As much as I love Koh Tao, I’m not the biggest fan of the climbing there. Sharp granite and crimpy face climbing / slabs are just not so much my thing. I was excited to get on some pumpy limestone again and get into the 3d-tufa-climbing-action of the Krabi region. While I had spent 7 weeks in Railay a year ago, I decided to stay on the mainland this time and settled myself in Ao Nang.

The climbing there has two main advantages compared to Railay/Tonsai: less people and less polish. What’s more, Ao Nang offers a lot better value and variety in terms of accommodation and restaurants – so I was pretty happy with my choice. Again, I was able to meet up with some friends and ran into some climbers I already knew from different places. The travelling rock climbers community is small, so it is nice to start seeing familiar faces everywhere I go! In Ao Nang, I focused on mileage and on getting into the swing of tufa climbing. Again, I was supposed to stay only for a few days but ended up staying almost 3 weeks. I didn’t get on any really hard stuff, but have plenty of reasons to come back and do exactly that!

I also climbed some multi-pitches with Mattias and Tomas – 2 very short ones and a longer one up Ao Nang tower. Previously, there was only a 6c leading all the way up there, but they had just opened a 6b („Joob Joob“) which I couldn’t miss out on. The climbing was fun, but the whole logistics of getting there in a kayak (which then ripped off the rope we used to tie it to the rocks) were a bit exhausting and don’t make me wanna go back there.

Next to climbing, I also explored the area quite a bit with my scooter – it is such a beautiful region with lots of picturesque limestone mountains. One day, I went on a hike up Dragon Crest with some people, which was lots of fun and offered the most amazing views! Definitely one of the best hikes I have done in Thailand. Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Ao Nang and will definitely be back.

Here are all my photos of my time in Ao Nang.