20 days and 19 nights in climber's heaven

I believe I owe you guys an account of my time spent in Krabi.
This is what I woke up to after our one-night stay in Krabi town. This photo can't capture even 1% of the grandeur. Mountains and a meandering river, bathed in the warm sunlight of the early dawn. Just opposite the hotel, kids were getting ready for school. It's really funny that they actually had a performance during the assembly. I swear I saw children playing sepak takraw. But all these just reminds me of my childhood days when I was innocent. And so early in the morning, we made our way to Tonsai beach by longtail boat. Landed at Railay beach first, which is actually very near Tonsai, but sadly separated by hills and mountains and acres of impregnable forests. A bargain with the boatman was unsuccessful, ending with a taunt "you come back, 100 baht!" after a decision to make the trek was made. I'd like to say here, if you're going on a holiday, do not do crazy things like carrying your damn heavy luggage and going on a forest trek just to save S$2. What you see below is the forest that I've grown to hate over the 2 weeks I was there. The very first part of the trek was insane. a near vertical climb up treacherous-looking sharp rocks. The rest was infested with bloodsuckers. Fucking mosquitoes.

After a 20 min trek, this was what greeted us. Makes the long walk a little more worthwhile.
Following much scouting around for cheap accomodation, we finially settled in at Countryside Resort which really lived to its name. A seven-minutes walk from the beach through rainforest with unwelcome guests like spiders, mosquitoes and even stick insects.Each room is a cosy little hut with 2 beds which come with mosquito nets. But the floorboards are creaky and the whole hut shakes when we walk from the bed to the loo. So it kinda sucks to wake up early in the morning and have to take a dump.
But the view from the porch rocks big time. Imagine cutting your nails or flossing your teeth to such sight. Makes you want to make more effort doing these little mundane tasks.
We got to climbing soon after lunch, and the seniors were all eager beavers, looking at the routes, oo-ing and ah-ing. And of course, I have to mention the hot babe in the golden bikini. She looked like a movie star. Too bad she left after a couple of days, if not she'd have glittered our lives with those naughty-looking beachwear.

This crag is called Dum's Kitchen where The Lion King (6c+, below) resides.
This route is really nice. Especially the traverse across the bottom of the giant flake, with a nice knee bar which you can do your clip-in comfortably and have a no-hands rest. Almost flashed the route, if not for some miscommunication and my stupidity at the last part of the route. And Lion king is particularly memorable because this is where I got my first rope burn. Really horrible stuff, as those who saw it can testify, especially when you got it on the 3rd day of climbing. And I fell at the last move for 4 more times before i found a better hold which I can stuff all fingers in( been using a right hand sidepull which you can only stuff 2 fingers in ).

This is just a random bizarre sighting at the beach. A goat!?!And this is a picture of the resident dog who plays fetch to an obssessive extent, but refuses to return the thrown object. Sometimes, it just looks at the object and walks away. I like this pic, it's a bit emo.

Never seen fried rice presented this nicely. Seafood was fresh but the taste wasn't as great as it looks. From Anyavee resort in Railay east.
This is our first trip to 123 wall, when the sun was beating down relentlessly on all our backs. It was unbearable, and some took to putting their hankies on their heads. That's Christer by the way, our strongest climber who onsights everyone's projects.
This is Quarks ( 7b ). A very crimpy crux and big moves with clip-ins at uncomfortable positions. Got it on my 4th try. Almost didn't want to do it cos I was too lazy to climb on the last climbing day, but managed to get my ass off the bed. A reward for the willing. Edwin would have liked this route.

A tropical strom forced us to retreat to the nearby pavilion, where everyone tried party tricks like front-lever and handstands. And Christer proving to everyone that he's better at everything than any of us. He has a masters degree. Or a doctorate. Some people are just too good.
Sunsets at Tonsai are not really picturesque because the sun sets behind the headlands seen here, so you don't get the awesome technicolor sunsets you see so often.
But I stll got a nice one.

Krabi is a really nice place if you want to just chill out by the beach during the day and chill out at the bar at night. There's touristy stuff to do of course, like canoeing, snorkelling, island-hopping, and for the adventurous, deep-water soloing. DWS is climbing with the sea as your crashpad. So once you're at a comfortable or scary height, you let go and plunge into the water. But don't try it anywhere you like. It's dangerous, and you'll need a professional guide. We managed to have Wee from Wee Climbing School as our guide. He's the co-author of the climbing guide to Thailand, so I guess he's pretty well-off cos all I see him do is play free pool at Freedom Bar.

This roof section is called Tonsai roof, where I had many good and bad memories of climbing. There's Riesenbaby ( 7a+) which was really pumpy and fun, cos you get to do things like straddle a stalactite and rest till you're depumped before going for the roof section, which is really really nice cos you traverse a ledge and swing to the other side and do a foot jam and clip-in, before reaching for a higher ledge to the anchor. I tried this 5 times before getting it, and the 4th time, my dear moccasym slipped off my foot when I was reaching for the last jug before clipping in. Like wtf. But the elation of finishing this rocks.

And this photo, is a picture of the roof from the bottom, taken when I was lying on the straw mat exhausted from the many attempts I had on Tidal Wave (7b+). 13 times. I tried the route 13 times before I got it. The send was precious. And I was so relieved and jubilated when I clipped the anchor that I let out a loud "WOOHOO!".

We multi-pitched up Tonsai Wall via Humanality (6b). Four pitches in 3+ hours. That was more than I could bear. The 3rd pitch is a classic. An easy climb followed by a slab, and you'll have to reach behind you for a tufa. It was nerve-wrecking, butt-cramping and mind-boggling. Nature carved out a perfect test of courage. But my butt was cramping, so I gave in and mono-ed the bolt. And fell at the 4th pitch. But who cares, it was great fun. And the view was majestic. The coconut trees swaying in the strong sea breeze and the reefs were visible from that height.

This is a cute kitten with fluffy fur in Andaman Nature Resort. The food wasn't good, but the delight of having 2 kittens playing around your table is enough to cover up the lacklustre food.

And these are the cats from Mum's Kitchen in Railay East. The mum's really protective, that's why she was staring suspiciously at my camera-phone. The little kitten is really skinny, and its ribs were showing through its sides. It refuses to eat anything and is likely to die soon. But let's pray that it survives this phase.

My favourite cat is this black brown white cat from Green Valley Resort. It brushes off people the wrong way by jumping onto our bench and meowing away askin for food. I guess I was the only softhearted one to feed it. And it was really nice when it curled up in my lap and let me stroke it. I'd love a cat, but it goes against my principle of pet-rearing. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of it.

For those who wants to know, Green Valley has the nicest food in Tonsai but the portions are not that great. The beachside restaurant beside Freedom bar nearest the crags is expensive, but the food is quite good and portions are big enough to share. It has good cheeseburgers and American Fried Rice, and its muesli with fruit and yoghurt tastes the best. Green Valley has the best pancakes. And Krabi town has a really good italian restaurant which serves fantastic authentic italian pizza. I forgot the name, but it's to the right of the pier when you come out from the boat. Things in Krabi Town are cheaper than Tonsai or Railay or Ao Nang, so maybe you'd like to stock up before heading to the beaches. For good and cheap home-cooked food in Railay East, Mum's Kitchen and the restaurant-bar beside it are good enough, though it can be a bit out of the way as they're at the extreme right of the beach.

And I'll cap this post off with my best capture. The perfect beach.