Category: nature

Rock sport climbing and living in Baling, Lubuk Pedati, Malaysia (January 2026)

We went to Baling to try the next climbing area called Lubuk Pedati (see it on thecrag.com). After one night at the official camp spot right next to the noisy small road, we moved our tent to the other side of the river, directly in front of the climbing crag. It was a beautiful place and our only neighbor was happy with us camping there.
The bridge connecting both sides of the river was broken but the locals already started repairing it. Crossing the river by foot was possible through the waist deep water.
The routes were very awesome! Especially the trees growing next to the crag and connecting to the rock looked fantastic. We did a lot of 3D climbing and even encountered a hornet that did bite Racki before we moved it away from the climbing route. The weather was super nice. No rain at all.
One day, we did a small hike and visited some of the caves.
Beautiful stones.
And alien artifacts.
And we met this huge tree. Racki is standing beside it to indicate its hugeness.
One of the fattest lianes we had met so far.
During our time in Baling, I got pretty ill and could not climb for more than a week. So we moved from our tent to a bungalow.
And we found the cheapest accommodation for about 11 Euro per night.
The protection foil has to stay, of course 😁
The locals were friendly and interested as always. Here Racki is playing Badminton with local girls 🤗
Every evening we went to one of the cheap authentic restaurants and for some meeting western tourists was quite a highlight. So there were a lot of selfies and Instagram videos. This family was especially super nice. They even invited us to our last dinner before we left Baling again.

Rock sport climbing with alien friends and huge trees in Merapoh in Malaysia (December 2025)

From Gua Musang we went to Merapoh which was close by and a village known for being close to the biggest Taman Negara (national park) in Malaysia and the caving possibilities.
The first climbing sector we visited was called Gua Lima (“cave five”).
In the beginning of our time in Merapoh, the rain created some ponds we had to cross to reach the climbing routes.
Especially Racki attracted a lot of these leaches in different sizes. I only got a few.
At the end of our stay, it was all dry again.
In the beginning the crag was partly wet but dried up more over the days.
Climbing was awesome 🥳
The highest routes went up to the top of the wall 🧱
From up there, the view was amazing 🤩
As a belayer, we were always accompanied by different insects. Of course, there were mosquitos everywhere but we liked these jungle nymphs the most.
This impressive little one is a jungle nymph in its last stage. It looked super alien 👽
Gua Bekong was the next climbing sector we visited.
It was very nice but most of the routes were out of our difficulty range. We built up our climbing capabilities and felt really good and fit 🥳
But we did the easier ones and learned a lot.
Some days we met up with Alex who bolted all the routes in Merapoh. It was an interesting guy with a lot to do and a lot of motivation for bolting and sharing a lot about the process of bolting.
One day he took one of his friends and us to the newest climbing sector Gua Layang.
It was a nice big wall looking like a big wave. The approach was already easy climbing 🥳
The weather was nice all the time which was super good after the days of concessive days of rain 🌞
On our walks to the different climbing sectors we saw a lot of beautiful Malay homes with beautiful gardens 🌺
Impressions.
And big, big cows with a whole lot of skin 😀
Our first apartment after the camping in Gua Musang had an ac which we used to dry all our stuff.
This was our tower for the water kettle because its cable was too short 😁
The sink had an interesting outflow which led straight on the ground 🙃
Our second accommodation was the cheapest we could find: five Euro per person and night. It was just on the main road. The toilets and showers were public and in the next building. We were the only guests and had the public space of this little Hostel all for us. Even though they had not officially opened their hostel, they let us stay for a discounted price and we were the first western tourists they ever hosted.
The nights were strange. Most of the evenings a karaoke show was going on at one of the little restaurants next to our hostel. But there were barely any guests and we could really not join the singer because the songs sounded so weird to us. Sorry brave singer friend 🤗
In our room, we had this mosquito net. We called it the Käseglocke 🤣
Breakfast we always made ourselves and dinner we mostly had at one of the many small restaurants.
After some days we found our favorite ones. And the locals were always very curious about us because they did not have so many international tourists there 🎉
One day we went into the famous Taman Negara which is the biggest national park in Malaysia. On the way there, we passed a lot of Plantages …
… what made the beautiful rain forest even more beautiful. Because of the rainy season, only the tree top walk was open but it was absolutely worth it. The walk was massive.
And the highest platform was 32 meters high 🤩
This was one of the biggest trees seen from the top. It was massive and very impressive. The photos can’t transport how big it was. One of the branches at its top was the size of an ordinary tree in Germany 😳
These trees grew up to 80 meters 🚀

Rock sport climbing in Gua Musang in Malaysia, living in the lost place camp site, and Racki’s birthday (December 2025)

From Kuala Lumpur we took a bus to Gua Musang. On the booking website, it said the bus would take five hours. A taxi driver told us that it would take seven or more hours. So we were prepared and surprised when we reached our destination in under five hours.
The climbing crag was at the entrance of a recreational area, was not that high, but looked nice. See it on thecrag.com 🥳
There were basically routes around the whole crag and right through the crag went a tunnel which was the main attraction for none climbing visitors 🙂
During our six day stay, it rained a lot. It was still rainy season so it was not a big surprise. But we climbed the front of the crag on a dry day and inside of the crag were two to three routes that were almost completely protected from the rain by the huge overhangings at the top of the crag.
We met a Malay climber couple and had good fun climbing 🧗‍♂️
This was the map of the area where the climbing crag was located 🗺️
At first we pitched up our tent on an ordinary tent pitch …
… and used the nearby pavilion to hang out and…
… cook 🏡
We had some long…
… and stinky friends 🦨
And when the rain came…
… we moved our tent in one of the huge pavilions 🎊
It was rather spacious 😅
We had a monkey family living with us in the camping area and sometimes they were running and jumping from our roof in the trees and back again 🦘
And once they stole our food 🤣
On Racki’s birthday we wanted to get some drinks and walked to the only market that sold alcohol. That one had a small Chinese temple as well and we bought some small cans of beer for 2,5 Euro each🎐
The shop owner and a customer were very nice and we had some interesting topics to talk about 😀
The guest insisted to give us a ride back to a restaurant close to our camp spot and gifted Racki a birthday cake and a rose on the way there 🍰
Racki’s birthday dinner…
… and birthday cake and beer 🎂