UKC

I'm visiting Bang Kok in mid May and basically I have a maximum of two weeks to climb afterwards. I would prefer to do some DWS somewhere and I've been to Railay/Tonsai quite a few years ago but didn't do any DWS at the time.

Is it feasible to travel from Bang Kok to Ha Long bay in under two weeks and still manage to climb a meaningful amount plus check out a few Vietnamese tourist spots as well? Or is it better time spent traveling down to the Thai beaches and checking out the more recently developed DWS spots there?

Is late May even the right time to go DWS in these parts of the world???

I'm hoping the collective wisdom of the well travelled UKC members to enlighten me.

Cheers!

By the way, if anyone here's in that neck of the wood around that time and want to hire a boat for the DWS and share the cost?

In reply to Short&Savage:
Went to Ha Long last May, its out of season so its not so busy and the tides aren't the best but we still got plenty of DWS done.
We chartered a boat from Cat Ba Ventures which unless theres a few of you is quite expensive at about $450 for 3 days/2nights.
Our local Vietnamese guide was excellent (Victor) but be careful leaving your money laying about, we found one of the boat crew going through our bag one night.
There's also Asia Outdoors located in Cat Ba who use to be Slo Pony, the blokes running the climbing were American/Australian. They arrange DWS trips, you'll stand more chance of meeting other climbers with these lot and share the cost.
I loved Ha Long but if your on your own could be better to stick to stick to Thailand in May, there wasn't too many climbers in Ha Long to meet up with randomly.

In reply to Short&Savage:

Hi Steve...my wife and I will be in Vietnam around that time and keen to share boat costs...

In reply to 1234None:

Cool I'll email you in a bit

Cheers