Tag: krabi

Phranang Peninsula, Krabi 2008 – Climbing – Part II

Other than Dum’s Kitchen, we climbed the following walls too.

Tyrolean Wall

This was one of the walls I climbed when I was sick. Nothing to shout about save for a great view of Tonsai Beach from the top!


Sun block overdose…

Thaiwand Wall
To reach Thaiwand Wall, we had to take a 15 minutes hike up a hill which is located at the end of West Railey beach.

The climbs were quite enjoyable and the view was spectacular. Anna climbed up one of the routes and anchored herself up with her camera. She took loads of great shots from up there!

I was told that some acquaintances saw the waves striking West Railey during the Tsunami tragedy from Thaiwand Wall. They were fortunate to be up there during that time.
But the drawback of Thaiwand Wall is that it was too sandy and dusty. Our gears were literally covered with sand when we left.

Muay Thai Wall

Muay Thai Wall is located at East Railey. I kinda dislike East Railey cause of the flies. We had breakfast around that area before our climb and we had flies everywhere!! The flies were trying to invade our food!

And while climbing at the beachside, we had flies perching on us! NIAMAH!!

We moved into the forest to escape the flies. Fortunately, there were no flies in the forest. They have 2 easy 6A and 6B routes. The 6B route was a little bit tricky as some of us swung out from the rocks. Steve and I both hit a tree. Thank god I didn’t fracture my tailbone.

There is another 6 grade route. However, when Ping tried climbing the route, he had to come down cause he realised it didn’t have an anchor!


Got place to meditate too!

Defile Wall

Defile Wall is located at Phranang Beach. The area has couple of nice rock formation.

One of the surfaces of the walls
Defile Wall houses a nice 25 meter 6A+ route called Mai Pen Rai. The first three bolts are pretty tough and handholds are mostly sharp crimps.

The rest of the route consists of jugs. By the time I reach the last few bolts, my mind kept thinking… “What if my harness breaks now? What if I slip and fall all the way down?? What if whattt ifff wtfff!!!”.

Here we climbed with one Canadian by the name Dan. He is one of those many travellers who come to Krabi alone and find their climbing mates here.

It was getting dark and Dan was eager to climb thee Mai Pen Rai route before leaving. He grabbed his headgear light and scaled up the wall. It was almost completely dark. All we could see was a dot of light up on the wall!

Phranang Peninsula, Krabi 2008 – Overview

The Phranang Peninsula is a well known rock climbing spot in Thailand. It consists of, among others, Tonsai, East and West Railey, Phranang Beach. Due to its geographical location, Phranang Peninsula is only accessible by boat. In 2004, I was here and it left me great memories. I didn’t think twice of coming back to climb again.

Unfortunately, the Phranang Peninsula in 2004 is not the same with the Phranang Peninsula now. It has become crowded and more commercialised. You even have to line up to set up routes to climb.

The sea water doesn’t look clean and flies were everywhere. Speaking about flies, flies and sand flies were the biggest turnoff in this trip. I came back scratching my sandfly bites crazy for few days.

After 6 days of continuous climbing and eating, we (consisting of 11 people divided into Team Malaysia and Team Australia) came home with hundreds of bruises, rope burns, food poisoning, fever and flu. Team Australia consists of friends who work in Australia but came back to Malaysia to join Team Malaysia to Krabi.

My trip was marred on the 4th day when I fell sick. My sore throat was so bad that I couldn’t swallow my saliva. I stayed in bed until afternoon after taking some medication.

In the evening, I followed the rest to Tyrone Wall to climb. After climbing one route, I went back to the hotel with a fever. Fortunately, after a few Panadols and loads of burpees, I was fine the next day.

The journey to Krabi was quite a breeze. We took a 1 hour 20 minutes flight from LCCT to Krabi International Airport, 30 minutes van ride to Ao Nang and 10 minutes boat ride to Tonsai. Krabi International Airport is a small but modern airport. Once we stepped out from the departure hall, we had transport operators swarming at us as if we were shit and they were flies. We settled for a van to fit 11 of us to Ao Nang.

One part that caught my attention in Krabi International Airport is their reserved signage. At the departure hall, they have a reserved sign for women and kids which is just right after a reserved sign for monks. Monks get higher priority than women and kids. Wow.

The van that took us to Ao Nang a.k.a the Venga Van had dance music blaring out from its sub woofers and flashing lights to compliment the music. It looked normal from outside but it’s a mini disco inside!

We stayed at Mountain View Resort at Tonsai. It was way better than the one we stayed last time. I shared a fan room with Ping and Edmund. Toilet was quite nice and complete. The toilet of the last hotel I stayed only had a toilet bowl and a pipe.


Tiew Khao Lei!!

Our routine for 5 days was quite simple. We woke up around 7am (electricity gets cut off at 7am every day until evening), climb until afternoon, have lunch, climb again (except for one day where we went kayaking) and then have dinner. Massage wasn’t my top activity for this trip. Probably because my leg hurts big time from rope burn.

We celebrated the New Year along Tonsai beach with a thousand or more guai lous. Wei Chen and Mindy left dinner early to check out the Cobra show but they were disappointed to arrive early as all they could see is a fat guy sweeping the mat couple of times. The cobra came eventually but a few minutes before the fireworks. Once the fireworks shot up, everyone ignored the Cobra.

We also bought some Kung Ming lanterns to play with. We could see hundreds of Kung Ming lanterns floating in the sky. I was told that Kung Ming lanterns are very popular in the Thai culture.

I left for my room early cause I wasn’t feeling well. Further, we had to wake up early to catch our flight back to Kuala Lumpur.

The journey back home was a breeze as well. Within a few hours, I was back at home – shoving in 6 days worth of dirty laundry into the washing machine.


Ping ala Titanic Style

More details up soon!

Tonsai Wall @ Tonsai Beach – Rai Leh, Krabi.

I haven’t been climbing for the past month due to an injury I had while playing futsal. Recently, I just started climbing again. However, I have not fully recover from my injury and therefore, I couldnt do any hardcore routes. I guess I would not be fit enough to climb Tonsai wall @ Krabi :s


Tonsai Wall @ Tonsai Beach, Raileh, Krabi.

Continue reading Tonsai Wall @ Tonsai Beach – Rai Leh, Krabi.

Day 3 – Thaiwand Wall, West Raileh, Krabi

Thaiwand wall is located at West Raileh Beach. We have to hike through the jungle and climb up the hills to get to Thaiwand wall.


Yes..you can climb the ladder.

Thank god for the natural path, otherwise we would be lost in the jungle. But it was sometimes confusing. There was once I ended at a place where someone took a shit. He/She left tissues on the ground. 😛

Continue reading Day 3 – Thaiwand Wall, West Raileh, Krabi

Phranang Temple @ Krabi

At Phranang beach @ Krabi, there’s a small temple which has hundreds of wooden phallus. Some are as tall as 5 feet, some are so thick that the only living thing would use it is a female elephant. Also, some are so small that you could just pocket them home for personal use. It is said to be offering to the sprit of Phranang who resides in the cave.

Continue reading Phranang Temple @ Krabi