Absolutely beautiful and super nice. I kept practicing almost every day.

And Racki and I decided to change our plans: instead of going west, we decided to pay the money and go east: Russia, Mongolia, China, Laos, Cambodia, Laos, China, Kazakhstan. We were very excited about it and especially curious about climbing in China!

Together with the Startroopies, Merel, and Leon, we had a fantastic karaoke night! It was hilarious: riverside motherfucker!

And we had some minor sandstorms! Interesting to have about 15% humidity again after 90% in Southeast Asia.

One day when I was belaying Racki, I had a look around and discovered that some Kazakhs had somehow managed to drive their pretty small car pretty deep into the river. Even for the Kazakh level of driving and treating cars, this was a new level for us. There was nothing we could do about that because driving there, to the other shore of the river, would take us hours.

They didn’t seem to be happy about the car in the river. At some point, they started fighting, and when one guy was punching the other several times in the face and pushing his head under water several times, I didn’t feel so good anymore about this whole situation.

The river was wide and there was nothing we could do about it, but still it didn’t feel good. Luckily the guys stopped fighting soon, and the next morning, their car was out of the river again.

Racki and I climbed a lot of newly bolted routes and older routes we had never done before. I was especially happy with two more 7a routes which took me quite some time to figure out, but after solving the puzzle, they went very well. I loved the climbing life!

We finally made it to Tonsai and Railay! The climbing rocks looked amazing from a distance already!

And I remembered being on Tonsai twelve years ago and thinking how nice it would be to climb these rocks like all the climbers were doing.

Tonsai and Railay are two very famous tourist and climbing areas in Thailand. Both are only reachable via boat and located in two distinct bays. But it is possible to walk between these two bays on a jungle track in the backcountry, which we didn’t do, or by the seaside.

See the climbing areas on thecrag.com.

The tourist village on Railay was absolutely touristy with all the bars, marijuana shops, accommodations, and restaurants next to each other.

A lot of longtail boats waiting for passengers to Tonsai or the next city.

The beach and one of the iconic climbing crags of Tonsai.

The beach of Tonsai. Tonsai has an interesting story: first, all the small hippie-style bars and accommodations had developed next to the beach as usual. At some point, investors bought that area and had everything moved about 400 meters back, away from the beach. Around the now empty area next to the beach, they built a wall to prevent tourists and locals from entering that area and to build big resorts. Twelve years ago, that was the situation: the beach, behind the beach the walled-in area, and behind that the bars and accommodations. Walking between the beach and the rest was only possible beside the walled-in area.

When we came to Tonsai, the situation had changed a bit: the wall was still there and a few high-end accommodations had been built, but not too many, and a lot of the cheap hippie bars, etc., that had been moved away had closed during COVID times and never recovered.

It was a special mixture of low-budget tourists, hippie attitudes, locals, climbers, and high-end resort tourists.

Our first bungalow at Tonsai Basecamp, a well-known climbers’ accommodation. As usual, electricity was only available from evening to morning because it all had to be generated, which came with the noise of the generators.

It was an ok accommodation, but Basecamp had seen better days, for sure. A lot of things were pretty run down, and for us, the atmosphere felt quite low.

Monkeys on the Tonsai wall.

Graffiti and paintings on the Tonsai wall.

One of my favorites.

The hippie-style accommodations, not too crowded.

A boulder cave.

We only had to wait once to climb a route, and it only got crowded when guided climbing groups used an area.

It was beautiful, and some areas were only climbable during low tide.

The friends we had met before at Spirit Mountain had brought us our climbing gear, and together we did a lot of climbs.

One time, we got caught by heavy tropical rain in a multi-pitch area and got trapped until it finished.

At the hippie bars.

The scenery was amazing.

At the main beach of Railay, it got crowded with beach tourists right next to the climbing routes.

The famous penis cave. Jokes and funny things were pretty much all around Tonsai and Railay.

The view from one of the caves.

Our friends were visited by another friend, and together we explored the caves, did some climbing, and hung around.

One night, we went to a bar on Railay where a very good guitar player gave a concert, and we got a cocktail for free.

Racki got a new bikini, and we enjoyed our time.

We found a cheaper bungalow at Mama Chicken, the famous restaurant and low-budget accommodation. It was about 12 Euros per night. It was not possible to book or find it online.