Fifty Feet and Still Climbing

During this past week, we have been enjoying the excitements of Krabi, Thailand. The first activity that we did (aside from swimming) was rock climbing. Outdoor rock climbing. We were picked up at the Ao Nang Beach (close to where we are staying) by a rickety longboat that tilted drastically when we didn’t balance our weight correctly, and were taken over to Railay Beach. Our climbing tour wasn’t until 2p.m., so we spent a few hours swimming in the unbelievably warm water of the Indian Ocean. We had a very mediocre lunch and then walked to the tour office to pick up our gear. We got climbing shoes, a harness, a helmet, and some chalk. There was one other person in our group, a really nice lady who was from New Zealand but has lived in London with her husband for the past twenty years. The climbing wall was a five minute walk away, so we got to see a little bit of the Railay vegetation. There were some caves, cool rock and vine formations, and a lot of green plants. Railay Beach is world famous for rock climbing and it was incredible. Where we were taken, there were four routes on the same large face of rock; two were twice as long, and in spots a little harder. I ended up climbing six times in total and my muscles were totally failing by the end. Our guides/belayers were really nice and yelled concise tips up at us to help us choose the best path up. I have always loved climbing but I never knew how much I would love climbing outside on a real rock face! We are going back for more climbing the day after tomorrow and I can’t wait!