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.
After over ten years of wearing one of my favorite t-shirts, it was completely falling apart and time to say goodbye.
This route was one of my favorites of all time!
It looked and felt amazing to climb, and the view was incredible. Partly it was like climbing a dragon’s mouth.
One day, the climbing went pretty late.
Just for the photo: I couldn’t do more than one move on that overhang.
A fire show on Tonsai.
Hanging around with other climbing friends we had met.
And then it was time to leave for Krabi airport and fly back to Kazakhstan.
