Our next stop after Kuala Lumpur was Tonsai beach in Thailand, one of the biggest climbing spots in SE Asia. To get there, we had to take an overnight bus (20 euro for 2 people) from Kuala Lumpur to Hat Yai (Thailand), a 5h minibus ride (400BHT /person) to Ao Nam Mao harbor and a short longboat ride (100BH /person) to Railey beach.
The climbing area is on both beaches, Tonsai and Railey, and depending on the tide you can just walk to Tonsai beach (15min). We arrived when the sun was already down,
so finding the path to Tonsai was a bit tricky. It is just a small path through the woods, and if you do not know where it starts, it is hard to spot. Luckily a few people came from the other side, so we had a confirmation that it is the way we are looking for.
We did not book any room upfront, so the plan was to check various places and take the one we like. We ended up staying in Green Valley Resort, not an actual resort, but OK. We planned to stay there for 2 weeks, so we got a good deal (450 BHT /night). We also checked some cheaper places, the lowest offer was 250BHT (~7euro), but we did not want to stay for 2 weeks in those places.
Sadly, Magda was sick for the first two days, so I (Mattias) had to find somebody to go climbing with, which is super easy in Tonsai. In the end, you will end up finding too many people to climb with(especially when you are the one with the rope ;)).
Tipps and Tricks
Accomendation:
If there is no super promotion on Booking/ Agoda the best way is to just go there and check rooms or bungalows. Also if you stay longer most of the places are offering discounts and it is always possible to discuss prices a bit. The rooms/bungalows start with 250BHT and go up to 3000 BHT resort places (or even more).
Restaurants:
There are a lot of restaurants around Tonsai and because it is cut off from the mainland you are forced to eat there.
For breakfast, we can recommend Green Valley, which has the best pancakes in Tonsai, and Legacy (but bring mosquito spray). Food prices normally start around 80 BHT, which is nearly double the price if you compare it with other places in Thailand (from our experience).
For dinner, we recommend:
- Ting Tong on the Tonsai beachfront, which has really good Currys,
- Mama Chicken
- Thai Family on Railey beach,
- Green Valley
Top 3 crags:
- Eagle wall (access via boat, 200 BHT for the boat ride)
- Wee wall
- Duncans boat / 123 Wall / Muay Thai (they are close to each other, just 123 Wall is partly used by guides)
Top 3 routes:
- 6b+ Alta Ruta on Eagle Wall
- 6a Ramazona on 123 Wall
- 6a+ Dr. Jekull & Mrs. Hyde on 123 Wall
At the end of the day
If somebody would ask us if he/she should go to Tonsai to experience amazing climbing and great vibe, we would say NO! There are way better climbing spots to visit in Europe, for example in Greece. If your are traveling around the area anyway, you should go there and try for your self. Of course, not everything is bad, but if you plan to go there for your holidays just for climbing, we would recommend going somewhere else.
For us, the whole vibe and the weird mix of climbers, travelers and resort guests just felt unpleasant. If we had to put it in the form of a list it would look like:
Cons:
- Very crowed, not only climbers, also people from resorts or day trips
- Mosquitoes (which might give you dengue fever)!!!
- No real shop to buy food or fruits or anything
- Expensive (compared to other places in Thailand)
- Tides, not only check if the crag is for AM or PM climbing also check if it is depending on the tide. Some crags you can only go on low tide or you have to take a boat (not cheap)
- Polished rocks
Pros:
- Beaches and the sea
- Interesting 3D-tufa climbing
- Very easy to find climbing partners
We know, this post feels quite negative, BUT we still do not regret our stay there and we would like to thank Stefan, Michael, Lorenz, and Lena to make this stay memorable. See you guys in another climbing spot another time 🙂
gibbons roof 
the crew 🙂 
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