Of Lion King, Babes in Thailand and Genghis Bond

These names, my friends are not just ramblings of the sun-fried, curry overloaded and beer withdrawn mind.. they are what we so eagerly try to tackle and redpoint these days here at raylay bay.... still not understanding me.... ok, let me back up a bit....

Thai fisherman bringing us to the penninsula...
I met Andrea and Jan ten days ago and they have become great friends in no time, particularly Andrea who is the quintessential travel buddy and climbing partner in so many ways... Jan is a bit slow at times but an exceptionally strong climber so we spend a lot of time waiting for him to get ready while climbing a few routes to warm up or just smoking too much... my cigarette throughput has triples since I ve been climbing, due to the fact that everyone here seems to smoke....
Ok, refocusing here to try to tell the story.... Raylay Bay, incredible, an absolute paradise for climbers.... for 50 thai bath (roughly 3 dollars) a night we get our own bungalow and food is no more than a few dollars a day, for fantastic Thai food, incredible.
So this is what we do pretty much every day.... sleep in, get up, have a very tasty "museli", the cambodian girl that takes the breakfast order sure does not know how to spell "muesli" but it sounds so much better that way :)


Lunch: Sticky rice in bamboo canes is the best!


Bored? Well lets bury Roger in the sand... cant climb 24/7

End result...

So a big old muesli with plenty of exotic fruit and soy milk for the sore muscles, then off to explore another climbing area, intermitten lunch from the guy with the bamboo canes filled with sticky rice, a bit more climbing and then laying at the beach with a cold beer, playing guitar or going for a swim.... it can't get much better than that. They don't call Raylay Bay the southeastasian bermuda triangle for nothing... travellers have been planning to spend a few days there and ended up staying there for weeks, months, even years... no joke!

On my way up to Genghis Bond, 6b


Yeah you guys are the coolest...





The climbing here is OUT OF THIS WORLD... a couple of pics will hopefully document that....
I am now climbing in the high 5.11's (or 6c/c+ for the rest of the world) and that gives me a fair amount of choice here, the routes are mostly overhanging (see below Jan in Tidal Wave, 7b), and have "motorcylce holds" but still one needs a fair amount of technical skills placing the feet, and a good chunk of power....

Jan in Tidal Wave, 7b, and plenty of admirers....

Since I have started climbing I have transformed my exceptional tiny upper body into something like a climbers upper body, not too big but fairly muscluar, and I like it.. it does not require powders and shakes, just plenty of training which comes natural here, 5-7h of climbing is no exception. I have been working on Lion King (6c+) all week, and am pretty close to finally redpointing it, these projects are cool, and Lion King is close to our quaters so we can just walk over to go and try it one more time in the evenings...

Lion King (6c+), close to the top, trying to hang the rope...

A week ago, after climbing for about 7 days Jan and I decided to join another austrian climber and do one "big wall" climb, which essentially is only 4-5 pitches here, but still when you are about 300 vertical feet above the beach where everyone is laying out sunbathing or having a coke at the restaurant IMMEDIATELY below, it gives you a bit of a funny feeling... below is a picture Jan shot immediately across the bay from where we climbed.... if that is not the classic Krabi/Raylay climbing picture, nothing is..... there is actually a climbing route (5 pitches) that includes a vertical tube one has to climb through to get to the top... NICE!
Time passed quickly, spent climbing, bouldering, getting 3 dollar massages (1 full hour!) at the beach by thai women with years of experience, nothing better after being sore from all the climbing....


Outch! Nice! Outch! Nice!... repeat...


Jan and I on a 1/2 day multipitch mission to the highest point out there...


View from the top...

Lots of time was spent enjoying the delicious Thai food and hanging out with fellow climbers at the few bars that were open (it was officially raining season, though it barely ever rained during the two full weeks spent there).


Dumbass drunk try (included a couple of concussions) to climb around the table without hitting the floor... yeah right!

Last night came for me, it onward to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland to travel to the northwestern asian countries, and it was hard to say goodbye.... since I did not want to leave without a big last bang we decided to go to one of the bi-monthly big parties at the other side of the island, where drinks are huuuuge (though they cost almost 10$ they come in gigantic buckets and several straws that everyone can join in!)....
It was a wild night I wont forget so quickly, saying goodbye to all the friends I made, most I will never see again but I am sure Andrea I will, we became great friends in just two weeks time and without her this climbing vacation would have been less than half the fun...


A bucket of MaiTai... hey it was my last night! Jan looks a wee bit drunk.

So I left, took a 20+ h sleeper bus to bangkok where some israeli girls were incredibly obnoxious and would not shut up yapping through the night, thanks to my MP3 player I got some rest anyways looking back at Raylay with a smile, knowing that i had just spent two of my greates weeks in my life there....